Author: Marian Chandler

Aims:

Australian Paediatric Head Injury Rules Study: Assessing the gap prior to implementation (APHIRST Gap) aims are to i) determine the baseline CTB rate for a broad range of hospitals; ii) understand why there may be variations in CTB rates and iii) determine what resources are currently available and used by the ED community to inform their management of mild head injuries.

Site Enrolment:

APHIRST Gap currently has 32 sites recruited to the study, across Australia and New Zealand
(1 ACT, 6 NSW, 10 QLD, 2 SA, 6 VIC, 4 WA, 3 NZ).

Progress to date:

• 20/32 sites (VIC, NSW, WA, SA, ACT,NZ, QLD) have governance approvals
• Training of sites to extract and enter their data is underway
• 4 sites have completed data extraction (RCH, Tamworth, WCH Adelaide, Starship)
• 5 sites are well underway with data extraction
• A total of 740 records have been entered into REDcap
• Cleaning of extracted data has commenced
• 21 qualitative interviews have been completed

News:

The project was awarded a grant of $20,000 in December 2017 for Advancing Knowledge Translation and Research Impact from the Royal Children’s Hospital Foundation.

Thanks everyone for your continued effort!

….. Next month we feature PICNICC.

Given the relatively short period of time since our last PREDICT members meeting at the end of October 2017, the executive have decided to CANCEL the March members meeting that was scheduled for Friday 9^th of March 2018 in Melbourne.

We will hold the 1.5 day annual meeting (similar in format to our last meeting in October) later in the year.  It is hoped that this meeting will still be aligned with the Paediatric Acute Care Conference.

The date, time and location of this meeting is still to be confirmed.  We hope to be able to advise you of these details in early March via email as well as posting this information in the PREDICT newsletter and on the website under “events”.

In the meantime we will endeavour to keep you informed about our network activities and research progress via our monthly newsletter and website.

If you need assistance to communicate with membership groups or if you have any questions get in touch with either Cate or Marian.

 

Merry Christmas from PREDICT

2017 has been a big year for the network with lots of work coming to fruition and continued growth. Thank you to all members and collaborators for helping to bring about the following achievements:

• 80 members renewed their PREDICT membership and 5 new members were welcomed.  PREDICT membership now encompasses 35 different organisations
• Commenced working with 13 new sites in various regions of Australia and New Zealand
• The Emergency Medicine Foundation (EMF) and PREDICT presented the Acute Care and Research Translation Workshop in Brisbane.
• Collaborated with researchers from PICUs, Neurology, ENT, General Paediatrics, Neuropsychology and Respiratory Medicine
• Collaborated internationally with researchers from other paediatric emergency medicine networks – PERC, PECARN, PEM CRC, PERUKI, REPEM, PERN
• Continued to mentor 7 PREDICT research higher degree students with 2 students commenced.
• 10 successful grant applications
• Commenced the APHIRST-Gap, Asthma Retrospective, Kids Thrive, SEARCH and PARIS 2 studies!
• Completed recruitment for the ConSEPT study!
• 13 Journal publications and 20 conference presentations
• Held two well attended and stimulating members meetings in Gold Coast and Melbourne
• Dr Terry Klassen from Canada visited the network in Melbourne and Queensland
• Awarded a PREDICT prize at ACEM – won by Nitaa Eapen from Murdoch Children’s Research Institute for her study on “Clinically Important Traumatic Brian Injury in sport”.

The following PREDICT publication is now available:

Furyk J, McBain-Rigg K, Watt K, Emeto TI, Franklin RC, Franklin D, Schibler A, Dalziel SR, Babl FE, Wilson C, Phillips N, Ray R; Paediatric Research in Emergency Departments International Collaborative (PREDICT). Qualitative evaluation of a deferred consent process in paediatric emergency research: a PREDICT study. BMJ Open. 2017 Nov 15;7(11):e018562. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2017-018562.

