This text is part of the special section Philanthropy
The idea for the Integrated Trauma Center dates back to 2005, when a group of doctors dreamed of creating a place where they could truly work hand in hand with researchers. The dream has come true over 15 years later. But the wait will have been worth it.
“Everything I wanted to have in the Integrated Trauma Center is there and, for me, it’s really the culmination of my life’s dream,” rejoices Dr.r Ronald Denis, director of the trauma program at the Sacré-Coeur hospital in Montreal.
It was with doctors Patrick Bellemare, Gilles Lavigne and Marc Giasson that he developed this project which would really bring people to work together to improve the care given to the population.
The needs were real. The Dr Denis also says that it was when he was visiting collaborators at the Nord hospital in Marseille, in 2017, that he learned that a researcher from his department in the same hospital as him, Louis De Beaumont, was coming to obtain the Chair of the Caroline Durand Foundation in Acute Traumatology at the University of Montreal.
“Before, clinicians worked physically far from researchers,” he says. We saw their names go by, but we didn’t know each other, so we didn’t really work together. »
However, he was trained in Detroit, where researchers, professors and clinicians really work together and exchange ideas. “That was what we wanted to do at the Integrated Trauma Center and we succeeded,” he says -he.
Research focused on patient needs
Louis De Beaumont, scientific director, physical health, at the Sacré-Coeur hospital, is in complete agreement with Mr. Ronald Denis. “Before, it was very difficult to get researchers and doctors to meet. But it’s by being together that we learn from each other and it’s by creating joint projects that we really meet the needs on the ground,” he says.
He gives the example of a research project that his team is currently carrying out in intensive care with patients who are in a coma. “This project involves interaction between pharmacists, intensivists, neurointensivists and my research team,” says the neuropsychologist. We talk to each other every 15 minutes to be able to really situate the intervention when we need it. »
Previously, his office was almost a kilometer from intensive care. “The constant back and forth was a huge waste of time,” says De Beaumont. Now we are constantly on the spot. It’s easy to interact with the doctor and it’s much more responsive to ensure better patient follow-up, but also to recruit patients in an optimal way. We therefore improve research and care because innovations are brought directly to the clinic. »
Moreover, there is no shortage of research projects under his leadership. He is currently working on a drug that breaks the chemical cascade that causes all the symptoms of concussion. A world authority in the field, he has also studied extensively in recent years the damage of impacts in football. His colleague Éric Wagnac, a mechanical engineering researcher at the Sacré-Coeur hospital, brought together different areas of expertise to create the Kollide group, which won an NFL (National Football League) competition to create a high-performance helmet.
“We did imaging to follow the damage from game to game to find that it was always the same regions of the brain that were damaged. So the helmets that will be created will deflect the force of the impact away from those regions, says De Beaumont. Instead of offering homogeneous protection, helmets will particularly protect the most vulnerable regions of the brain: this is unprecedented! This innovation was possible thanks to the interaction of people in engineering, physics and clinical practice. »
Louis De Beaumont is also in the process of setting up a new chair in artificial intelligence which will make it possible to better predict whether the patient who has experienced a trauma can get out of it and with what quality of life. The Montreal Sacré-Coeur Hospital Foundation wishes to raise $3 million for this project.