Critical Care and Acute Medicine Research Group
The Critical Care and Acute Medicine Research Group is a multidisciplinary hospital-based research platform focused on improving outcomes among critically and acutely ill adult patients at An-Najah National University Hospital. Its work spans ICU mortality and risk prediction, sepsis and septic shock, device-associated infection, acute kidney injury, fluid balance, severity scoring and prognostic biomarkers. Bringing together critical care, internal medicine and nephrology, the group aims to build prospective ICU registries, evaluate modifiable predictors of mortality and complications, and generate locally relevant evidence to support quality improvement in acute and critical care.
- 5 members
- 7 publications
Group Members
5Dr. Sara Shbaita
Internal Medicine
Dr. Yusuf Dawabsheh
Internal Medicine
Research Interests
- ICU mortality, morbidity, length of stay and discharge outcomes
- Severity-of-illness scoring and outcome prediction in critically ill patients
- Sepsis and septic shock, including intravenous thiamine and antimicrobial strategy in AmpC-associated Enterobacterales sepsis
- Acute kidney injury incidence and risk factors in the ICU
- Fluid balance, fluid management and serum albumin in critical illness
- Non-thyroidal illness syndrome and prognostic biomarkers
- Device-associated infections, including central line-associated bloodstream infection and catheter-associated urinary tract infection
- Drug-related toxicity in critical care, including colistin-induced nephrotoxicity
- Predictors of ICU mortality across multicentre cohorts
- Intravenous fluid knowledge, attitudes and practices among physicians
- Methods: prospective registries, retrospective cohorts and propensity-score analysis
Ongoing Research
- Acute kidney injury incidence and risk factors among ICU patients (prospective/retrospective cohort)
- Third-generation cephalosporins, carbapenems and piperacillin-tazobactam in AmpC-associated Enterobacterales sepsis (retrospective cohort)
- Fluid balance and clinical outcomes in the ICU, with an acute kidney injury subgroup (retrospective cohort, 2020-2026; manuscript in preparation)
- Acute kidney injury and outcomes among ICU patients: propensity-score-matched analysis (retrospective cohort; manuscript submitted)
- Comparison of severity scores and outcomes among ICU patients (prospective/retrospective cohort)
- Intravenous thiamine and outcomes in septic shock (retrospective cohort; manuscript submitted)
Publications
7| # | Year | Publication | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2026 | Non-thyroidal illness syndrome and clinical outcomes in critically ill ICU patients: a prospective cohort study. Cureus. 2026. | |
| 2 | 2026 | Knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding intravenous fluids among physicians in the West Bank of Palestine: a cross-sectional study. Health Sci Rep. 2026. doi:10.1002/hsr2.73148 | DOI |
| 3 | 2025 | Central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) in critical care: understanding incidence, and risk factors in Palestine. BMC Infect Dis. 2025;25. doi:10.1186/s12879-025-10855-0 | DOI |
| 4 | 2024 | Rabi R, Alsaid RM, Matar AN, Dawabsheh Y, Abu Gaber D. The role of serum albumin in critical illness, predicting poor outcomes, and exploring the therapeutic potential of albumin supplementation. Sci Prog. 2024;107. doi:10.1177/00368504241274023 | DOI |
| 5 | 2024 | Catheter-associated urinary tract infections in critical care: understanding incidence, risk factors, and pathogenic causes in Palestine. PLoS One. 2024;19. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0309755 | DOI |
| 6 | 2024 | A retrospective study of the predictors of mortality among patients in intensive care units at North West-Bank hospitals in Palestine. Hosp Pract. 2024;52(3). doi:10.1080/21548331.2024.2359363 | DOI |
| 7 | 2023 | Comprehensive assessment of colistin induced nephrotoxicity: incidence, risk factors and time course. Infect Drug Resist. 2023;16. doi:10.2147/IDR.S409964 | DOI |