Current Grants

St Vincent's Hospital

The primary focus of the Centre for Applied Medical Research – Clinical Research Program (AMR-CRP) is the safety and efficacy of new and existing drug treatments.

 AMR-CRP also:

• provides critical mass to the substantial clinical research on the campus, leading to more rapid study commencement and completion, and fewer regulatory issues;

• promotes translational research with colleagues conducting basic science; and

• increases opportunities for conducting early-phase research, which in turn provides more access to patients at the hospital to new treatments.

AMR-CRP conducts clinical trials in (alphabetical order) auto-immune disease (e.g. rheumatoid arthritis), clinical pharmacology, heart disease (both new drugs and new devices that avoid surgery), HIV disease, neurological diseases (e.g. stroke and Alzheimer’s disease), palliative care, rehabilitation medicine, and viral hepatitis. The group oversees about 80 clinical trials involving over 1000 patients.

In general, drugs are licensed when their effectiveness is confirmed, but often when their long-term safety is unclear. Diseases such as ischaemic heart disease and HIV infection require life-long therapy, but the safety of their treatments are often only known for a few years. AMR-CRP has a particular focus on determining long-term safety of treatments, and is a world leader at identifying many of the complications of HIV treatment, including premature heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis and kidney disease.

AMR-CRP is headed by Professor Andrew Carr, a clinical immunologist with 20 years experience in clinical research. The group includes 11 study co-ordinators, two Research Fellows, a Research Manager, a data manager, administrative staff, and a statistician.

 To find out more information about the Applied Medical Research – Clinical Research Program please visit www.amr.org.au/clinical-research-program