Research partners: two teams, one study population

Two large research projects funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Disease Management project and the Thrive study, which examine different phenomena in the chronically critically ill population, have combined research teams. Each study has its own project manager and maintains a separate database and budget. Operational tasks for both grants are streamlined through the collaboration and cross-training of all team members.

The Disease Management project is a randomized clinical trial testing the effectiveness of a care program in improving outcomes for chronically critically ill patients and their caregivers during the first 2 months after discharge. The Thrive study is a prospective longitudinal investigation that aims to describe the weaning patterns of chronically critically ill patients as well as the patterns of illness-related variables.

To date, many participants (n = 400) have been enrolled in each study. The results of both studies will be available through future publications.

Although much information has been gleaned from gathering longitudinal data across one study population and examining two rich data sets, there are some limitations to this collaboration.