CLIN-Net and LAB-Net Country Visit Romania

This year’s series of COMBACTE’s country visits kicked off with Romania on 11th-12th January. No less than six hospitals and laboratories in Bucharest were visited. Andrei Ursache, the CLIN-Net National Coordinator in Romania, accompanied the CLIN-Net and LAB-Net representatives during their visit.

The team arrived at Dr. Adriana Hristea who welcomed them to the National Institute of Infectious Diseases Matei Bals, one of the two dedicated infectious diseases hospitals in Bucharest. There the team visited the infectious diseases department, intensive care unit and laboratory. CLIN-Net is looking forward to their results in the EURECA and ANTICIPATE studies. The next stop was the Clinical Emergency Hospital of Bucharest where Dr. Andrei Ursache hosted the general meeting after having shown around the intensive care unit and laboratory. More than 20 investigators (who came from Timisoara, Iasi and Cluj Napoca) attended the meeting. It was useful to share thoughts about COMBACTE and the specifics of performing clinical trials in Romania.

The last day began with the visit to the intensive care unit of Elias University Emergency Hospital. The team discussed their participation in the EURECA study. Dr. Corneci joined the visit to the microbiology laboratory where Dr. Buzea was introduced to the CLIN-Net team. At Fundeni Clinical Hospital the team met Dr. Tomescu and Dr. Marcu. The visit continued with a tour of the intensive care unit and microbiology lab. In the afternoon the team was expected at the Prof. C.C. Iliescu Cardiovascular Diseases Institute where Prof. Bubenek gave a tour through the hospital and the laboratory. Afterwards the possibilities to participate in one of the COMBACTE studies were discussed. Finally, Prof. Florescu and her team welcomed CLIN-Net to the Infectious and Tropical Diseases Hospital Dr. Victor Babes, the other hospital dedicated infectious diseases in Bucharest. This hospital is also participating in the EURECA and ANTICIPATE studies.

The CLIN-Net team is very confident that the country visit to Romania has further strengthened the ties between COMBACTE and the Romanian network. This visit confirmed that Romania is a very interesting country for COMBACTE with highly motivated investigators. The next steps will be to further explore the possibilities for Romanian hospitals and laboratories to participate in the COMBACTE trials.