Paediatric Critical Care

Contact

Dr Simon Erickson | Paediatric Critical Care Consultant

Simon.Erickson@health.wa.gov.au

PCH.PCCResearchTeam@health.wa.gov.au

Departmental overview

Paediatric Critical Care (PCC) at Perth Children’s Hospital is a multipurpose Intensive Care / High Dependency Unit that offers a statewide service for critically ill infants, children and young people. With the only tertiary level Paediatric Intensive Care Unit in Western Australia, PCC is a leading centre for teaching and research in Paediatric Intensive Care Medicine.

In collaboration with local and international partners, PCC actively participates in world-class research projects aimed at improving healthcare outcomes among the critically ill paediatric population.

Research projects (active)

Nitric Oxide Study Follow up

The NITRIC Follow-up Study is a multicentre study which aims to find out more about surgery and recovery factors that influence how infants and young children recover and develop their thinking after cardiac surgery.

This will help us determine the best time to provide support for particular outcomes (e.g. physiotherapy, speech therapy).

Information from this study will tell us more about how we should care for children with congenital heart disease after surgery.

By understanding these outcomes in children up until school age, we can watch and support children and families better as they enter a new stage in their lives.

PROSpect

The PRone and OScillation PaEdiatric Clinical Trial is a multicentre, international study investigating the best way to care for children with acute and severe respiratory failure.

The study is recruiting 600 children worldwide who will be assigned to receive 1 of 4 treatment strategies combining 2 forms of mechanical ventilation and 2 forms of positioning.

The study aims to identify the strategy that is most effective in reducing the number of days children require mechanical ventilation and improve long-term survival and quality-of-life outcomes.

ASCEND

ASCEND will use observational data to compare the outcomes of children with paediatric acute respiratory distress syndrome (PARDS) who are supported with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) during their illness, with the long-term outcomes of equally ill children who receive PROSpect’s protocolised therapies.

RESPOND

A worldwide randomised controlled trial in paediatric sepsis which tests the use of metabolic resuscitation (early intravenous administration of Vitamin C and Hydrocortisone) which has shown promise in improving patient-centred outcomes in adults.

The study will assess functional outcomes and quality of life, consumer engagement, and sepsis-related costs.

PediRes-Q

The pediRES-Q Collaborative aims to sustain discovery, analysis and publication of medical science, leading to evidence-based CPR guidelines and improved survival for children.

Paediatric resuscitation guidelines have largely been developed by expert clinical consensus, using data extrapolated from adult, animal, manikin, mechanical modelling, and paediatric radiological studies.

There is a major gap in the paediatric resuscitation knowledge base. In addition, there is scant data on the association of post-cardiac arrest care (PCAC) and patient outcomes after paediatric cardiac arrest.

This study aims to characterise the quality of CPR and post-cardiac arrest care delivered to children across a broad spectrum of international hospitals.

P-ICECAP

This is an international multicentre trial to establish the efficacy of cooling and the optimal duration of induced hypothermia for neuroprotection in paediatric comatose survivors of cardiac arrest.

The study team hypothesizes that longer durations of cooling may improve either the proportion of children who attain a good neurobehavioural recovery or may result in better recovery among the proportion already categorised as having a good outcome.

SPRINT-SARI (Australia)

SPRINT-SARI (Aust) is a hospital-based surveillance database that will enable the real-time tracking and reporting of the sickest patients with COVID-19 in Australian hospitals and Intensive Care Units. SPRINT-SARI is a major international collaboration, and is endorsed by the WHO and the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society Clinical Trials Group.

SPRINT-SARI (Aust) is an observational study in Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) more specifically COVID 19.

SPRINT-SARI (Aust) collects COVID-19 data from the majority of adult and paediatric Australian ICUs. SPRINT-SARI (Aust) collects data on patients of all ages and is collected, from 63 Intensive Care Units across 6 states and 2 territories. SPRINT-SARI (Aust) supplies aggregated data to several Federal and state authorities to assist with modelling.

FOOTPRINTS PICU Bereavement Project

The FOOTPRINTS Project aims to design and test a PICU bereavement service, in a multi-site, mixed methods, interventional clinical trial.

The design phase of the FOOTPRINTS Project is currently underway, with focus groups and interviews with Western Australian bereaved families completed in 2024. An Australia-wide scoping survey of PICU bereavement practices is currently underway.

In 2025 the FOOTPRINTS intervention-effectiveness trial is planned to commence at four PICUs across Australia, led by Perth Children’s Hospital.

ANZPIC Registry Studies

PCC is an active member of the Australia and New Zealand Intensive Care Society Paediatric Study Group (ANZICS PSG).

Through collaborative research, PCC has contributed to the high-quality collection and analysis of paediatric intensive care data within the central ANZICS Paediatric Intensive Care Registry.

Focus areas have included indigenous health and specific childhood diseases such as bronchiolitis and sepsis.

Extra resources

• The NITRIC Follow-up Study (nitricfollowup.com)
• https://prospect-network.org/
• Pediresq | PediRES-Q
• P-ICECAP | SIREN
• SPRINT-SARI (Australia) - Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Research Centre (ANZIC-RC) (monash.edu)
• Respond: Pediatric Critical Care Medicine

The Paediatric Critical Care Consumer Advisory Group (PCC CAG)

The PCC CAG was formed in 2025 with the inaugural meeting held in March. This consumer group will meet 4 times a year to provide PCC with advice and ideas based on their own lived experience. They will also contribute towards improving care for other patients and families. This project will meet National Safety and Quality Standard 2: Partnering with Consumers.

Community members can reach out to the passionate group of consumers and present ideas for discussion by emailing PCH.PCCResearchTeam@health.wa.gov.au