CLINICAL RESEARCH. Half of the proposal funds for clinical treatment research goes to researchers in Gothenburg this year. Göran Dellgren, Ann Hellström and Torsten Olbers are the lead applicants of their respective major projects and will receive SEK 30 million each from the call for proposals.
Göran Dellgren, Associate Professor in thoracic surgery, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, will receive SEK 30 million over three years to evaluate a left chamber pump as a permanent treatment for severe heart failure.
” We will study whether the conventional pharmacological treatment of heart failure or a surgically implanted left ventricular pump is best from a survival point of view for patients with severe heart failure, who are otherwise not suitable for heart transplant”, says Göran Dellgren.
The study is prospective, multicenter, national and randomized. Patients with severe heart failure (Functional Class IIIb and IV) will be included in the study for two years. Survival rates after two years will be presented together with a number of other findings such as stroke, bleeding, heart failure and other complications, as well as quality of life, health economics, cardiac function, coagulation and physical activity.
Ann Hellström, Professor in pediatric ophthalmology specializing in growth factors at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience and Rehabilitation, will also receive nearly SEK 30 million over the next three years. The project is a randomized multicenter study of extremely premature infants. These infants require intravenous nutritional supplements, at least for a couple of weeks after birth, including fats; however, the fats that are currently in use are adapted for adults, explains Ann Hellström:
“Normally, during the last part of pregnancy fats are transfered from mother to fetus, which are of major significance for development of the brain, eyes and metabolism. Current treatment for extremely premature infants provides too little of some of these fats.”
Knowledge on the optimal composition of fatty solutions for premature infants is lacking. The project will study which fatty substitutions are most beneficial for normalizing development and reducing morbidity in premature infants. It is a national collaborative project with the neonatology departments in Lund, Stockholm and Gothenburg:
“We will conduct a randomized, clinical treatment study where conventional fatty solutions based on olive oil are compared to fatty solutions that contain fatty acids that are important for the brain, eye and metabolism. We will study such things as growth and morbidity during the newborn period and later vision and cognitive development.
Torsten Olbers, Associate Professor in surgery, Department of Gastrosurgical Research and Education, will also receive close to SEK 30 million over the next three years for the project BEST (Bypass Or Sleeve). The project will conduct a national registry-supported, randomized, multicenter study comparing Sleeve Gastrectomy and Gastric Bypass operation methods.
The call for proposals included two steps. In the first, a total of 165 outline applications were received, of which 54 were sent through to the next step. Of the completed applications, ten were granted and awarded an average grant of nearly SEK 6.2 million per year. Three of these applications came from Gothenburg, and together they make up half of the funding awarded in this year’s call for proposals in Sweden.
All granted applications involve projects with broad national collaboration and concern treatment research of the highest clinical relevance. They span a number of medical disciplines, everything from cardiology to psychiatry.
“The purpose of the investment in clinical treatment research is to support projects in healthcare that we expect to lead to patient and societal benefits in a relatively short period of time,” says Mats Ulfendahl, Secretary General for Medicine and Health at the Swedish Research Council.
“It concerns such things as improving method and treatment efficiency where a need has been identified,” continues Mats Ulfendahl.
“This type of research has previously had a hard time finding long term financing. It is important that good clinical research is conducted in Sweden and that is why it is extremely satisfying that the State and County Councils have taken joint responsibility for this investment.”
Here you can find a listing of all awarded grants from the Swedish Research Council’s call for proposals: http://www.vr.se/forskningsfinansiering/bidragsbeslut/rambidragmedinriktning/kliniskbehandlingsforskning.4.395547dd14a09cd1891b60ef.html
