The CAPER Program focuses its research around five major pillars:
Project Examples
- Examination of the use of capture-recapture methods to optimize ascertainment of exposures and outcomes in perioperative and critical care research
- Examination of natural experiment designs (coupled with Roger’s diffusion curve) to reduce residual confounding in observational perioperative research
- Improving methods for before-after studies in perioperative research
- Review of advanced methods for reducing cofounding in perioperative and critical care research (mediation analysis, natural experiment design, instrumental variable analysis, propensity scores, and interrupted time series)
Project Examples
- Mechanisms and clinical impact of myocardial dysfunction following traumatic brain injury
- Multi-organ dysfunction following traumatic brain injury
- Optimizing early hemodynamic management in adult and pediatric traumatic brain injury
- Trends and variation in healthcare utilization following severe acute brain injury
- Racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare utilization following severe acute brain injury
- Systematic review of incidence of multi-organ dysfunction following moderate-severe traumatic brain injury
- Examination of impact of ICU care on outcomes following traumatic brain injury in Tanzania
- Clinical epidemiology of moderate traumatic brain injury in low and middle-income countries
- Descriptive epidemiology of outcomes (healthcare utilization, readmission, mortality, violence, arrest) following emergency room visit for opioid overdose
- Opioids following surgery in the United States and impact of the Veteran’s Affairs Opioid Safety Initiative
- Guideline adherence for multimodal analgesia in TKA (VA versus non-VA)
Project Examples
- Association of FDA warning (reading hydroxyethyl starch) with bleeding outcomes following musculoskeletal surgery in the United States
- Unintended consequences of albumin for perioperative resuscitation
- Balanced fluids versus saline on outcomes in critically ill patients: mediating effects of chloride level
- Progression of chronic kidney disease following major abdominal surgery: effect modification by baseline renal function
- Heart-rate and blood-pressure coupling in perioperative medicine
- Effect of oral nutrition supplements on perioperative outcomes
- Joint and combined effects of multimodal analgesia in perioperative medicine
Project Examples
Pulmonary Outcomes
- Examination of the introduction of Sugammadex on post-op respiratory failure
- Perioperative lung-protective ventilation strategies
- SCCM Discovery Network SAGE Study
Neurological Outcomes
- Association between gonadal hormones on ICH pathophysiology and outcome
- Affects of blood pressure agent class used after ICH on hematoma growth and mortality
- Use of SSRIs prior to ICH affects long-term outcome
- Incidence, mediators, and outcome of ARDS after ICH
- Defining associations between serum, CSF, and radiographic biomarkers with acute ICH pathophysiology and long-term outcome
Project Example
- Duke Health System ICU Registry