{"id":5888,"date":"2025-12-11T10:00:29","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T00:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/kilcoy\/?p=5888"},"modified":"2025-12-11T13:50:23","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T03:50:23","slug":"rbwh-leading-emergency-department-sepsis-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/kilcoy\/news\/rbwh-leading-emergency-department-sepsis-research","title":{"rendered":"RBWH leading emergency department sepsis research"},"content":{"rendered":"

RBWH leading emergency department sepsis research<\/span><\/h1>\n
\"\"

Dr Julian Williams<\/p><\/div>\n

Sepsis is one of the leading direct causes of death in Australia and worldwide, representing 20 per cent of all global deaths. It is a medical emergency that must be treated immediately and can be difficult to recognise. Patients with sepsis are usually treated with antimicrobial medicines and intravenous fluids. Crystalloids are the most commonly used fluids.<\/span><\/h4>\n

However, RBWH Emergency Department Physician Dr Julian Williams has been investigating whether an early infusion concentrated albumin, a protein made by our liver, is the answer for patients diagnosed with sepsis, rather than crystalloids.<\/p>\n

Albumin is already given to some sepsis patients, but it\u2019s often in an intensive care unit or ward up to 24 hours after diagnosis. Dr Williams is investigating whether providing concentrated albumin in the emergency department immediately after diagnosis delivers the most benefit for patients.<\/p>\n

Since 2008, Dr Williams has been part of a small team of Emergency Department researchers looking at various aspects of sepsis diagnosis and management, supported substantially with grants from the Emergency Medicine Foundation (EMF).<\/p>\n

His paper published earlier this year titled\u00a0Intervention with Concentrated Albumin for Resuscitation of Undifferentiated Sepsis in the Emergency Department<\/em>\u00a0(ICARUS-ED) highlighted outcomes from a pilot randomised control trial with 464 patients.<\/p>\n

The paper outlined encouraging early results and determined the need for a more definitive multi-centre randomised controlled trial (RCT) to further examine whether early albumin influences outcomes.<\/p>\n

A three-year Metro North Clinical Research Fellowship awarded in late 2025 will now enable Dr Williams to have several days per week to concentrate on research including the planned multi-centre trial.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Metro North Research Executive Director Professor Steven Lane (left) and Acting Chief Executive Nick Steele (second from right) with 2025 Metro North Clinical Research Fellowship recipients (from left to right) Dr Menaan Palamuthusingam, Dr Michelle Roets, Dr Deanne August and Dr Gianluigi Li Bassi.<\/p><\/div>\n

The ICARUS multi-facility randomised control trial (ICARUS MF-RCT) will investigate effects of concentrated albumin treatment commenced in the Emergency Department as soon as possible after the patient has been diagnosed with sepsis.<\/p>\n

The ICARUS MF-RCT will start at RBWH and collaborate with staff in emergency departments across Metro North Health and throughout Queensland. About 20 centres will be included to meet target recruitment of more than 1600 patients. Involvement of all emergency department staff\u2014including medical, nursing and pharmacy\u2014will also be crucial.<\/p>\n

Dr Williams said the last 5 to 10 years has seen a steady increase in emergency department clinicians being actively involved in research.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the RBWH Emergency and Trauma Centre, in particular, publication of world leading cardiac research and descriptive sepsis analysis has been published,\u201d Dr Williams said.<\/p>\n

\u201cClinical practice inevitably informs knowledge gaps, which drives relevant and practical research questions and informs improvement in clinical practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so grateful to receive the Metro North Fellowship, which recognises our work to date and provides the opportunity to improve outcomes for patients with sepsis at home and across the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Royal Brisbane and Women\u2019s Hospital (RBWH) will soon become Australia\u2019s foremost centre for emergency department sepsis research.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":5890,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,500,518],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-rbwh","category-metro-north-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/kilcoy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/kilcoy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/kilcoy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/kilcoy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/kilcoy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5888"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/kilcoy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5895,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/kilcoy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5888\/revisions\/5895"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/kilcoy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/kilcoy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/kilcoy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/kilcoy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}