Clinical Research Network
(CRN)
The ASID Clinical Research Network (CRN) supports, promotes and facilitates high quality, multi-centre, investigator-initiated studies in infectious diseases and clinical microbiology.
Its members are highly experienced clinicians and researchers across Australia and New Zealand who are dedicated to improving patient care through the advancement of infectious diseases discovery, translational, health services and clinical trials research.
Overview and Committee
The CRN aims to:
- Advance and promote quality clinical infectious diseases research.
- Foster a network of local and international experts.
- Design, conduct and publish clinically relevant, evidence-based infectious diseases research.
- Build an effective research network that rapidly responds to evolving infectious diseases threats.
- Build links and collaborations with similar groups in Australia, New Zealand and overseas.
- Develops ASID clinician partnerships to delivery collaborative clinical trials
- Endorse and promote infectious diseases research to enhance funding opportunities and sustainability of high-quality trials
CRN educational activities include:
- A biennial meeting highlighting current research breaking new ground in infectious diseases.
- A CRN Symposia at the ASID Annual Scientific Meeting.
Committee:
Chair: Prof Trisha Peel
Immediate Past Chair: Prof Jason Trubiano
Members: Prof Steven Tong, Dr Ameneh Khatami, Dr Susan Morpeth, Dr Jillian Lau, Prof Gail Matthews, Dr Nel Henco, Dr Bridget Barber and Dr Patrick Harris
Co-opted SIG Members:
Prof Orla Morrissey (ANZMIG)
Dr Sophie Wen (VACSIG)
Dr Jason Kwong (HICSIG)
Dr Sushena Krishnaswamy (VHSIG)
Dr Kathryn Wilks (ZOOSIG)
Dr Louise Cooley (ICHSIG)
Studies endorsed by the CRN
PROSPECTOR Study – Prolonged versus Single dose in Penicillin Oral Challenge Testing parallel randomised feasibility placebo-controlled trial
Penicillin allergies are a major burden on patients and health care worldwide. Currently, up to 1 in 4 hospitalised patients admitted to hospital will report an antibiotic allergy, many of which limit appropriate antibiotic use and lead to poorer health outcomes. In some instances, patients will be given a single or multiple test doses to determine if a patient is truly allergic. This study will further research to determine if a single dose or multiple dose challenge (5-days) is able to elicit true penicillin allergy and examine the unintended consequences associated with each type of challenge.
Project leads: Austin Health, CPI: Prof Jason Trubiano
Endorsed: December 2024
REROUTE Randomised Trial – direct oral challenge versus skin testing for low-risk sulfur antibiotic allergy.
The REROUTE study is an international, multicentre, randomised controlled trial that addresses a significant global health issue – sulfa antibiotics allergy – with the overall goal of addressing an important knowledge gap, leading to relevant and implementable findings to human health.
The trial will combine our internationally validated sulfa antibiotic allergy risk assessment tool (SULF-FAST) to test the hypothesis that in low-risk patients (determined using the SULF-FAST tool) in an outpatient clinic setting, the safety of direct oral challenge is non-inferior to skin testing followed by oral challenge.
Project leads: Professor Jason Trubiano, Austin Health; Dr Ana Copaescu
Endorsed: August 2024
IMPACT Study – Implementation of a Multifaceted Penicillin Allergy Community Toolkit – Improving antibiotic prescribing and infection-outcomes in priority populations
Penicillin allergy is a global public health care concern, affecting 1 in 4 Australians and is associated with second-line antibiotic usage, antimicrobial resistance, poor infection outcomes, increased healthcare costs and mortality. Whilst penicillin allergies have a profound impact on the healthcare system, the vast majority (95%) can be removed safely by appropriate point-of-care assessment and testing – referred to as “delabelling”.
Project lead: Professor Jason Trubiano, Austin Health
Endorsed: July 2024
BANDICOOT: Building Adaptive Novel Disease and Intervention Clinical trials: Optimising Overall-survival after Transplant in Children.
The greatest barrier to overcome for children receiving a HSCT is to provide conclusive research findings in a cohort that is marred by heterogeneity. The cohort is diverse in disease type and sub-type, conditioning therapies, donor and stem cell source, supportive care and post-transplant therapies. International trials in paediatric HSCT, as currently designed, are randomised-controlled trials that rarely address the complexity of patient characteristics. BANDICOOT will overcome this by introducing a Bayesian adaptive platform trial that is better suited to answering multiple research questions simultaneously in heterogeneous cohorts and will provide operational and statistical efficiencies.
Lead Investigator (CIA): A/Prof Rachel Conyers
Lead PID expert: A/Prof Amanda Gwee
Administering Institute: Murdoch Children’s Research Institute
Endorsed: May 2024
BALANCE Plus: Platform trial for Gram Negative Bloodstream Infection
BALANCE Plus is a foundational multi-domain adaptive platform trial of treatment strategies for gram-negative blood-stream infection. It has an open-label pragmatic design. Launch domains include cross-cutting and sub-group focused questions.
Australian Project Lead: A/Prof Ben Rogers, Monash University
Global Leads: Dr Nick Daneman and Dr Rob Fowler
Endorsed: April 2024
International Network of Antibiotic Allergy Nations (iNAAN)
The iNAAN study seeks to improve access to penicillin allergy assessment and direct oral penicillin challenge procedures for hospitalised patients with a penicillin allergy to improve antimicrobial prescribing and reduce antimicrobial resistance and negative health service outcomes.
Chief Principal Investigator: Prof Jason Trubiano
Associate Investigators: A/Prof Natasha Holmes, Dr Kyra Chua Ms Fiona James, Ms Elise Mitri (Project Manager)
App Developer: Dr Luke Fletcher
BioGrid Australia – CEO: Ms Maureen Turner
Endorsed: October 2023
Current list of ANZPID studies. Access.