 

Enrolment:

CONSEPT currently has 196 patients enrolled as at 15/11/2017 who were fitting at time of receiving first study drug.

Recruitment stats:

• 222 enrolled 196 fitting at time of receiving first study drug
• 232 excluded
• 1 refused
• 110 missed

Sites currently recruiting:

Site Name	Enrolled	Number fitting at time of receiving first study drug
Starship	25	23
Kidz First	24	21
Waikato	2	2
Perth	39	33
MMC	19	15
Lasy Cilento	23	21
Townsville	8	8
Goldcoast	11	10
WCHA	22	14
SCH	6	6
Westmead	5	5
John Hunter	2	2
RCHM	38	36
TOTAL	222	194

 

News:

ConSEPT study is progressing well and is very close to completion with only four participants (fitting at time of receiving study medication) required at the date of this report. Each site will be notified as participants are enrolled.

 

 

 

 

 

There was great energy at the recent PREDICT executive and members meetings held at the Marriott Resort on the Gold Coast.  The meeting presented a great opportunity for our members to come together in a relaxed atmosphere to present current projects and network amongst colleagues.  Some also managed to stay on for the PAC 2017.  Our international guest was Dr Terry Klassen from the Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba (CHRIM) and his partner Grace.  The photos show our members at work and play – enjoying the members dinner at Hurricane’s Bar and Grill.  Minutes and presentations will be available on the PREDICT website in the coming weeks.

The following PREDICT executive positions for 2018 have been decided and are as follows:

• PhD scholar: Elliot Long
• Research Assistant: Kelly Foster

Thanks to all for nominations received.

The following poster abstracts were presented by Natalie Phillips at ACEM 2016:

Phillips N, Abel K, Rasmussen K, Acworth J, Brady R, Walsh M, Askin G. Clinical characteristics of children assessed for possible cervical spine injury.(2017) Poster Abstracts. Emergency Medicine Australasia, 29: 45–69. doi:10.1111/1742-6723.12789

Phillips N, Abel K, Rasmussen K, Acworth J, Brady R, Walsh M, Askin G. Imaging rates in children assessed for possible cervical spine injury.(2017) Poster Abstracts. Emergency Medicine Australasia, 29: 45–69. doi:10.1111/1742-6723.12789

Predicting Infectious ComplicatioNs in Children with Cancer (PICNICC) Project 

Recruitment stats:

• >1139 screened for PICNICC FN eligibility.
• 501 enrolled for Objective 1 – Febrile Neutropenia Episode Audit.
• 21 complete (Day 1 and Day 2) bloods samples, Objective 2 – LCCH and RCH ONLY, with an additional 25 Day 1 only samples.
• 132 contributions to Objective 3 – Quality of Life surveys.

Sites currently recruiting:

• RCH, Melbourne – 286 recruited (commenced October 2016)
• JHCH, Newcastle – 30 recruited (commenced November 2016)
• LCCH, Brisbane – 120 recruited (commenced March 2017)
• MCH, Melbourne – 21 recruited (commenced May 2017)
• SCHN, Randwick – 21 recruited (commenced May 2017)
• WCHN, Adelaide – 23 recruited (commenced June 2017)

Sites soon to commence:

• SCHN, Westmead – to commence recruitment September 2017
• PMH, Perth – to commence recruitment October 2017

No significant issues with processes, eCRF, or site recruitment.

News:

Very excited to have all eight sites recruiting for PICNICC as of October 2017, training completed with new site Research Nurses. Projected PICNICC recruitment on track to be completed by January 2018. Objective 2 blood sampling remains gradual, however samples are still being obtained. Modification to eCRF approved and circulated to all sites and annual report submitted with ongoing ethics approval. Investigating methods to improve Quality of Life survey completion across all sites.

All PREDICT 2018 meetings dates for executive and members meetings are now available on the resources page of the website and calendar invites have been sent.  Please accept these invites, even if you are not certain of your availability at this stage.  You can always decline closer to the meeting.  This way the meetings are in your calendar for the full 12 month period.