top of page

Transforming Surgical Vision into Funded Reality: A Success Story

jan 15

7 min läsning

3

42

1


Dr. Igor Zindovic is a cardiothoracic surgeon and researcher at Skåne University Hospital in Lund.
Dr. Igor Zindovic is a cardiothoracic surgeon and researcher at Skåne University Hospital in Lund.

It was strange to see Dr. Igor Zindovic in scrubs and a white coat, sitting at his desk mid-workday – a stark contrast to the formal bowtie photo in his CV that I'd worked with for the past 8 months. As the "Bad to the Bone" ringtone on his phone interrupted our conversation for the second time in 30 minutes, it became clear that this was a glimpse into the real life of a surgeon-researcher in perpetual motion.


As a consultant cardiothoracic surgeon who spends half his time on clinical research at Skåne University Hospital, Igor has mastered the art of balancing priorities. "Surgery is manual labor," he explains. "Your skill as a surgeon is highly dependent on the volume of operations and time you spend performing surgery. While I'm extremely interested and fascinated by research, it can't consume too much of my clinical time."


Applying for research grants is no small feat. Researchers estimate that preparing a competitive application for large grants can take between 300 and 500 hours (1, 2). Balancing this with clinical responsibilities is daunting, especially for clinician-researchers like Igor.


Recognizing the need for support, Igor partnered with AdvanSci, a team specializing in medical writing and research consulting, to secure funding for a new clinical trial. This decision allowed him to focus on his surgical and research work while entrusting the time-consuming task of preparing funding applications to experienced professionals.


"Application writing demands a whole lot of time," Igor explained. "With AdvanSci’s help, I could use that time for my clinical work instead, and the applications I submitted were far better than I could have done on my own."


Surgeons operating on a patient
Surgeons build and maintain their expertise through consistent practice in the operating room, where each procedure refines their surgical skills.

The PROPER Trial: Advancing Cardiac Surgery

Postoperative atrial fibrillation (POAF), which affects 20–50% of cardiac surgery patients, is a common complication of heart surgery that leads to longer hospital stays and increased risks of stroke, acute kidney injury, and mortality. Current treatments often involve oral anticoagulation, which brings its own risk of bleeding complications. To address this challenge, Igor and a team of international researchers are preparing for a clinical trial that builds on promising research showing that evacuation of pericardial blood through posterior pericardial chest tubes might significantly reduce POAF rates. If successful, the PROlonged posterior PERicardial chest tube treatment to reduce rates of postoperative atrial fibrillation following cardiac surgery (PROPER) trial could transform standard practice in cardiac surgery through a remarkably simple intervention.


The importance of this trial was recently highlighted in a feature by Skåne University Hospital, which underscored the growing interest in alternative drainage techniques to address complications like POAF (3). The article emphasized the simplicity and potential of posterior drainage, as well as the rigorous design of the PROPER study, which involves 624 patients across eight hospitals in the Nordic region.


The 8 sites across 4 Nordic countries participating in the PROPER study
The PROPER study will include 8 sites across 4 Nordic countries.

Clinical trials are notoriously expensive, requiring significant time and resources from hospital and research staff, in addition to the equipment and physical resources needed to perform the study. To ensure reliable results, trials must include hundreds of participants, adding to the overall cost and complexity. In particular, international trials play a crucial role in advancing global healthcare by testing interventions across diverse populations, including participants from varied ethnic, genetic, and cultural backgrounds, and within different healthcare systems. These trials also promote collaboration among researchers, hospitals, and institutions worldwide, often streamlining regulatory approvals across multiple countries. However, they come with additional challenges, such as increased travel costs for meetings between international collaborators, further adding to the financial burden.


Between 2006 and 2014, the NIH experienced a 14% budget cut (adjusted for inflation), resulting in a 24–27% decline in NIH-funded clinical trials (4). Meanwhile, industry-funded trials grew by 17–43% during the same period. This stark contrast highlights the critical role funding plays in enabling clinical trials.


Clinical trial costs are typically covered by funding from organizations dedicated to medical research, with researchers securing financial support through competitive grant applications. These applications detail the study’s objectives, methods, budget, and potential impact and are rigorously reviewed for scientific merit, feasibility, and alignment with the funding agency’s priorities. However, grants can be denied for various reasons, including misalignment with the foundation's scope, poorly written proposals, weak scientific rationale, methodological flaws, budgetary issues, lack of innovation, limited impact, unqualified teams, ethical concerns, incomplete information, high competition, or limited funds.


Application writing demands a whole lot of time. With AdvanSci’s help, I could use that time for my clinical work instead, and the applications I submitted were far better than I could have done on my own. —Dr. Igor Zindovic

The Power of Professional Support

Igor first met AdvanSci’s co-founder, Jane Fisher, while they were both performing research at Lund University. Impressed with the quality of her work, Igor came to AdvanSci for grant-writing support when it was time to apply for the VR Clinical Trial Grant for the PROPER trial. 


