Acutelines emergency care research

Acutelines: Emergency care research

Facilitating emergency care research. Cohort
Facilitating emergency care research.
Acutelines is a cutting-edge biobank dedicated to enhancing research in acute and emergency care. By providing a comprehensive framework for novel clinical studies, Acutelines aims to facilitate translational research, develop personalized acute care medicine, and monitor and improve the quality of care in emergency settings. By conducting emergency care research and sepsis research, Acutelines is an invaluable resource for better understanding acute medical conditions.

Acutelines focuses on several key areas: 

  • Facilitating acute and emergency care research through novel clinical studies. 
  • Supporting translational research to develop personalized acute care by providing data, images, and biomaterials. 
  • Monitoring and improving the quality of care in acute and emergency medicine. 
  • Sepsis research. 

The Acutelines infographic gives a visual representation of what we do.

  • Participants must meet at least one of the following criteria: 

    • Patients in the highest (red) and second-highest (orange) urgency triage categories of the Emergency Severity Index (ESI). 

    • Patients in the third-highest (yellow) urgency triage category of the ESI when arriving by HEMS transport. 

    • Patients with specific conditions, regardless of triage category: early sepsis, shock, syncope, anaphylaxis, acute renal failure, electrolyte disturbances, intoxications, COPD and asthma exacerbations, suspected deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism, gastrointestinal bleeding, and bleeding while using vitamin K antagonists or DOACs. 

  • Acutelines collects a wide range of clinical data and biomaterials. Detailed information on available data and samples can be found in the UMCG Research Data Catalogue. Samples are collected as soon as possible after presentation and before treatment begins, using a deferred proxy consent procedure. 

    Clinical data

    • reason for admission, including signs and symptoms;
    • physical examination and vital parameters (e.g. body temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, breathing frequency);
    • general characteristics (e.g. judgment of treating physician);
    • additional results (e.g. X-ray images, scans, ultrasound scans, laboratory test results);
    • pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic treatment.

    Questionnaires

    • demographic data (e.g. age, sex, marital status, education, living situation, ethnicity);
    • family history;
    • lifestyle (e.g. smoking, alcohol consumption, illicit drug use);
    • global functioning and experienced health (e.g. EQ-5D-5L, Katz-15 scale, Piper Fatigue Scale-12, PHQ-15);
    • mood (e.g. PHQ-2, PHQ-9, GDS-15);
    • shared decision-making (e.g. PSQ-18, OPT);
    • nutrition and activity (e.g. SNAQ, MUST, SQUASH);
    • frailty, delirium and cognitive functioning (e.g. VMS frail older patients, 4-AT, 6-CIT).

    Biomaterials

    • serum;
    • citrate plasma;
    • EDTA plasma + buffy coat (DNA);
    • heparin plasma;
    • whole blood (PAXgene RNA extraction);
    • urine;
    • faeces;
    • lock of hair.
  • Acutelines collaborates with multiple departments within the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG) for emergency care research, including: 

  • For more details about participation, visit the Acutelines: data- en biobank voor ontstaan en behandeling van acute aandoeningen webpage (in Dutch).

  • UMCG employees can submit requests to obtain data and biomaterials via this link. External researchers can contact Acutelines via [email protected] for more information.

Relevance

How Acutelines benefits to society

Acutelines includes adult patients (aged ≥ 18 years) visiting the emergency department and referred to various healthcare professionals. Emergency nurses and trained research assistants screen all patients for eligibility. By conducting emergency care research and sepsis research, Acutelines significantly contributes to understanding and improving the treatment of acute medical conditions, benefiting both clinical research and patient care. 

Contact

Hjalmar Bouma
Hjalmar Bouma Internist acute medicine, pharmacologist, immunologist

University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG)
Acutelines
PO Box 30.001
9700 RB Groningen
The Netherlands

Visiting address
University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG)
Department of Emergency medicine (non-trauma)
Antonius Deusinglaan 1
9713 AV Groningen