Author: Marian Chandler

Congratulations to the following PREDICT authors:

Long E, Borland ML, George S, Jani S, Tan E, Neutze J, Phillips N, Kochar A, Craig S, Lithgow A, Rao A, Dalziel S, Oakley E, Hearps S, Singh S, Gelbart B, McNab S, Balamuth F, Weiss S, Kuppermann N, Williams A, Babl FE; Paediatric Research In Emergency Departments International Collaborative (PREDICT); Children’s Inpatient Research Collaborative of Australia and New Zealand (CIRCAN). Sepsis epidemiology in Australian and New Zealand children (SENTINEL): protocol for a multicountry prospective observational study. BMJ Open. 2024 Jan 12;14(1):e077471. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2023-077471. PMID: 38216206.

Robertson T, Borland ML, O’Brien S, Haskell L, Babl FE, Dalziel SR, Tavender E. Understanding the uptake and adaption of targeted implementation interventions for reducing bronchiolitis investigations and therapies. Acta Paediatr. 2024 Jan 8. doi: 10.1111/apa.17090. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 38189212.

Craig S, Collings M, Gray C, Benito J, Velasco R, Lyttle MD, Roland D, Schuh S, Shihabuddin B, Kwok M, Mahajan P, Johnson M, Zorc J, Khanna K, Fernandes R, Yock-Corrales A, Santhanam I, Cheema B, Ong GY, Jaiganesh T, Powell C, Nixon G, Dalziel S, Babl FE, Graudins A. Analysis of guideline recommendations for treatment of asthma exacerbations in children: a Pediatric Emergency Research Networks (PERN) study. Arch Dis Child. 2024 Feb 7:archdischild-2023-326739. doi: 10.1136/archdischild-2023-326739. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 38325912.

Sasse R, Borland ML, George S, Jani S, Tan E, Neutze J, Phillips N, Kochar A, Craig S, Lithgow A, Rao A, Dalziel SR, Williams A, Babl FE, Went G, Long E; Paediatric Research in Emergency Departments International Collaborative (PREDICT) Network. Appraisal of Australian and New Zealand paediatric sepsis guidelines. Emerg Med Australas. 2024 Feb 25. doi: 10.1111/1742-6723.14381. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 38403429.

A series of online research education sessions will be held bi-monthly throughout 2024.  All PREDICT members are invited to attend, however sessions will be recorded and uploaded to the PREDICT website if you want to tune in later.

The first session is scheduled for 7th March from 11am-12noon (AEDT) with calendar invites emailed shortly.  Topics to be covered in our inaugural session are different types of research designs and consumer involvement.  See timetable for further details.

Dates for the remaining sessions for 2024 are still to be confirmed with sessions running between one to two hours depending on the content. See timetable here.

 

 

 

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 Valerie Astle from Perth Children’s Hospital.

“I’m a FACEM PEM at Perth Children’s Hospital. I sit at the desk next to Prof Meredith Borland and so it is hard not to become enveloped in the world of research. I joined PREDICT out of interest in research and because I sit on the ACEM national PEM network and the WA PEM network committees and would like to be able to inform the members about the latest research paper results.”

Welcome to PREDICT Val!

 

 

 

 

 

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 Weihao Lee from Perth Children’s Hospital.

“I’m a paediatric Advanced Trainee currently working at Perth Children’s Hospital, the sole tertiary paediatric hospital in Western Australia. I am interested in paediatric emergency medicine and clinical research, and am one of the investigators on the Study of Paediatric Appendicitis Scores and Management Strategies (SPASMS) looking at clinical prediction scores in paediatric appendicitis for which I am currently undertaking a PhD at the University of Western Australia under the supervision of Professor Meredith Borland. I am also currently involved in research looking at child protection referrals and the use of injury proformas in ED in my role as the Child Protection Unit fellow.”

Welcome to PREDICT Weihao!

 

 

 

 

 

Current PREDICT members recently received an email with a link to the members database, where they will be asked to review and update their existing information. Details previously completed will appear in the form so you are only required to check the information and update if necessary. We are allowing 6 weeks to complete the form with the final date for completion being 29/02/24. The process takes approximately 2 minutes and we will send you a weekly reminder.

Once the form is submitted, your membership is automatically renewed and valid until February 2026.

If the form is not completed by the deadline, we will assume that you no longer wish to remain a member and will remove you from our contact list.

We ask that you respond promptly to ensure your membership data remains current.

Congratulations to the following PREDICT authors:

Craig S, Xu Y, Robas K, Iramain R, Yock-Corrales A, Soto-Martinez ME, Rino P, Belen Alvarez Ricciardi M, Piantanida S, Mahant S, Ubuane PO, Odusote O, Kwok M, Johnson MD, Paniagua N, Benito Fernandez J, Ong GY, Lyttle MD, Gong J, Roland D, Dalziel SR, Nixon GM, Powell CVE, Graudins A, Babl FE; Pediatric Emergency Research Networks (PERN). Core outcomes and factors influencing the experience of care for children with severe acute exacerbations of asthma: a qualitative study. BMJ Open Respir Res. 2023 Nov;10(1):e001723. doi: 10.1136/bmjresp-2023-001723. PMID: 37968074; PMCID: PMC10661079.

