MISSION
The Program in Medical ICU Research (PRIMER) strives to deliver world-class, evidence-based critical care at one of the largest academic medical centers in US, while advancing translational and clinical research, scholarship, innovation and education in critical care medicine.

OBJECTIVES
We aim to improve the health of the people of Birmingham and Alabama by:
1) Providing exceptional care for all of our patients
2) Leading the efforts in scientific discovery and inform the development of new and effective interventions/therapies for critically ill patients, including those with ARDS and sepsis
3) Educating tomorrow's critical care physicians to be leaders in clinical care, education, research and innovation
4) Maintaining outstanding collaboration and communication with our interdisciplinary teams providing care for our patients

ABOUT
PRIMER, co-directed by Derek Russell, MD and Sheetal Gandotra, MD, consists of a multidisciplinary team, including 14 investigators and 8 full or part time staff. The goal of PRIMER is to advance state of the art, evidence based clinical care to our critically ill patients via cutting edge bench to bedside translational research paired with excellence in critical care medicine delivery. The team seeks to improve the understanding of, and develop novel approaches to, the prevention, diagnosis and management of multiple etiologies of critical illness, including ARDS, sepsis, and acute respiratory failure. Importantly, the Program views these aims as complementary to the delivery of high quality bedside care, and as such the team’s work is conducted with an eye toward the improvement of not only data acquisition, but also healthcare delivery and adherence to evidence-based medicine and best practices. PRIMER is a leader in the development of a Learning Healthcare System at UAB, leveraging collaborations with UAB Informatics and the UAB Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS), including the COVID-19 Outcomes Research Enterprise (CORE) Critical Care Scientific Working Group, which is chaired by Drs. Gandotra and Russell, as well as interdivisional collaboration with the Department of Emergency Medicine and others. Furthermore, the Program participates in leadership of national research consortia, including the Pragmatic Critical Care Research Group, the NHLBI PETAL Network, the I-SPY COVID Clinical Trial Network, and the NIH ACTIV-4A Network. Over the past 5 years, PRIMER investigators have collectively enrolled thousands of critically ill hospitalized patients into clinical trials. In these ways, the PRIMER team provides access to novel therapeutics and biologic insights to our patients while studying ways to improve care of critically ill adults. Lastly, the Program prides itself on building academic and community critical care partnerships, extending the reach of its critical care medicine research to rural areas, and pairing it with excellence in medical care across the South via a state of the art Tele-Medicine network.

Sheetal Gandotra, MD - Co-Director

Derek Russell, MD - Co-Director

Joseph Barney, MD

Mark Dransfield, MD

Steven Duncan, MD

Amit Gaggar, MD, PhD

Tejaswini Kulkarni, MD

Merry-Lynn McDonald, PhD

David Page, MD

William (Steve) Stigler, MD

Ravi Virdi, MD

J. Michael Wells, MD, MPH

Micah Whitson, MD

Sarah Robison, MD

Siddharth Patel, MBBS - Clinical Coordinator
Donna Harris, RN
Elizabeth Westfall, MPH
Sonya Hardy, MA

NATIONAL COLLABORATIONS
1) Pragmatic Critical Care Research Group - we are a top enrolling site for several multicentered pragmatic trials in the ICU and ED.

2) ISPY COVID- adaptive platform Phase 2 trial for agents to improve outcomes in COVID-19

3) NHLBI Prevention and Early Treatment of Acute Lung Injury (PETAL) Network

4) Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines 4 Acute (ACTIV-4A) Network