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Multidisciplinary aerodigestive program at a children's hospital: A protocol for a prospective observational study
Mireu Park1, Seung Kim2, Eunyoung Kim3
1Division of Allergy, Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Severance Hospital, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Insights
This study outlines a multidisciplinary aerodigestive program for children with complex chronic conditions. The program aims to improve patient outcomes through specialized, coordinated care for airway, breathing, feeding, swallowing, and growth issues.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Medicine
- Gastroenterology
- Pulmonology
Background:
- Children with complex chronic diseases often need care from multiple pediatric subspecialists.
- The aerodigestive program offers multidisciplinary diagnosis and treatment for multi-systemic issues affecting airway, breathing, feeding, swallowing, or growth.
- This study presents the protocol for a children's hospital aerodigestive program.
Purpose of the Study:
- To present the protocol of a pediatric aerodigestive program.
- To evaluate and compare objective and subjective patient improvements before and after the AeroDigestive Team (ADT) program.
Main Methods:
- Prospective study enrolling children aged 1 month to 18 years with complex airway, breathing, feeding, swallowing, or growth problems.
- Multi-specialist evaluation, monthly team meetings, therapeutic interventions, and 6-month follow-up.
- Outcome assessment included objective measures (medical/surgical interventions, condition changes) and subjective measures (caregiver interviews, questionnaires).
Main Results:
- The aerodigestive program protocol is detailed.
- The study design allows for evaluation of patient improvement through objective and subjective measures.
- Comprehensive, multidisciplinary management is anticipated for complex pediatric airway and digestive disorders.
Conclusions:
- The aerodigestive program is designed to offer comprehensive, multidisciplinary management.
- This protocol facilitates structured evaluation and treatment for pediatric patients with complex aerodigestive issues.
- The program aims to improve outcomes for children with chronic multisystemic diseases affecting airway and digestive functions.
Background:
Children with complex chronic multisystemic diseases frequently require care from multiple pediatric subspecialists. The aerodigestive program is a multidisciplinary program that diagnoses and treats pediatric patients with complex multi-systematic problems affecting airway, breathing, feeding, swallowing, or growth. The aim of this study is to present the protocol of the aerodigestive program of a children's hospital.
Methods And Design:
This study is a prospective study to evaluate and compare the overall improvement of patients' objective and subjective conditions before and after the AeroDigestive Team (ADT) program. Among children from 1 month to 18 years of age, patients with complex problems of the airway, breathing, feeding, swallowing, or growth meeting at least two parameters of the inclusion criteria were enrolled. The overall process included referral based on the inclusion criteria, enrollment of ADT program with informed consents, interview and questionnaire for assessing patients' medical condition, prescheduling appointment, multi-specialists' evaluation, monthly team meetings, wrap-up discussion with the patients and family, therapeutic intervention, and follow-up at 6 months with the assessment of outcome measures. The outcome was evaluated objectively and subjectively. The objective outcome measure was divided into surgical or medical intervention, assessment of changes in medical condition, and follow-up study. Both caregiver interviews and questionnaires using a scoring system were used as subjective outcome measures before and after the ADT program. Children were scheduled to be followed-up at 6 months after the interventions or ADT meeting.
Discussion:
The aerodigestive program is expected to provide comprehensive and multidisciplinary management of children with complex airway and digestive tract disorders.
