Can we develop a Canadian Perioperative Anesthesiology Clinical Trials Group?

Excerpt

In Canada, research in the field of anesthesiology has been restricted mainly to the domains of basic science and applied physiology. Despite being of valuable scientific relevance and importance, most of this research evaluates physiologic outcomes or surrogate clinical outcomes rather than clinically significant outcomes that could change the way in which we practice. While many medical specialties have appreciated the importance of evaluating outcomes, such as mortality, quality of life, length of stay or efficiency of care, anesthesiology has lagged behind. One of the main reasons Canadian anesthesiology has been slow to embrace outcome studies is the delayed development of a collaborative network of anesthesia investigators to advance multicentre clinical research projects. Clinical research is at a turning point and is rapidly evolving, not only in Canada but worldwide. We strongly believe that Canadian anesthesiologists are capable of markedly improving their research capacity by fostering collaborative outcome-driven research. We further believe that such research can and will change clinical practice. In order to attain this goal, we have initiated a collaborative research network, the Perioperative Anesthesiology Clinical Trials (PACT) group. …