Author: Marian Chandler

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 Angie Nguyen Vu from EMF in Brisbane.  Welcome to PREDICT Angie.

“I’m Research Manager at the Emergency Medicine Foundation (EMF) based in Brisbane. EMF is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to funding innovative, evidence-based emergency medicine research. Since 2008, EMF has distributed $18m of funding to emergency medicine research projects, including to the Queensland sites of various PREDICT projects, e.g. APHIRST, Paris I and Paris II, Bells Palsy and SONIC.

Paediatric emergency medicine has long been a major focus of EMF funded research, and I look forward to hearing more about current and future PREDICT projects. EMF is also committed to research capacity building for all emergency healthcare clinicians. Please get in touch if you would like to find out more about EMF via email to angie.nguyenvu@emfoundation.org.au.”

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 Tim Robertson from Perth Children’s Hospital.  Welcome to PREDICT Tim.

“I am a paediatric registrar completing my training at the Perth Children’s Hospital in Western Australia. I have been very fortunate to spend a significant part of my training in the emergency department at PCH and as such, have become extremely interested in the ongoing research being completed by the PREDICT team. I have a keen interest in quality improvement, leading to myself becoming a part of the knowledge translation research team to help improve maintaining standards and optimizing best practice.”

We have a vacancy for a one year period initially (2022) for the Research Assistant position on the PREDICT Executive.
We are inviting nominations from Research Assistants across PREDICT who will then be selected by the existing Executive.

To be eligible,  you need to be an existing PREDICT member.
Nominations are open until 18^th of February 2022 at this stage (will be extended if needed).

If you wish to nominate yourself please email Catherine.wilson@mcri.edu.au, with the following details:

– Your title and name

– Your craft group and current position held

– The primary organisation you work with

– The state you are based in

– Please write a brief description of why you wish to be part of the PREDICT Executive and what skills you bring.

– Please attach a brief CV

Taking part in the PREDICT Executive involves:

• Attending approximately 13 meetings during the year via Zoom or potentially face to face for some meetings depending on the pandemic.  See current meeting schedule attached, we realise you may not be able to attend all meetings and the schedule may be updated during the year – depending on travel restrictions etc.
• Previewing the executive agenda then actively participating in meetings to give an independent opinion/ advice.
• Bringing issues of importance to the network, to the meeting agenda for discussion
• Reviewing and commenting on new studies when they are presented to the Executive
• Following up on actions deemed necessary at the meetings.
• Reviewing and commenting on issues via email / telephone in between meetings as required.
• Helping to develop and then reinforce PREDICT research guidelines and policy with members locally
• Maintaining confidentiality in relation to sensitive issues discussed
• Being involved with the PREDICT members meeting upon request

 

Please feel free to contact Catherine.wilson@mcri.edu.au if you have any questions or wish to discuss involvement in anyway (best to email me and we can set up a quick zoom!).

 

 

Study of Neck Injury Imaging in Children (SONIC): Improving the Diagnosis of Spinal Cord, Bone and Ligament Injuries

Many children sustain head and neck trauma during their lifetime. Significant neck injuries – to spinal cord, neck bones and connecting ligaments – can be identified by performing neck imaging with x-rays, or, if needed, computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging. Yet, it is unclear which children should receive neck imaging in the emergency department (ED), especially in the context of increasing concerns about radiation-induced cancer in children and the discomfort and delays of immobilisation prior to imaging.

This study aims to:

(i) investigate the accuracy of existing neck injury clinical decision rules (CDRs) to detect neck injuries in children (external validation) of adult focussed CDRs and the newly developed paediatric PECARN CDR
(ii) derive and validate a new CDR for neck imaging in children (the SONIC CDR),
(iii) assess the cost implications of different CDRs in children.
(iv) investigate the epidemiology of cervical spine injuries in ANZ.

Study details:

News:

Recruitment has commenced at 5 Australian sites (Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, Queensland Children’s Hospital, Perth Children’s Hospital, Perth, Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Adelaide and Darwin Hospital, NT, with over 300 patients enrolled.  Governance approvals are underway for the remaining 8 sites with hope to commence recruitment at these in the first half of 2022.

Dear PREDICT members,

We are pleased to let you know that a new video has been developed to accompany the PREDICT Australian and New Zealand Guideline for Mild to Moderate Head injuries in Children Algorithm, which outlines the key Imaging and Observation Decision-Making recommendations and how to use the algorithm in your clinical decision -making. It is now available to view on the PREDICT website at: https://www.predict.org.au/head-injury-guideline/dftb-education-modules/

This is in addition to the education modules developed by DFTB.

 

 

 

 

Congratulations to the following PREDICT authors:

Barrett MJ, Dalziel S, Lyttle M, O’Sullivan R and the Pedatric Emergency Research Networks (PERN). A bibliographic analysis of global pediatric emergency medicine research networks. Pediatric Emergency Care. Dec 2021.

