We want to remind participants in the IMPRESS study that there are now fewer than 2 DAYS left until its start. IMPRESS is an observational study designed to assess the incidence and clinical patterns of septic syndromes on a single day, November 7th, in ICUs and emergency departments worldwide.

Registered site investigators should have received an email from the chief study investigators, Dr. Andrew Rhodes and Dr. Mitchell Levy, with final instructions and information – see below. Access details to the electronic case report format (E-CRF) were sent out to participating investigators last Friday, November 1st. If you are an investigator, but did not receive this email, first check your spam folder, and if you cannot locate the email, email [email protected] to request a new set of credentials (see below).

Also, note that the study protocol has been changed such that patients can also be enrolled even if they developed severe sepsis and/or septic shock before November 7th, as long as they still manifest these symptoms on that day (see comments at the end of the email).

We want to acknowledge Dr. Steven Simpson of the Midwest Critical Care Collaborative for reminding us of these developments and last-minute instructions.

Dr. Rhodes’ email follows below for your reference.

 

Update on the IMPRESS study for Registered Site Investigators

(Two days to go!)

There is now less than TWO days to go before the IMPRESS study day. We would like to update you on study progress to date.

We have created a new version of the case report form that can be printed out to ease the data collection. This can be downloaded from here. We would suggest that this form is used for data collection before the data is entered onto the web e-crf.

Frequently Asked Questions:

  1. The study collection period is 00:00 hours to 23:59 hours on the 7th of November.
  2. We are looking to enroll any patient, either in the Emergency Department or the Intensive Care Unit, who has severe sepsis or septic shock during this period.
  3. The electronic case report form (E-CRF) is now complete. Access details were sent out last Friday to all investigators. We are aware that some of you did not receive this email and if that were the case then we would ask you to first check your spam email folder and if not there to reply to [email protected] requesting a new set of credentials.
  4. For the source of infection; please enter the most likely source of infection even if this is not certain.
  5. The physiological and laboratory data will be used to construct an APACHE II score. Please enter the worst set of these values taken within the 24 hour period of the diagnosis being made of either severe sepsis or septic shock.
  6. Please check the units for each variable being entered to ensure they are consistent with what is being asked in the E-CRF.

Useful study links:

PLEASE NOTE: PATIENTS CAN BE ENROLLED SO LONG AS THEY HAVE SEVERE SEPSIS AND / OR SEPSIS SHOCK ON NOVEMBER 7TH EVEN IF THEY DEVELOPED THE SYNDROME PRIOR TO THE STUDY DAY.

Wishing you a successful study day

Andrew Rhodes & Mitchell Levy