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The Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN): rationale, development, and first steps
Insights
Pediatric emergency care research faces challenges due to low incidence rates and diverse populations. The Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) was established to overcome these barriers and improve care.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Emergency Medicine
- Emergency Medical Services for Children (EMSC)
Background:
- Pediatric emergency medicine has advanced but lacks sufficient research data to guide practice across out-of-hospital, emergency department, and hospital settings.
- Existing research faces barriers including low incidence of critical pediatric events, need for large, diverse patient samples, and lack of infrastructure for efficacy testing and results translation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To establish a national research infrastructure to address critical data gaps in pediatric emergency medical services for children (EMSC).
- To create a collaborative platform for research spanning the entire continuum of pediatric emergency care.
Main Methods:
- The establishment of the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) in October 2001.
- Utilizing cooperative agreement grants funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration to build a national research network.
Main Results:
- PECARN is the first federally funded national network dedicated to EMSC research.
- The network aims to overcome inherent barriers to EMSC research through collaborative efforts.
Conclusions:
- A national collaborative research network is essential for advancing pediatric emergency care.
- PECARN provides a platform to address research needs and translate findings into improved clinical practice for 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, 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 of 2001. PECARN is the first federally funded national network for research in EMSC and is the result of cooperative agreement grants funded through the Health Resources and Services Administration with the purpose of developing an infrastructure capable of overcoming inherent barriers to 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.