Babl FE, Eapen N, Herd D, Borland ML, Kochar A, Lawton B, Hort J, West A, George S, Davidson A, Cheek JA, Oakley E, Hopper SM, Berkowitz RG, Wilson CL, Williams A, MacKay MT, Lee KJ, Hearps S, Dalziel SR. Pain in children with Bell’s palsy: secondary analysis of a randomised controlled trial. Archives of Disease in Childhood. Published Online First: 02 December 2023. doi: 10.1136/archdischild-2023-325381

Babl FE, Herd D, Borland ML, Kochar A, Lawton B, Hort J, West A, George S, Oakley E, Wilson CL, Hopper SM, Cheek JA, Hearps S, Mackay MT, Dalziel SR, Lee KJ. Facial Function in Bell’s Palsy in a Cohort of Children Randomized to Prednisolone or Placebo 12 months after Diagnosis. Pediatric Neurology. Published online 2024 Jan 11. ISSN 0887-8994, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pediatrneurol.2024.01.011.

Crowe LM, Rausa VC, Anderson V, Borland ML, Kochar A, Lyttle MD, Gilhotra Y, Dalziel SR, Oakley E, Furyk J, Neutze J, Bressan S, Davis GA, Babl FE; Paediatric Research in Emergency Departments International Collaborative (PREDICT). Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Characteristics and Symptoms in Preschool Children: How Do They Differ to School Age Children? A Multicenter Prospective Observational Study. Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 2024 Jan;105(1):120-124. doi: 10.1016/j.apmr.2023.08.008. Epub 2023 Sep 14. PMID: 37715760. 

 

 

 

 

Congratulations to Dr Libby Haskell (Starship Children’s Hospital) and Dr Sharon O’Brien (Perth Children’s Hospital) for receiving the following awards:

DR LIBBY HASKELL
Best Presentation: College of Emergency Nurses NZ Conference (CENNZ), held in Christchurch 19 & 20 October 2023. 
Presentation title: “Can targeted interventions change clinicians beliefs in the treatment of infants with bronchiolitis?”

This abstract was submitted in 2020 with authors from the KT bronchiolitis study and PREDICT network. The conference was delayed repeatedly until this year (Libby presented the main KT bronchiolitis results at the 2019 CENNZ conference).
Libby tweaked the content a little so it was a full wrap up of the entire PREDICT KT bronchiolitis study, with the last piece of the puzzle being the results of the staff surveys “Can interventions change clinicians beliefs?”.

Libby at the conference dinner in the “Cardboard Cathedral” in Christchurch.

DR SHARON O’BRIEN
Best Nursing Presentation: 2023 Child Health Research Symposium, WA
Presentation title: “Evidence based management of infants with bronchiolitis – Why is it so hard?.”

The results of two publications – Prevalence of high flow nasal cannula therapy use for management of infants with bronchiolitis in Australia and New Zealand (JPCH 2022) and Factors influencing health professionals’ use of high-flow nasal cannula therapy for infants with bronchiolitis – A qualitative study (Frontiers in Paeds 2023), were presented.

Sharon with her nursing prize.

 

2023 has been a great year as we emerged from the pandemic and moved ahead with our research with renewed enthusiasm!   

It was the fourth year of our current 2020-2024 NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence (CRE) collaboration.  With the end in sight for this grant we submitted a proposal for another CRE grant and were delighted to be successful on the first pass.  The new CRE grant will commence in 2024 – 2028 and will support a new program of emergency research in the years to come.

Please join us to reflect on these and other outstanding achievements:

• PREDICT now has 221 members – in the past year we welcomed 34 new members.
• 58 hospitals across Australia and New Zealand have been actively involved in PREDICT research!
• Fifty-three clinical research staff from 23 sites across Australia, attended training for the CHOICE UTI, Mental Health Observational, FEBCON, SPASMS and Asthma prospective studies.  This event was held at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Melbourne on 24th and 25th July 2023.
• Four members of the PREDICT executive (Simon Craig, Stuart Dalziel, Elliot Long and Franz Babl) were invited to the EMCON2023 conference for the Society of Emergency Medicine in India in Hyderabad, where they ran a one-day workshop aiming to support the beginning of a multicentre PEM research network in India. This was well-received, and we plan to continue the collaboration with another visit in the first half of 2024.
• PREDICT has continued working actively with consumers in our research. Our mental health consumer group recruited for “The Kids are not Okay” program of research has been actively involved in the development and fine tuning of the Mental Health Delphi project, the PEACHY-O and M studies, and the Prospective Observational study.

  We have commenced a Head injury/Concussion Co-design project that involves parents, youths and clinicians working in partnership to develop discharge materials for children with mild head injury/concussion. Lots of valuable insight has been gained to date and draft materials recruited. Final testing of the co-designed resources for ED will take place in early 2024.

