Clinical Research Core at BASIC

Principal Investigators and Research Coordinators

J. Claude Hemphill III, MD, MAS

Geoffrey T. Manley, MD, PhD

Michele Meeker, RN, BSN

Vineeta Singh, MD

Mission Statement

The mission of the Clinical Research Core of the Brain and Spinal Injury Center is to improve the understanding of primary and secondary brain injury in neurocritical care and to provide a venue for clinical testing of new treatments for acute brain and spinal cord injury.

General overview and areas of focus

The research conducted through the Clinical Core focuses on understanding the role of advanced neuromonitoring of secondary brain injury in the neurocritical care management of patients with acute brain injury and on clinical trials of new treatments. Ongoing efforts include:

• Applied research using clinically available parenchymal brain tissue oxygen and cerebral blood probes which quantitatively and continuously measure cerebral metabolic parameters. Emphasis is also on “bedside to bench” translation in which basic studies are made more clinically relevant based on observations from clinical care and clinical research.
• Critical care bioinformatics to address emerging issues of intensive care data acquisition, storage, analysis, and clinical utility. This is accomplished through a collaborative effort with the UC Berkeley Department of Computer Science and Intel Corporation and is funded through a University of California Discovery Grant.
• Clinical trials of acute neurological emergencies. The BASIC Clinical Core is headquarters for SF-NET (San Francisco Neurological Emergencies Trials Network) which is one of 17 hub-spoke systems funded by NIH/NINDS to conduct multiple phase III clinical trials. SF-NET includes all ambulance destination hospitals in San Francisco and Highland Hospital in Oakland. Ongoing or planned trials include ALIAS (acute ischemic stroke), and RAMPART (status epilepticus), PROTECT (head trauma).
• Translation of research and clinical findings into clinical practice through education, treatment guideline development, and professional development.

Funding 

Wade Smith, MD, Ph.D. (Neurology)

Alan Gelb, MD (Emergency Medicine)

Karl Sporer, MD (Emergency Medicine and SFFD)

Chris Barton, MD (Emergency Medicine)

Selected Publications

Barton CW, Hemphill JC, Morabito D, Manley G. A novel method of evaluating the impact of secondary brain insults on functional outcomes in traumatic brain-injured patients. Academic Emergency Medicine 12:1-6,2005

Hemphill JC III, Barton CW, Morabito D, Manley GT. M.D. Influence of data resolution and interpolation method on assessment of secondary brain insults in neurocritical care. Physiological Measurement 26:373-386,2005

Hemphill JC, Smith WS, Sonne DC, Morabito D, Manley GT. The relationship between brain tissue oxygen tension and CT perfusion: feasibility and initial results. AJNR: American Journal of Neuroradiology 26:1095-1100,2005

Hemphill JC III, Morabito D, Farrant M, Manley GT. Brain tissue oxygen monitoring in intracerebral hemorrhage: lessons from translational research. Neurocritical Care 3:260-270,2005

Sorani, MD, Hemphill JC III, Morabito D, Rosenthal G, Manley GT. New approaches to physiological informatics in neurocritical care. Neurocritical Care 7:45-52,2007

Barton CW and Hemphill JC III. The cumulative dose of hypertension predicts outcome in intracranial hemorrhage better than AHA guidelines. Academic Emergency Medicine 14:695-701,2007

Selected Recent Lectures and Symposia

Hosted the 13th International Symposium on Intracranial Pressure and Brain Monitoring

Annual SFGH Neurotrauma Symposium

Neurologic Intensive Care Course, American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting; Claude Hemphill course director 2006-2008

Visiting Professor, Beijing Tiantan Stroke Symposium, 
2007 (Hemphill)