At AdvanSci, grant applications are created through a collaborative process involving a research consultant and a medical writer. Each application is tailored to the specific scope and requirements of the grant call, with a strong emphasis on developing a robust and reproducible study design. AdvanSci’s track record spans a wide range of funding programs, from small local funders to large-scale EU, US, and international funding schemes.


When I asked Igor what it was like to work with AdvanSci, he replied: "In the beginning, I had to put a lot of time into the applications. But as time went by and AdvanSci got to know the project, my role became smaller and smaller. AdvanSci was just doing it for me while I could do my regular clinical work."


The impact was significant, both professionally and personally. "It saved hundreds of hours," Igor reflects. "Without help, it would have been me up all night writing the application. It's given me a lot of extra family time."


A researcher analyzing data
Clinical researchers manage rigorous research projects while fulfilling their everyday clinical responsibilities.

However, the saved time is not what stood out to Igor the most. “The most crucial point is not that it’s just saved me a lot of time—it’s that the quality of the applications was much, much greater than I ever could have produced myself. It’s one thing to address all the points, but also to address them in a good way (so that) they don’t sound like just generic phrasings you would put in just to make somebody happy. It resonates with the researcher performing the study.”


In November 2024, VR awarded the PROPER trial 17 741 200 SEK over the next four years. The grant enables hiring a full-time research coordinator, two research nurses, and consultants while covering essential equipment and operational costs.

Thanks to the VR funding, Igor's team has hit the ground running. "We did prepare a lot of the stuff with the monitoring and the study with the eCRF agreement, quality assessments, and all legislative issues before the application was written," he says. "Once the application was approved, we just had to push the “go ahead” button."


"It saved hundreds of hours. Without help, it would have been me up all night writing the application. It's given me a lot of extra family time." —Dr. Igor Zindovic

Looking Ahead

For Igor, this grant marks a new chapter. "It's an achievement and recognition of my competence as a researcher," he says, "but the most important thing is the opportunity to hire staff. Now I can assume a clearer role as a project leader, and I have resources to perform much more research than I did just one year ago."


His advice to other researchers? "If you have grants, ask for help, and make sure you surround yourself with people who are as ambitious and confident as you. And nothing will be worth it if it isn't fun in the end. It's all about having motivation, and motivation springs from thinking the stuff you do is actually interesting.”


The potential impact of the PROPER study drives Igor’s enthusiasm. "I'm starting this study because I actually think it has an effect," Igor explains. "The good thing about the study is that the question is clear and the intervention is clear. So, if there are positive findings in this study, the implementation will be extremely easy."


Despite his recent success, Igor maintains a refreshingly honest perspective about the ebb and flow of research life. "I have my periods when I feel I'm on an energy high, and that's when I do my research. I have my dips as well, when I just do my clinical work. During the past year and a half, it's been full gas all the time with these applications and planning. Now I'm hoping to be able to relax a little bit and let other people do the work."


When I asked him if relaxing means focusing solely on surgery, Igor laughed. "Yeah... and focus on other studies!"


 

  

References

  1. Herbert DL, Barnett AG, Clarke P, Graves N. On the time spent preparing grant proposals: an observational study of Australian researchers. BMJ Open. 2013;3(5):e002800. Published 2013 May 28. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2013-002800.


  1. Dresler M, Buddeberg E, Endesfelder U, et al. Effective or predatory funding Evaluating the hidden costs of grant applications. Immunol Cell Biol. 2023;101(2):104-111. doi:10.1111/imcb.12592.


  2. Skånes universitetssjukhus (Skåne University Hospital). Ny metod kan minska risken för förmaksflimmer vid hjärtkirurgi [Internet]. LinkedIn Corporation; 2025 Jan 10 [cited 2025 Jan 14]. Available from: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ny-metod-kan-minska-risken-f%C3%B6r-f%C3%B6rmaksflimmer-vid-hj%C3%A4rtkirurgi-rwylf/?trackingId=QeQTui0RS%2BWF02LaMt1Mtg%3D%3D.


  3. Ehrhardt S, Appel LJ, Meinert CL. Trends in National Institutes of Health funding for clinical trials registered in ClinicalTrials.gov. JAMA. 2015 Dec 15;314(23):2566-7. doi: 10.1001/jama.2015.12206.


 

Author

A research consultant and science writer standing in front of ivy.

Rebeca Cardoso, PhD, is a research consultant at AdvanSci Research Solutions. Committed to making science accessible, Rebeca strives to bring cutting-edge research to a broader audience through her writing and outreach initiatives.

jan 15

7 min läsning

3

42

1

Kommentarer (1)

Jane
16 jan.

Big congratulations to Igor and the PROPER study team for a successful VR grant!