  Other consumer groups have been working with research teams to develop the FEBCon study, and to inform a number of grant applications (on topics including steroids in pre-school wheeze, recognition of clinical deterioration, asthma, and pain/distress associated with nasogastric tube insertion). We are currently asking consumers about priorities for future PEM emergency research.

• This year we have had 3 successful grants to the value of $2.8M.
• We continue our work on translating best practice in bronchiolitis care. We have published 3 studies this year relating to translation of the Bronchiolitis Guideline recommendations. Work is well underway to update the Australasian Bronchiolitis Guideline from 2016.  Teams are currently reviewing new evidence and the finalised guideline will be ready in 2024.
• The PEAChY-O study, the RCT to determine the most effective oral sedation for children presenting with acute severe behavioural disturbance, completed enrolment 12 months early (n=348)! Kids THRIVE – the RCT on high flow for intubation has completed enrolment (n=961).  SENTINEL (observational study to collect data characterising sepsis) study is now drawing to a close (n=>7,000). An amazing effort from all teams involved.
• We continue to undertake work collaboratively with the international PERN Pediatric Emergency Research Network) group on the PERN Asthma study (a global multicenter, retrospective Study). With PERC we continue to recruit in the BIPED study (Dexamethasone and Adrenaline for bronchiolitis) and our other international studies include the PROMPT Bolus Study (with PECARN (US) and PERC (Canada)).
• Currently, a significant number of large multicentre studies are ongoing in Australia and New Zealand, while others also involve international sites. These include SONIC (Study Of Neck Injury imaging in Children) also involving Singapore; CHOICE UTI (an RCT comparing a single IV dose of antibiotics to 3 days of IV antibiotics in children with complicated UTI);  PEAChY-M (RCT comparing droperidol and olanzapine for children with behavioural disturbance requiring IM sedation; PROMPT Bolus (an RCT comparing balanced vs normal saline fluid bolus for resuscitation in children with suspected septic shock); SENTINEL (a prospective observational study to collect data characterising sepsis) and the Australian and New Zealand ED Airway Registry (ANZEDAR).
• New studies that commenced recruiting this year were: the SPASMS project (on assessment of abdominal pain) which has commenced recruiting in WA with other sites to join soon; The Asthma prospective study “CASPAR” and the MH Prospective study are both about to commence. FEBCon will commence early next year along with PASSPORT and SENTINEL International.
• Our two committed teams undertaking Cochrane reviews continue to progress work on:
  “Triage tools for detecting cervical spine injury in paediatric trauma patients”
  “Parenteral medication for the management of acute severe behavioural disturbance (ASBD) in the emergency department.”
• Data analysis is complete and papers are underway for the Western Australia Bronchiolitis Knowledge Translation Adaptability study; PERN pneumonia; BellPIC and the Mental Health Delphi study.
• The PREDICT Executive reviewed and endorsed 6 new projects, many of which are now in various stages of development.
• We are mentoring 7 PhD scholars and congratulate 2 PhD students- Sharon O’Brien (Perth) and Sonia Singh (UC Davis/Melbourne) – who completed their PhD studies at the start of the year.
• Eighteen papers were published in various journals including: The Lancet, Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA); ACTA Paediatrica; Neurology; BMC Health Services Research; BMJ Open Respiratory Research; Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health; JMIR (Journal of Medical Internet Research) Human Factors; Emergency Medicine Journal; Arch Phys Med Rehabilitation; Medical Journal Australia and others!
• The annual PREDICT members meeting was held in November in Melbourne with a live and online audience of 61 members.  It was great to be able to see people again!

  Thank you to all members and collaborators for your contributions and support.

The annual PREDICT members meeting was held on Wednesday November 15th 2023 with 34 people attending in person in Melbourne at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and another 23-30 online at various stages of the meeting.  

The meeting included a range of informative presentations from the project leads covering projects now analysed, those in development and those that are currently active.  It was also a great opportunity to hear ideas for new research projects and to thrash these out with the membership. 

We also enjoyed hearing from guest speakers. Prof Tom Snelling, clinical scientist, Director of Health and Clinical Analytics in the School of Public Health at the University of Sydney, and an infectious diseases physician in the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network, presented on how AI can assist us in the management of serious infections in children. Prof Kate Lee, Group Leader and Senior Principal Research Fellow with the Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics Unit (CEBU) at the MCRI, also presented on adaptive platform and stepped wedge trial designs. 

The highlight of the afternoon however, was a research panel consisting of RAs from Royal Darwin Hospital, Starship Childrens, Perth Childrens and Women’s & Children’s Hospital, Adelaide discussing strategies to enhance recruitment and staff engagement in research.

We thank everyone who was involved (presenters, chairs, moderators and audience) and hope you enjoyed it.   

We look forward to another exciting year of collaborative research and another meeting in 2024! 

Four members of the PREDICT executive (Simon Craig, Stuart Dalziel, Elliot Long and Franz Babl) were invited to the EMCON2023 conference for the Society of Emergency Medicine in India in Hyderabad. PREDICT ran a one-day workshop aiming to support the beginning of multicentre research in India. This was well-received, and we plan to continue the collaboration with another visit in the first half of 2024.