Team resuscitation for paediatrics (TRAP); application and validation of a paediatric resuscitation quality instrument in non-simulated resuscitations.

Background: Resuscitation of paediatric cardiac and respiratory arrest is a high-stakes and low frequency event in the paediatric emergency department. Resuscitation team performance assessment tools have been developed and validated for use in the simulation environment, but no tool currently exists to evaluate clinical performance in non-simulated, live paediatric resuscitations.

Methods: This is a validation study assessing inter-rater reliability of a novel assessment tool of clinical performance of non-simulated resuscitations, the Team Resuscitation for Paediatrics tool.

Characterizing Point-of-Care Ultrasound Credentialing in Pediatric Emergency Departments.

Objective: It is unclear which pediatric emergency departments (PEDs) have a point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) credentialing process or if this process is consistent per expert guidelines. Our objective was to describe formalized POCUS credentialing processes across PEDs that are active in the pediatric emergency medicine POCUS (P2) Network.

Methods: A survey was developed from nationally recommended credentialing guidelines.

Point-of-care ultrasound needs assessment in a paediatric acute care setting in Malawi.

Objective: To describe the use of point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) in an acute-care paediatric setting in Malawi, including clinical indications, types of examinations and frequency of positive findings.

Methods: Retrospective, cross-sectional study of a convenience sample of POCUS examinations performed in one tertiary referral hospital in Lilongwe, Malawi over 1 year. POCUS examinations were performed by Paediatric Emergency Medicine physician consultants as part of routine clinical practice and at the request of local clinicians.

Diagnosing Acute Heart Failure in the Pediatric Emergency Department Using Point-of-Care Ultrasound.

Background: Acute heart failure (AHF) in children is associated with significant disease burden with high rates of morbidity, mortality, and resource utilization. These children often present to the emergency department with clinical features that mimic common childhood illnesses. Cardiac point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) can be an effective tool for rapidly identifying abnormal cardiac function.

A clinical decision rule for the use of ultrasound in children presenting with acute inflammatory neck masses.

Objective: To identify the association between clinical and ultrasound findings and surgical drainage in children with inflammatory neck masses and to create a clinical decision rule that allows for reduction of unnecessary use of ultrasound in inflammatory neck masses.

Materials And Methods: We reviewed data on patients ≤18 years who visited our emergency department between 2012 and 2014 with inflammatory neck swelling and who underwent ultrasound examinations of the neck. We used multivariate logistic regression to identify factors associated with drainage within 24 h of ultrasound study (early drainage).

Who is monitoring your infections: shouldn't you be?

Background: In the era of pay for performance and outcome comparisons among institutions, it is imperative to have reliable and accurate surveillance methodology for monitoring infectious complications. The current monitoring standard often involves a combination of prospective and retrospective analysis by trained infection control (IC) teams. We have developed a medical informatics application, the Surgical Intensive Care-Infection Registry (SIC-IR), to assist with infection surveillance.