Specialization
Internal Medicine, Intensive Care Medicine
Focus of research
Alexander Vlaar - PhD, MD, MBA is full professor Intensive Care Medicine (H-index: 29, 2.839 citation, > 180 articles) and principal investigator in intensive care medicine. He works as an intensivist in the Amsterdam UMC, location AMC, Amsterdam, and has extensive experience in the design and execution of large national and international multicenter trials next to basic science. His research has been awarded with many scientific awards, such as the Heineken Young Scientist Award for Medicine 2014 from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). His studies are published in international peer reviewed journals such as Science, Nature, NEJM, Lancet, JAMA, Blood, Intensive Care Medicine, Critical Care Medicine and Anesthesiology.
His research lines fit under the umbrella of Translational Intensive Care Medicine and contain several topics.
Sepsis / ARDS
In the field of sepsis and ARDS in the intensive care setting he is the principal investigator of the HISTOSEP trial, a Phase I of non-anticoagulant heparin in sepsis. Furthermore he is local PI in the Horizon 2020 IMMINOSEP trial. A project on personalized medicine in sepsis based on the immune profile of the patient. Furthermore he is the international principal investigator of the PANAMO phase II/III trial investigating the role of anti-c5a in severe COVID-19 patients. The phase II result have been published in Lancet Rheum 2021.
Transfusion
His research lines consist, among others, of pre-clinical and clinical investigation in the field of antibody and non-antibody mediated transfusion related acute lung injury (TRALI) and transfusion associated circulatory overload (TACO). He is the chair of the international TRALI re-definition working group (Transfusion 2019) and chair of the ESICM Transfusion Task Force (Intensive Care Medicine 2020/21).
Hemodynamics
He has a translational research line on hemodynamic management in the critically ill. His research lines include pre-clinical and clinical studies on endothelial leakage and microcirculation during ECMO treatment. Furthermore his research group focusus on optimalisation of hemodynamic monitoring in the critically ill.
Artificial intelligence/machine learning
His research group has a strong AI section which was able to launch the first dashboard to date using AI to predict COVID-19 outbreaks in the Netherlands (www.windfall.ai). His research group was also able to provide one of the first validations of an artificial intelligence algorithm for clinical use, the impact on intraoperative hypotension prediction and clinical decision-making, which was published in JAMA 2020.