Denise Tate at a recent international conference with Brazilian collaborators Daniel Rubio de Souza, lead physician in the Spinal Cord Injury Unit at the Hospital das Clinicas in Sao Paulo, and Guillherme Yuiti Sikusawa, Chief Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Resident at the same institution.
Professor Emeritus of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Denise Tate was the among the attendees at the International Spinal Cord Society (ISCoS) Annual Scientific Meeting, held this September in Antwerp, Belgium, where she met with Brazilian colleagues, including leading spinal cord injury (SCI) experts at the University of Sao Paulo Medical School and its affiliated Hospital das Clinicas.
Formerly the Brazil Platform Leader for Global REACH, Tate has been involved in many research collaborations on quality-of life (QoL) outcomes for individuals with SCI, including the development and adaptation of international datasets so that spinal cord clinicians and researchers can more easily share information and partner on joint research projects.
“By standardizing datasets and making them accessible in different countries, clinicians can encourage rapid exchange of information and foster future collaborations in the field,” Tate said.
Brazil has been one country of focus in Tate’s international efforts on QoL outcomes and related dataset collaborations. Funded by the Craig H Nielsen Foundation, Tate and collaborators from Australia, Brazil, The Netherlands and the US completed a five-year study on the validation of a QoL dataset to be used across these four countries. Among Tate’s more recent projects was a clinical trial studying the efficacy of treating urinary tract infections among people with SCI by flushing an antibiotic directly into the bladder rather than having patients take medications orally or via injections, which can lead to resistance when used repeatedly.
At the recent meeting, Tate described this treatment protocol to her Brazilian collaborators, including Daniel Rubio de Souza, medical leader of the SCI unit at Hospital das Clinicas, and the hospital’s Chief Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Resident, Guilherme Yuiti Sikusawa. They discussed the possibility of a joint effort in this area.
Recruiting for such trials, which involve patients with many co-morbidities, can be challenging, limiting the ability to gather sufficient data, which is crucial for drawing meaningful conclusions.
“By working together across borders, researchers can access a larger and more diverse patient population, ultimately improving the strength and generalizability of the trial results,” said Tate. “This approach not only helps in achieving better recruitment numbers but also enhances the overall value of the study outcomes for the scientific community.”