Kick-off for the intensive care medicine specialist network “CritCare”

First working meeting lays foundation for multicenter studies – Strong participation from Dresden University Hospital

October 13/14 – Würzburg: The NUM specialist network for intensive care medicine “CritCare” (Critical Care)gets off to a successful start with a discursive kick-off meeting, which serves to prepare the content and organization of a cohort study and to create an adaptive platform for the faster and simpler implementation of future randomized controlled trials - RCTs.

CritCare will officially launch in February 2026 as part of the NUM Study Network (NUM SN) – as the third and largest specialist network with a broad focus on organ system-based and cross-sector intensive care research. It aims to establish a robust research infrastructure for large-scale, nationwide multicenter studies in intensive care medicine, which will eventually include university and non-university locations.

The observational study combines 5 modules on acute organ dysfunction (lung, brain, heart, liver, kidney) and 2 cross-sectional areas (digital medicine, pediatrics). It aims to identify gaps in evidence and derive research questions as a basis for a uniform, module-spanning study protocol for all participating centers.

On site for Dresden University Medicine:

▪️ Prof. Dr. Peter Spieth, MSc (Anesthesiology/Intensive Care Medicine)

▪️ Prof. Dr. Patrick Schramm (Neurology)

▪️ Dr. Claudia Heine (NUM Administrative Office)

Dresden will participate in the following modules/cross-sectional areas:

🫁 Module Lung/ Acute respiratory failure

▪️ Indication for invasive ventilation

▪️ Use of early spontaneous breathing

▪️ Heterogeneity of invasive ventilation therapy

▪️ Heterogeneity of accompanying drug therapy

▪️ Heterogeneity of vvECMO application

🧠 Module Brain:

▪️ Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE)

▪️ Dysphagia / circulatory failure ↔ shock

▪️ Secondary encephalopathies/delirium

💡 Cross-sectional area Digital Medicine:

▪️ Risk prediction

▪️ Web-based DIVI-QI recording

▪️ Tele-follow-ups (PICS domains)

👶 Cross-sectional area Pediatrics 

▪️ Integration into all 5 organ-specific modules and QS Digital Medicine

Outlook: Close cooperation is planned with the existing and proposed NUM specialist networks for stroke (STROKE) and infectious diseases (SNID), NUM-RAPID, the pediatric PIA registry, and the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (DIVI).

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