Author: Marian Chandler

The PREDICT members meeting will be held on Wednesday 20^th October 2021 online via Zoom from 11.00am – 2.00pm (AEST).

Due to time constraints this year, presentations will be very focused and not all projects presented. Written reports on the status of all PREDICT projects and the relevant project contact, will be made available to all members. An agenda will be forwarded closer to the date.

An outlook invitation has been sent to all PREDICT members which contains the Zoom link to join the meeting.  All you need to do is to accept the invitation.

We hope you can join us on the day.

Questions?

Please contact Catherine.wilson@mcri.edu.au

 

Huge congratulations to PREDICT PhD candidate Elyssia Bourke for being awarded the Buchanan Prize by the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM) for top performing candidate in the 2021 Fellowship Clinical Examination (OSCE).

These awards don’t come easily and this is testament to Elyssia’s hard work and dedication and “never give up” attitude.

Well done Elyssia.

 

Congratulations to the following authors:

Eapen N, Kochar A, Lyttle MD, Phillips N, Cheek JA, Furyk J, Neutze J, Bressan S, Williams A, Hearps S, Oakley E, Dalziel SR, Borland ML, Babl FE; Paediatric Research in Emergency Departments International Collaborative (PREDICT). Seizure- and syncope-related head injuries in children: A prospective PREDICT cohort study. Emerg Med Australas. 2021 Jun 8. doi: 10.1111/1742-6723.13812. Online ahead of print. PMID: 34105253.

Klassen T, Dalziel SR, Babl FE, Benito J, Bressan S, Chamberlain J, Chang TP, Freedman SB, Kohn-Loncarica G, Lyttle MD, Mintegi S, Mistry RD, Nigrovic LE, Oostenbrink R, Plint AC, Rino P, Roland D, Van De Mosselaer G, Kuppermann. The Pediatric Emergency Research Network: A Decade of Global Research Cooperation in Pediatric Emergency Care. Emerg Care. 2021 Jun 3. doi: 10.1097/PEC.0000000000002466. Online ahead of print.PMID: 34091572.

 

 

 

 

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 Katie Reeves from QCH.  Welcome to PREDICT Katie.

“Hi everyone, I’m one of many Katies that work at the Queensland Children’s Hospital Emergency Department in sunny Queensland.  When it comes to research I am a complete novice, but I’m an enthusiastic learner and improving my research skills is something I’m really focusing on for the next few years. I have joined PREDICT to be a part of the work with the Australian and New Zealand Airway Registry, and am also currently working on a qualitative study to evaluate our ED Clinical Event Debriefing Program. I otherwise am a keen traveller, an AFL lover (Go Lions!), an avid music fan, and a doting aunty.

I’m looking forward to being a part of PREDICT and the opportunities it provides.”

Due to the current lockdown in Victoria and the likely hangover in terms of subsequent travel restrictions, we have reluctantly decided to cancel our research training event in June.

However, we would ask you to keep the mornings for both days open for now please as we are planning to do virtual intro sessions for each of the studies.

We still aim to have a fly in day for RAs at a later time and thank everyone for their ongoing support.

If you have any questions please contact either Marian or Amanda.

Marian Chandler
marian.chandler@mcri.edu.au

or

Amanda Williams
Amanda.williams@rch.org.au

 

Observational study of COVID-19 Infections: Clinical Characteristics and Outcomes at PREDICT Sites

Aim:
Describe clinical features and outcomes of patients < 18 years who tested positive with COVID-19 and presented to hospitals across Australia in the PREDICT network.

Design:
A multicentre retrospective study involving data extraction from medical records.

Recruitment:

• Sites – 16 hospitals in 5 Australian states
• Cases – Total of 393 SARS-CoV-2 positive children were reported across the 16 sites between February 3 to 30th September 2020. Cases presented to hospital respiratory clinics or ED.
• These cases generated 426 hospital presentations.

Current Status:

• All study data has been entered, cleaned and analysed.
• Publication has been submitted.
• Outcomes will be reported soon.

 

Congratulations to the following authors:

Bourke EM, Say DF, Carison A, Hill A, Craig S, Hiscock H, Babl FE, O’Donnell SM. Emergency mental health presentations in children with autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. J Paediatr Child Health. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1111/jpc/15535.

