A Comparison of Data Quality Assessment Checks in Six Data Sharing Networks.

Objective: To compare rule-based data quality (DQ) assessment approaches across multiple national clinical data sharing organizations.

Methods: Six organizations with established data quality assessment (DQA) programs provided documentation or source code describing current DQ checks. DQ checks were mapped to the categories within the data verification context of the harmonized DQA terminology.

Effect of Inhaled Nitric Oxide on Outcomes in Children With Acute Lung Injury: Propensity Matched Analysis From a Linked Database.

Objectives: To evaluate the effect of inhaled nitric oxide on outcomes in children with acute lung injury.

Design: Retrospective study with a secondary data analysis of linked data from two national databases. Propensity score matching was performed to adjust for potential confounding variables between patients who received at least 24 hours of inhaled nitric oxide (inhaled nitric oxide group) and those who did not receive inhaled nitric oxide (no inhaled nitric oxide group).

Report of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Working Group: An Integrated Network for Congenital Heart Disease Research.

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute convened a working group in January 2015 to explore issues related to an integrated data network for congenital heart disease research. The overall goal was to develop a common vision for how the rapidly increasing volumes of data captured across numerous sources can be managed, integrated, and analyzed to improve care and outcomes. This report summarizes the current landscape of congenital heart disease data, data integration methodologies used across other fields, key considerations for data integration models in congenital heart disease, and the short- and long-term vision and recommendations made by the working group.

Prolonged intravenous therapy versus early transition to oral antimicrobial therapy for acute osteomyelitis in children.

Objectives: Early transition from intravenous to oral antimicrobial therapy for acute osteomyelitis in children has been suggested as a safe and effective alternative to traditional prolonged intravenous therapy via central venous catheter, but no studies have directly compared these 2 treatment modalities. We sought to compare the effectiveness of early transition from intravenous to oral antimicrobial therapy versus prolonged intravenous antimicrobial therapy for the treatment of children with acute osteomyelitis.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of children aged 2 months to 17 years diagnosed with acute osteomyelitis between 2000 and 2005 at 29 freestanding children's hospitals in the United States to confirm the extent of variation in the use of early transition to oral therapy.

Off-label drug use in hospitalized children.

Objectives: To describe the magnitude of off-label drug use, to identify drugs most commonly used off-label, and to identify factors associated with off-label drug use in children hospitalized in the United States.

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Setting: Administrative database containing inpatient resource utilization data from January 1 to December 31, 2004, from 31 tertiary care pediatric hospitals in the United States.

Tailoring the Institute for Health Care Improvement 100,000 Lives Campaign to pediatric settings: the example of ventilator-associated pneumonia.

In December 2004, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement launched a campaign to save 100,000 lives by implementing evidence-based interventions in six areas, five of which are relevant to children. Working collaboratively, the Child Health Corporation of America, National Associate of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions, and National Initiative for Children's Health Care Quality provided a series of Web-enabled seminars on how the campaign initiatives might be adapted for pediatric settings. Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is an example of how interventions based on evidence in adult settings may need to be tailored in pediatric settings.

A retrospective cohort study of prognostic factors associated with outcome in pediatric severe sepsis: what is the role of steroids?

Objective: Systemic corticosteroids remain controversial in the treatment of pediatric patients with severe sepsis. Recent studies in septic adults have shown decreased mortality with the use of hydrocortisone in patients with relative adrenal insufficiency. We conducted this large retrospective cohort study to further characterize severe sepsis in infants and children and correlates of outcome, including the use of steroids.

Use of a large national database for comparative evaluation of the effect of a bronchiolitis/viral pneumonia clinical care guideline on patient outcome and resource utilization.

Objectives: To use a large national comparative database to measure the internal effect of a set of evidence-based bronchiolitis/viral pneumonia clinical care guidelines on clinical practice at a children's hospital, and to compare these changes with those at other children's hospitals.

Design: Prospective cohort study with retrospective and concurrent (other hospital) controls.

Setting: The Children's Hospital, Denver, Colo.