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The Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN): rationale, development, and first steps
Insights
Pediatric emergency medicine research faces data gaps. The Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) was established to build infrastructure and overcome barriers to improve pediatric emergency medical services for children (EMSC).
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Emergency Medicine
- Emergency Medical Services for Children (EMSC)
- Health Services Research
Background:
- Pediatric emergency medicine has advanced but lacks sufficient research data to guide clinical practice.
- Existing challenges in pediatric emergency medical services for children (EMSC) include low incidence of critical events and difficulties in forming representative study samples.
- A need exists for a robust infrastructure to test pediatric emergency care efficacy and translate research findings into practice.
Purpose of the Study:
- To describe the establishment and purpose of the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN).
- To outline PECARN's role in addressing barriers to pediatric emergency medical services for children (EMSC) research.
- To detail the organizational structure and future work plan of this national research network.
Main Methods:
- Established the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) through cooperative agreement grants.
- Focused on developing a national infrastructure to support collaborative research across the continuum of pediatric emergency care.
- Aimed to overcome specific research barriers including event rarity and sample representativeness.
Main Results:
- PECARN was created in October 2001 as the first federally funded national network for emergency medical services for children (EMSC) research.
- The network provides a platform for collaborative research from out-of-hospital care through hospital settings and rehabilitation.
- It addresses critical needs for data to guide practice in pediatric emergency care.
Conclusions:
- The Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) is a vital national resource for advancing pediatric emergency medicine.
- It aims to improve the quality and quantity of research in emergency medical services for children (EMSC).
- PECARN will facilitate the translation of research findings into improved clinical practice for critically ill and injured children.
Abstract:
Since its formal recognition as a medical specialty, the field of pediatric emergency medicine has made substantial advances with respect to its scope and sophistication. These advances have occurred in clinical practice as well as in the research base to improve clinical practice. There remain, however, many areas in emergency medical services for children (EMSC), in the out-of-hospital as well as the emergency department (ED) and hospital settings, that suffer from a lack of data to guide practice. In an effort to expand the quality and quantity of research in pediatric emergency care, the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) was created in October 2001. PECARN is the first federally funded national network for research in EMSC. PECARN is the result of Cooperative Agreement grants funded through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) with the purpose of developing an infrastructure capable of overcoming inherent barriers to pediatric EMSC research. Among these recognized barriers are low incidence rates of serious pediatric emergency events, the need for large numbers of children from varied backgrounds to achieve broadly representative study samples, lack of an infrastructure to test the efficacy of pediatric emergency care, and the need for a mechanism to translate study results into clinical practice. PECARN will serve as a national platform for collaborative research involving the continuum of care within the EMSC system, including out-of-hospital care, patient transport, ED and in-hospital care, and rehabilitation. This article describes the history of EMSC, the need for a national collaborative research network in EMSC, the organization and development of PECARN, and the work plan for the Network.
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