Research / Projects

Long Term Ventilation study by researchers in Bristol

The charity "Breathe-on UK" was set up several years ago with the aim of improving the health and care of children and young people up to the age of 22 years who receive long-term ventilatory assistance – in home or on hospital. In December 2010 the Charity was awarded a grant by the Department of Health (DH) to develop PROMs (Patient Related Outcome Measures) relating to the nature and quality of the care children and families on long term ventilation receive. Once developed there is scope for these to be disseminated more widely, measuring quality from the patients and their families perspective. DH is supportive of this work, particularly in the current economic climate as it will help to drive improvements in care.

I have been working with "Breathe-On UK" to help develop a Questionnaire that can be used to collect this information. The information is to be collected and anonymised by the Charity via its website, and in the subsequent analysis of the data collected the Charity will be assisted by our research group in Bristol.  We will not be provided with any patient or clinician identifiable information.  The results of this study will be reported to the DH, and submitted for publication in a peer-review journal.Should you wish to look at the website please go to:http://www.breatheon.org.uk/
Professor Peter J Fleming, Centre for Child and Adolescent Health, School of Social and Community Medicine Level D, St Michaels Hospital, Southwell St, Bristol BS2 8EG. 0117 342 5144 (University) 0117 342 5062 (Hospital)

New Retrievals Dataset

In collaboration with Allan Wardaugh (Cardiff PICU) a prototype will be launched shortly. This is a new development which will give us evidence on standards of retrieval across PICU - see proposal for more details.

The South West Audit for Criticall Ill Children (SWACIC)

The latest SWACIC Annual Report is now available to view

or view the latest SWACIC Newsletter

CHiP Trial

CHiP is a major clinical trial examining the effect of tight glycaemic control on outcome in critically ill children admitted to paediatric intensive care. The chief investigator is Dr Duncan Macrae, Director of the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit at the Royal Brompton Hospital. The trial is being conducted in 10 major paediatric intensive care units in collaboration with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. PICANet are represented on the Project Management Group and are actively involved in enabling efficient data collection. Final results are expected to be published mid 2012.
Further details can be found at: http://www.hta.ac.uk/project/1533.asp.

The trial website can be found at http://www.chip-trial.org.uk

The protocol from this trial has been published and can be viewed on the BMC Pediatrics website.

UK PICU Staffing Survey - A study of occupancy & nursing
and medical staffing provision

The annual staffing study facilitates the monitoring and analysing of staffing levels within PICUs.
Information is collected on the nursing and medical establishment, other professionals working on PICU, and also details of staffing
levels at four specific ‘snapshot’ time periods during one week each year. The most recent data collection took place during the week commencing November 8th 2010. Information is presented in the PICANet annual report.
For additional information contact Caroline Lamming

Consent Study

Within the NHS, the Data Protection Act requires patients’ consent for the disclosure of patient-identifiable information for purposes not directly related to treatment, including external clinical audit.

In 2002/3, under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2001 for England and Wales the independent statutory Patient Information Advisory Group (PIAG) granted PICANet temporary support for the collection of patient-identifiable data without consent, on the condition that the viability of taking consent was assessed.

PICANet undertook a study of the feasibility of obtaining signed consent for submission of patient-identifiable information to our national clinical audit aiming to identify factors influencing the consent process and its success. The study has been published in the British Medical Journal or view a summary of the paper.

Refractive Convulsive Status Epilepticus (RCSE Study)

PICANet are coordinating the collection of data for this important study, funded by the Epilepsy Research Foundation, into the incidence, aetiology, treatment and outcome of children admitted to PICU in refractory convulsive status epilepticus. The study is running from January 1st 2008 – December 31st 2009 in conjunction with Richard Appleton and Tim Maitland, Consultant Paediatric Neurologists, Alder Hey Children’s Hospital and Manchester Children’s Hospital respectively.

Twenty-one units initially agreed to take part. However we would welcome any additional units who are interested in participating. We expect that individual units will only admit a small number of children who fulfil the inclusion criteria for the study therefore in order to collect the total numbers of cases required we need to recruit cases from as many units as possible.

A single questionnaire requires completion, for all admitted children fulfilling the study criteria and the data can be extracted retrospectively from the medical records so there is still time to become involved.  Each participating PICU will receive £25.00 per child for whom a completed questionnaire is returned to the PICANet Leicester office. Contact Caroline Lamming for further information.

Acute Respiratory Failure Audit (ARF)

Data collection is underway for admissions between 01/11/2010 - 31/01/2011

CATheter Infections in CHildren (CATCH)

The CATCH trial is a three-arm randomised controlled clinical trial examining the effect of using either heparin coated, antibiotic impregnated or standard central venous catheters on catheter related infections. More information can be found at: http://www.hta.ac.uk/1867.