Author: Marian Chandler

Research education session #2 is scheduled for 9th April from 11am-12noon (AEDT), it will include: 

• Grant writing
• Budgets
• Contracts

Calendar invites have been forwarded.  See timetable for further details of sessions and topics for the remainder of the year.

The PREDICT Prize in Paediatric Emergency Medicine (PREDICT Prize) will be presented at the 2024 Annual Scientific Meeting for ACEM, held in Adelaide, Australia, 24 – 28 November 2024. PREDICT, will award $500 cash for the best oral presentation that addresses an important topic in Paediatric Emergency Medicine.  Award criteria will be made available upon submission of an abstract.

Thank you to our members for recently updating your details and confirming your ongoing PREDICT membership.  We lost some members who have moved on but have gained others.  We look forward to working with you all again in 2024.

The PREDICT members meeting for 2024 will be held on the Gold Coast on 31st October (2.30pm-5.30pm) and 1st November (8.30am-3.30pm). 
At this meeting we will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the network. 

This 1.5 day event will include a dinner on the evening of 31st October.  Further details will be advised and a calendar invite sent once we are able to confirm r details at the Gold Coast University Hospital.

We encourage all members to join us this year for a very special members event.

Congratulations to the following PREDICT authors:

Tavender E, Eapen N, Wang J, Rausa VC, Babl FE, Phillips N. Triage tools for detecting cervical spine injury in paediatric trauma patients. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2024, Issue 3. Art. No.: CD011686. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD011686.pub3.

Four members of the PREDICT Executive (Elliot Long, Stuart Dalziel, Franz Babl and Simon Craig) were invited to assist with a workshop aimed at furthering the development of a Paediatric Emergency Medicine (PEM) research network in India. The March 2024 workshop was held in Bengaluru alongside the National Assembly on Pediatric Emergency Medicine (NAPEM) and built upon an initial development and prioritisation workshop held in Hyderabad last year.

Over twenty delegates attended the workshop, which resulted in the formation of a new national PEM research network in India: the Pediatric Resuscitation and Emergency Research Network of India (PRERNI).

We would like to extend our congratulations to the inaugural co-chairs of PRERNI – Prof Indumathy Santhanam and Prof Jayashree Muralidharan, as well as the other PRERNI executive members (Dr Suresh Kumar Angurana, Dr Raghu Vanaki, Dr Bharat Choudhary and Dr Mounika Reddy).

We look forward to continued collaboration over the coming years!

 

The new PRERNI executive team

 

Elliot and Stuart discuss network specifics with the team

A number of new documents have been added to the Research Resources section of the PREDICT website.
Please take a look at this section of the website as there are some useful research tools and information available to download.

New resources include: 
Family Engagement resources
–  Recruitment advertisement template (can be adapted when you need to recruit consumer advisors)
–  Training meeting agenda example (example agenda of what you might include in training for consumer advisors)
–  Evaluation form, PIERS and PEET surveys (examples of evaluation questions for clinicians and consumer advisors working together)

Study Workload Measurement 
– This tool is designed to help estimate the workload of new research projects. We will be asking lead PIs to complete this for new projects so that it can be sent out with a request for an expression of interest from sites to participate in the study. 

Expression of Interest – Survey Example AND Expression of Interest – Project Example.
– These are templates for lead PIs to draft an Expression of Interest email inviting sites to participate in PREDICT endorsed surveys or projects.  (This email would be sent out by the PREDICT network coordinator). 

Expression of Interest – REDcap – Survey AND Expression of Interest – REDcap – Project.
– These are examples of mini REDcap databases that can be used to collect the response from sites that wish to express interest for their site to participate in a PREDICT endorsed survey or project. 

 

Sustaining improvements in the management of infants with bronchiolitis – a PREDICT study

Co-ordinating PI

Emma Tavender/Sandy Middleton/Stuart Dalziel/ Ed Oakley

Study Co-ordinator

Emma Tavender/Tory Ramsden (PhD student)

Aim/s:

The aim of this study is to:

1. determine if the use of targeted interventions from the PREDICT Bronchiolitis KT Study have been effective at sustaining improvements in evidence-based practices in Australasian paediatric acute care settings one and two years after completion of the trial at intervention group hospitals (n=13);
2. determine if there are any improvements in control group hospitals (n=13);
3. understand the factors which influenced the sustainability of improvements in intervention group hospitals and;
4. explore factors which may have contributed to improvements at control group hospitals.

Study design:

A mixed-methods study design: retrospective medical record audit (approximately 150 infants per site for the years 2018 and 2019) and qualitative semi-structured individual or group interviews (3-5 individuals per site).

Primary outcomes:

• Outcomes: medical record audit:
  The proportion of infants presenting with bronchiolitis to intervention and control group hospitals, who received care that adhered with five inappropriate therapies (chest X-ray, salbutamol, glucocorticoids, antibiotics, and adrenaline) one year (2018) and two years (2019) following delivery of an intervention designed to promote evidence-based practice adherence (composite of all five practices).
• Outcomes: Qualitative interviews:
  Factors that contributed to sustainability of improvements of evidence-based practice adherence at intervention group hospitals four years post-implementation; Factors that contributed to improvements/deterioration of evidence-based practice adherence at control group hospitals four years post-implementation; Fidelity and adaptation to the PREDICT Bronchiolitis KT Study implementation strategy at intervention and control group hospitals four years following intervention delivery (2018, 2019, 2020, 2021) (Control group hospitals received the intervention materials post trial completion).

Current status:

• 16 Australian and 6 New Zealand sites recruited. All sites have completed governance and commenced the study. Medical Record Audit data collection has been completed at all 21 sites. Qualitative interviews are now completed at all 12 Australian and New Zealand intervention hospitals.
• Conducting preliminary data analysis.

Publication:

Ramsden, V., Babl, F.E., Dalziel, S.R. et al. Sustainability of evidence-based practices in the management of infants with bronchiolitis in hospital settings – a PREDICT study protocol. BMC Health Serv Res 22, 1099 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-022-08450-z.

 

Our “Getting to Know You” segment ensures PREDICT members are aware of new members, their interests and areas of expertise and where they are located.

This month we introduce Kate Loveys, Research Fellow from the University of Auckland.

“I am a Research Fellow at the Department of Paediatrics: Child and Youth Health at the University of Auckland School of Medicine in Auckland, New Zealand, where I work with Prof Stuart Dalziel and Dr Libby Haskell. I am also a Consultant for the World Health Organization (Department of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Ageing). In my Research Fellow role, I am supporting the development of PREDICT’s Australasian bronchiolitis guideline update through performing evidence syntheses and appraisals, and running a qualitative study with families of children who were hospitalised for bronchiolitis. My PhD is in Health Psychology and I have a background in evidence synthesis, guideline development, and digital health research involving quantitative and qualitative methodologies.”

Welcome to PREDICT Kate!

 

 

 

 

 

PREDICT has been awarded a $3.8 million Rapid Applied Research Translation (RART) grant to spearhead a nation-wide project to boost healthcare and research across regional and rural Australia – with a focus on bronchiolitis. Bronchiolitis is an acute lung disease caused by viral infections and the most common reason for hospital admissions in infants.

This study will bring together clinicians and researchers across craft groups and specialties from nursing, paediatrics, general practice, emergency, and intensive care to improve bronchiolitis care and build national capacity in research, implementation of research evidence and innovation.  Thirty different hospitals from rural, regional and urban areas will be involved.

Ultimately, the aim is to ensure that no matter where a young child is in Australia, they are able to receive the best possible care for acute illnesses.