 

 

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 Tim Robertson from Perth Children’s Hospital.  Welcome to PREDICT Tim.

“I am a paediatric registrar completing my training at the Perth Children’s Hospital in Western Australia. I have been very fortunate to spend a significant part of my training in the emergency department at PCH and as such, have become extremely interested in the ongoing research being completed by the PREDICT team. I have a keen interest in quality improvement, leading to myself becoming a part of the knowledge translation research team to help improve maintaining standards and optimizing best practice.”

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 Angie Nguyen Vu from EMF in Brisbane.  Welcome to PREDICT Angie.

“I’m Research Manager at the Emergency Medicine Foundation (EMF) based in Brisbane. EMF is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to funding innovative, evidence-based emergency medicine research. Since 2008, EMF has distributed $18m of funding to emergency medicine research projects, including to the Queensland sites of various PREDICT projects, e.g. APHIRST, Paris I and Paris II, Bells Palsy and SONIC.

Paediatric emergency medicine has long been a major focus of EMF funded research, and I look forward to hearing more about current and future PREDICT projects. EMF is also committed to research capacity building for all emergency healthcare clinicians. Please get in touch if you would like to find out more about EMF via email to angie.nguyenvu@emfoundation.org.au.”

 

 

 

Dear PREDICT members,

We are pleased to let you know that a new video has been developed to accompany the PREDICT Australian and New Zealand Guideline for Mild to Moderate Head injuries in Children Algorithm, which outlines the key Imaging and Observation Decision-Making recommendations and how to use the algorithm in your clinical decision -making. It is now available to view on the PREDICT website at: https://www.predict.org.au/head-injury-guideline/dftb-education-modules/

This is in addition to the education modules developed by DFTB.

 

 

 

 

2021 has been another unique and challenging year for everyone during the COVID 19 pandemic. Despite this, PREDICT research has continued to progress and there has still been significant work accomplished across our network. This year also marks the second year of our 2020-2024 NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence (CRE) collaboration which will continue to support a program of excellent research in the years to come.

Please join us in reflecting on these and other outstanding achievements:

• PREDICT now has 179 members – in the past year we welcomed 20 new members. This year a survey of members was undertaken to gain an understanding of how members perceive network activities deemed critical for network success and to determine how we can best meet the needs of PREDICT members in the future. Findings of the survey will inform future work next year.
• 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. The Perth Children’s Hospital ED consumers have been involved in our PROMPT Bolus and our Research Priorities studies. We are also about to commence a “Codesign” project that involves parents, youths and consumers working in partnership to develop discharge materials for children with mild head injury/concussion. Lots of valuable insight has been gained to date.
• 58 hospitals across Australia and New Zealand have been actively involved in PREDICT research!
• The Acute Head Injury Guidelines are completed and are available on our website! Supplementary materials, including a video on use of the head injury algorithm, and other education modules, are in development and will be available soon.
• A mRNA Vaccine Chest Pain guideline has been developed in collaboration with ATAGI (Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation), IMAC (Immunisation Advisory Centre NZ) and CSANZ (Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand) to support an approach to the initial assessment and workup of children and adolescents presenting to the ED with vaccine-related symptoms. This is available on our website now.
• 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”
• A number of new studies have commenced recruitment this year after significant preparatory work.  These include: The Sepsis Observational (SENTINEL) study, currently enrolling in Australia (5 sites). The PEACHY O and PEACHY M RCT studies which focus on the care of children with acute severe behavioural disturbance in the ED (7 sites).
• The Western Australia Adaptability study and the Bronchiolitis Sustainability study are now both underway and will contribute to our knowledge of implementation in the Emergency Department setting.
• Data analysis is complete and paper submitted for the BellPIC RCT. The PERN pneumonia and the PARIS II project data collections are complete and analysis is well underway!
• We continue to undertake work collaboratively with the international PERN Pediatric Emergency Research Network) group on the PERN COVID 19 project, the PERC BIPED study (Dexamethasone and Adrenalin for bronchiolitis), and the PAINT study (Pain Management and Sedation in Pediatric Ileocolic Intussusception: A Global, Multicenter, Retrospective Study).
• Other international studies include the PROMPT Bolus Study (US and Canada) and the SONIC study (Study of neck injuries in children: A prospective observational study to develop a new or validate existing international clinical decision rules for children presenting to the emergency department with suspected cervical spine injuries). Both of these studies are up and running – congratulations to the teams involved.
• The PREDICT Executive reviewed and endorsed 8 new projects, most of which are now in various stages of development.
• We continue to mentor 8 PhD scholars and one MD.
• Twenty-four papers were published in various Journals including JAMA Paediatrics, Archives of Disease in Childhood, Journal of Neurology, BMC Health Services Research, Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health, Emergency Medicine Journal, BMC Paediatrics, Medical Journal Australia and others!
• The annual PREDICT members meeting was held in October online via zoom and attended by 57 members.

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