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Neuro ICU Research Director:
Dr. Sherif Mahmoud
smahmoud@ualberta.ca

The Neurosciences Intensive Care Unit (NeuroICU) at the ¶®É«µÛ Hospital is a hub for innovation and discovery in neurocritical care. Under the leadership of Dr. Sherif Mahmoud, Research Director, our program is advancing patient care through multidisciplinary collaboration, cutting-edge clinical trials, and impactful health services research.

Dr. Sherif Mahmoud’s leadership in neurocritical care pharmacotherapy is recognized nationally. He has secured CIHR grant funding in areas including:

• Pharmacokinetics & Pharmacodynamics in Critical Illness: studying how altered physiology in the NeuroICU (e.g. organ dysfunction, altered blood flow) affects drug absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion.
• Personalized Medication Strategies for Neurocritical Conditions: optimizing antiseizure and other central nervous system drug dosing in patients with brain injury or altered blood–brain barrier.
• Clinical Trials in Neurovascular Injury: investigating therapeutic interventions (e.g. nimodipine use in subarachnoid hemorrhage) and their functional outcomes.

Multidisciplinary Research

Our research program brings together intensivists, neurologists, neurosurgeons, pharmacists, nurses, and rehabilitation specialists to tackle the most pressing challenges in critical care. We foster collaboration across departments and with national and international partners to translate discoveries into improved patient outcomes.

Key areas of focus include:

• Brain injury and recovery: advancing knowledge in stroke, traumatic brain injury, subarachnoid hemorrhage, and seizures.
• Critical illness physiology: studying mechanisms of cerebral edema, hemodynamic instability, and multi-organ dysfunction.
• Translational pharmacotherapy and precision medicine: investigating how neurological injury and patient-specific factors alter the pharmacokinetics (how the body handles a drug) and pharmacodynamics (how the drug acts) of medications in critical illness—ensuring more personalized, evidence-based therapies.

Clinical Trials and Research Support

The NeuroICU is an active site for phase II–IV clinical trials and investigator-initiated studies. With dedicated research staff and infrastructure, we provide comprehensive support for protocol development, ethics submissions, data management, and regulatory compliance. This ensures that both industry-sponsored and academic studies meet the highest scientific and ethical standards.

Our patients and families have access to novel therapies through participation in international research networks, positioning our unit as a leader in advancing standards of care.

Health Services and Outcomes Research

Beyond clinical trials, our team is committed to health services research—evaluating how systems of care, staffing, and treatment pathways influence patient outcomes. We lead projects that inform policy, optimize resource use, and improve the patient and family experience in critical care.

Examples include:

• Quality improvement initiatives targeting sedation, delirium, and early mobility.
• Long-term outcomes research, following patients beyond ICU discharge.
• Studies on equity, access, and efficiency of neurocritical care delivery.

Institute Linkages and Collaboration

The NeuroICU research program benefits from close ties with the Neuroscience and Mental Health Institute (NMHI) at the ¶®É«µÛ. Dr. Elizabeth Wilcox, NMHI Director and NeuroICU research member, plays a key role in facilitating collaboration between biomedical researchers and clinical scientists. These partnerships accelerate discovery, strengthen translational research, and ensure that innovations move rapidly from the lab to patient care.

Training and Mentorship

As part of our academic mission, the NeuroICU fosters the next generation of clinician-scientists. We provide mentorship and hands-on training in research design, methods, and scientific writing for residents, fellows, and allied health trainees.

Theme	Project Name	Investigator
Respiratory Sciences	Liberation from Mechanical Ventilation in Spinal Cord Injury: A national cohort study	Dr. J Kutsogiannis
Respiratory Sciences	The measurement of Cough Peak Flows to predict liberation from mechanical ventilation or tracheostomy in respiratory and neurological subgroups of critically ill patients (CPF)	Dr. J Kutsogiannis
Respiratory Sciences	The Use of Capnographic Late Dead Space Fraction and Clinical Prediction Rules in the Prediction of Pulmonary Embolism in Critically Ill Patients Undergoing Computed Tomography of the Chest or Ventilation Perfusion Scanning (Deadspace)	Dr. J Kutsogiannis