 

 

Trans-nasal Humidified Rapid- Insufflation Ventilatory Exchange in Children Requiring Emergent Intubation

Aim
The aim of this study is to assess the effect of THRIVE as a method for prolonging apnoeic oxygenation during the emergency intubation of children to reduce the proportion adverse events (specifically, oxygen desaturation) and increase the proportion of first attempt success for endotracheal intubation.

Recruitment stats as @ 22/4/20

• Study commenced 09/05/2021
• Sample size: 960
• Current Overall Enrolment Total: 674

Sites currently recruiting as @ 22/4/20

• Queensland Children’s Hospital – ED & PICU
• Children’s Hospital at Westmead – PICU
• Gold Coast University Hospital – ED & PICU
• Monash Children’s Hospital – ED & PICU
• Perth Children’s Hospital – PICU
• Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne – PICU & NICU
• Townsville Hospital – ED & PICU
• Women’s and Children’s Hospital PICU

Planned to start recruitment in 2021

• Planned to start recruitment in 2021
• BC Children’s Hospital Vancouver – PICU
• University Children’s Hospital Zurich – PICU

News:
1,780 children have been screen for inclusion into the KIDS THRIVE study and to date 674 have been randomised and consented. Of the enrolled children approximately 12% have been intubated in the ED, 81% in the PICU and 7% in the NICU. This study has been approved for consent to continue (delayed consent) due to the emergent nature of intubations. In 2020 a systematic, prioritized, risk-based approach to monitoring the KIDS THRIVE project was undertaken and centralised in depth source documentation verification and monitoring of the trial has now commenced.

The Kids THRIVE Trial Steering Committee (TSC) had complex discussions in March 2020 regarding the unfolding COVID-19 health crisis and the unique nature of the coronavirus infection and disease in children and recommended the study not be paused and that sites be allowed to develop their own local plan on how to manage the recruitment of patients. In order to support sites the protocol was amended to allow for verbal consent to be obtained by the research staff.

The KIDS THRIVE study received initial seed funding from the Emergency Medicine Foundation, and additional funding from the Thrasher Research Fund and the National Health and Medical Research Council.

 

A number of multicentre studies will commence with the PREDICT network over the next few months.  These studies include PROMPT Bolus, SONIC, PeaChY O and CHOICE UTI.  In order for sites to be educated on all studies, we are planning a PI/ Research Nurse education session at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne on Monday 21st and Tuesday 22nd June 2021.

We invite all PI’s and research nurses to fly to Melbourne to attend this training.  We have run similar education days in the past and they have been extremely successful, both for the research nurses recruiting for the studies and the PI’s overseeing the local sites. We highly recommend that you attend. We will cover all study related topics including governance applications, study oversight, in depth study specific education, databases, legal contracts, GCP and recruitment.

Accommodation and flights will be covered by study budgets and organised by PREDICT administration assistant, Marian Chandler.

Please save these dates in your diaries.  Further information, including the process for booking flights and accommodation, will be emailed in coming weeks.

 

 

 

 

PEAChY-0: Pharmacological Emergency management of Agitation in Children and Young people – A randomised controlled trial of Oral medication

Trial Design:
Pragmatic, open-label, multi-centre, phase III superiority, randomised controlled trial (RCT).

Aim:
To determine in children and adolescents aged ≥7 years to <18 years with acute severe behavioural disturbance (ASBD) whether oral olanzapine is more effective than oral diazepam at achieving successful sedation at 30 minutes, without the requirement of additional medication or the presence of medication related adverse events. The Sedation Assessment Tool (SAT) will be used to score sedation and agitation levels – a SAT of ≤0 will be considered “successful sedation”.

Setting & Target:
7 PREDICT paediatric ED sites in Australia. A total of 348 participants will be recruited.

• Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne – HREC approval obtained 5th March. Recruitment to commence on 1st June, 2021
• Monash Medical Centre
• Perth Children’s Hospital
• Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Adelaide
• Children’s Hospital at Westmead
• Gold Coast University Hospital
• Queensland Children’s Hospital

Status:
RCH Ethics approved. RCH Ethics amendment approval pending. Local governance applications at all sites will commence shortly after approval obtained. Anticipated commencement date at lead site (RCH) June 1st, 2021.

Update: The PEAChY-M: Pharmacological Emergency management of Agitation in Children and Young people – A randomised controlled trial of intraMuscular medication trial protocol has been distributed for review by the steering committee members. It will be submitted to RCH HREC in May.