NCCU, Addenbrookes

• NCCU is a large, adult critical service within a major academic health sciences centre with well established, highly successful academic and research activity.
• The admission profile is dominated by the co-located East of England Major Trauma Centre and the case mix is overwhelmingly emergency.
• Clinical activity comprises traumatic brain injury, severe extra-cranial and spinal trauma, neurovascular disease, acquired disorders of weakness, autoimmune encephalitis, seizure disorders, and neurosepsis.
• There is no split site working within this Unit

The Cambridge Neurosciences and Trauma Critical Care Unit (NCCU) provides the focus for the multidisciplinary Cambridge Acute Brain Injury (ABI) Group, which involves a close collaboration between intensivists, neurosurgeons, neurologists, rehabilitation physicians, emergency physicians, radiologists, data scientists, and imaging scientists.

Key research resources include multimodality monitoring (including ICM+; https://icmplus.neurosurg.cam.ac.uk/), advanced neuroimaging at the Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre (WBIC; https://www.wbic.cam.ac.uk/) providing access to positron emission tomography, magnetic resonance imaging/spectroscopy (3 Tesla and 7 Tesla) and hyperpolarized magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and advanced laboratory facilities (including expertise and equipment in for neuroimmunology and a Quanterix HDX platform for biomarker research).

The ABI group has published over 600 peer reviewed papers in the last two decades, and provided the base for peer-reviewed grants totalling over £50 million. Our research covers the entire narrative of disease in neurocritical care – from prehospital medicine to outcome up to 10 years post-ictus; and covering outcomes that range from full recovery to disorders of consciousness. We also span a wide variety of research approaches including experimental medicine, observational studies¸ clinical trials, and technique development. We drive research locally (in studies that use advanced techniques) and lead national and international collaborations such as the CENTER-TBI study (https://www.center-tbi.eu/). NCCU consultants and other colleagues in the ABI Group led and contributed to the Lancet Neurology Commissions on Traumatic Brain Injury in 2017 (https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laneur/article/PIIS1474-4422(17)3037…) and 2022 (https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laneur/article/PIIS1474-4422(22)0030…); and to the Report of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Acquired Brain Injury (https://ukabif.org.uk/resource/resmgr/campaigns/appg-abi_report_time-fo…).

The unit is also closely involved in global health projects running across the Cambridge biomedical campus, including the HEE-funded SCALE Critical Care initiative and the NIHR Global Health Research Group on Acquired Brain and Spine Injury. These projects have both educational and research dimensions. Research spans epidemiological studies of TBI through to understanding facility-level care pathways.

Research is driven by the whole consultant group, many of whom are grant holding principal investigators , and several have university appointments. As a unit, we have strong track record of nurturing clinical academics at all stages of training – starting with Academic Foundation trainees (with three posts rotating through the NCCU each year), through Academic Clinical Fellows, PhD studentships, Clinical Lectureships, Clinician Scientist Awards, and Principal Investigator appointments at consultant level (both in the UK and abroad)

• Training in point of care ultrasound

• Opportunity to attend theatre for airway experience

• Acting up as an ICM Consultant (for Stage 3 trainees)

  Other: Range of cross specialty opportunities within Neurosurgery, Neuroradiology, Neurophysiology, Trauma, Neurology, Rehabilitation, ICU follow up-clinics

• Twice weekly, on-site and remote viewing, 1 hour session.

• Range of Neurosciences and Trauma topics, delivered by Consultants

• Journal club delivered by trainees, with Consultant presence

Quarterly Clinical Governance Meeting

Fortnightly department admin meeting

Monthly M&M meeting

Quarterly Learning from Deaths meeting

• On-site parking
• Resident doctors office with recliner chairs
• On-site accommodation for those wishing to stay/rest between on-calls
• Canteen with hot food available