What is the optimal timing for open-heart surgery for children with congenital heart defects? This will be investigated in a Danish collaboration between doctors at Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen, Odense University Hospital and Aarhus University Hospital. In another collaboration between Rigshopitalet and Aarhus University Hospital, doctors will aim to determine whether proton or photon radiotherapy is the optimal treatment for head and neck cancer.
These projects are two of the 11 new patient-oriented clinical trials that will be carried out in the coming years based on new grants from the Novo Nordisk Foundation. The grants are part of the Foundation’s Investigator Initiated Clinical Trials programme, which awarded grants for the first time last year.
“Through this programme, the Foundation aims to boost the opportunities to carry out clinical trials in Denmark to improve the treatment of patients. We received many outstanding applications and are looking forward to following the projects’ progress in the years to come,” says Niels-Henrik von Holstein-Rathlou, Head of Research and Innovation Grants, Novo Nordisk Foundation.
The Foundation also awarded one of the 11 grants for a Danish collaboration between Hvidovre Hospital, Odense University Hospital, Aarhus University Hospital and Aalborg University Hospital. Doctors at these hospitals want to determine whether reducing the length of antibiotic treatment for pneumonia puts individual patients at risk. Reducing the treatment time reduces the use of antibiotics and thereby also the risk of creating antibiotic resistance, which is a serious threat to public health.
The grants under the Investigator Initiated Clinical Trials programme are awarded in open competition following a call for applications, which the Foundation’s Committee on Clinical and Translational Medicine assesses.
The Foundation received 47 applications for projects totalling DKK 416 million.
See a list of the grants and the names of the grant recipients and their projects here.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Tina Thorslund, Scientific Officer, phone: +45 3527 6677, [email protected]
Christian Mostrup Scheel, Senior Press Officer, phone: +45 3067 4805, [email protected]
