The project brings emergency medicine, haematology, and gastroenterology together to improve the care of liver disease patients.
The research is being conducted in partnership with haematologist Dr Kate Hill and gastroenterologist Dr Katherine Stuart from Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane. Akmez believes that the strength of the research lies in its collaborative nature.
“There is often a disconnect between the laboratory and the treating clinician,” Akmez said. “Coagulopathy of chronic liver disease is a complicated scenario and is often misunderstood by hospital clinicians. Through this research, we hope to strengthen the care we provide to this population by developing stronger care pathways and procedures.”
Dr Kate Hill agrees that multidisciplinary collaboration was the key to the team successfully developing a relevant and nuanced project in a complex patient population.
“Emergency medicine, hepatology and haematology regularly share care of bleeding in-patients with chronic liver disease, so it makes good sense to work together to advance research in the field” Dr Hill said.
Researchers will evaluate the context Prothrombinex is currently being used in, its safety and efficacy, and whether its use could be expanded to other contexts, such as trauma and aeromedical retrieval – an area Akmez also specialises in.
“We are the first group of physicians in Australia looking into Prothrombinex in acute bleeding for coagulopathy of liver disease, so we’re going into it fairly blind,” Akmez said. “It not only needs funding, but collaboration from many hospitals.”
Fortunately, the project already has support from major hospital institutions in Queensland, as well as Queensland Health.
“The enthusiasm and uptake of our project across all major hospitals throughout Queensland has been a great success and demonstrates the importance of this topic in both metropolitan and regional settings.” Akmez said
It will be a significant undertaking to collate all the data from these different hospitals – especially those still utilising a paper-based system – but Akmez is confident that he will be able to achieve the goals of the project in the next two years.
He said, “I’m motivated to lead this multi-disciplinary and multi-site collaboration. I believe it will strengthen the outcomes of the study, providing insight into local and state-wide practices and outcomes.”
The EMF is a non-profit organisation stemming from the Queensland Emergency Medicine Research Foundation, initially established by the Queensland government. The EMF focuses on funding innovative Australian research relating to emergency medicine.
ACEM congratulates other FACEMs who have received EMF grants this round. A full list of names and project details is available on the EMF website.