CORE-EM: national emergency care hub to speed new treatments for heart, brain, infection, and trauma emergencies
SIREN CORE-EM HUB ALLIANCE
This program links hospitals so people with heart attacks, strokes, severe infections, major trauma, or breathing emergencies can access new and faster emergency treatments.
Quick facts
| Grant type | NIH-funded research |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Virginia Commonwealth University NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Richmond, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-11261596 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
If you come to a participating emergency department with a life‑threatening problem, CORE‑EM connects that hospital into a larger network that runs large, practical treatment studies across many sites. The hub combines six experienced research infrastructures and coordinates enrollment, training, and data collection so trials start quickly and run consistently. CORE‑EM focuses on acute conditions such as cardiac, neurologic, respiratory, hematologic, infectious disease, and trauma emergencies and serves a combined catchment area of over 70 million people. By enrolling patients across many hospitals, the program aims to make promising emergency treatments — for example eCPR/ECMO in the ED — available and tested more broadly.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: People who arrive at participating emergency departments with acute, life‑threatening conditions such as heart attack, stroke, major trauma, severe infection, or respiratory failure are the primary candidates.
Not a fit: People with routine or chronic non‑emergency conditions, or those treated at hospitals outside the CORE‑EM/SIREN network, are unlikely to be eligible or see direct benefit.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could bring more effective emergency treatments to patients faster and increase chances to receive cutting‑edge care at participating hospitals.
How similar studies have performed: Network‑based emergency medicine efforts have previously changed practice, and CORE‑EM has already run multiple successful multi‑site trials within the SIREN network.
Where this research is happening
Richmond, United States
- Virginia Commonwealth University — Richmond, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Merck, Lisa H — Virginia Commonwealth University
- Study coordinator: Merck, Lisa H
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.