Children’s Intensive Care Research Program - Research projects
Our Research Programs
Our research programs comprise a cohesive set of projects, underpinned by methodological expertise to ensure the highest scientific quality. Each program is supported by strong data and digital foundations, innovative methodological design, consumer partnerships, and a commitment to value-based care.
Explore the research projects that underpin each program below.
Clinical Trials & Methodology
RESPOND: Resuscitation in Paediatric Septic Shock using Mega-dose Vitamin C and Hydrocortisone - A Randomised Controlled Multicentre Trial
Sepsis and serious infections in children are one of the most common reasons for admission to intensive care. Septic shock occurs when there is a significant decrease in the amount of blood pumped to the body.
When children are admitted to the hospital with septic shock, they can receive different treatments. These include antibiotics, fluids given through their veins, and medications to support blood pressure (inotropes, steroids, vitamins) and improve blood flow to the organs. This project is assessing the use of hydrocortisone and vitamin C in children with septic shock.
The trial is being conducted in paediatric intensive care units across Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, India, Brazil and South Korea.
Funding: NHMRC Clinical Trials and Cohort Studies Grants, Children's Hospital Foundation, Financial Markets for Children
Contact: respond@uq.edu.au
Key Contacts: Dr Sainath Raman (Lead) | Prof Kristen Gibbons (CI) | Ms Louise Sparkes (Clinical Research Nurse Coordinator)
Status: In Progress
PLATINUM: Paediatric Platform Adaptive Trial for Intensive Care Management
PLATINUM is a multisite, binational adaptive platform trial designed to improve the care of critically ill children in paediatric intensive care units (PICUs) across Australia and New Zealand. The platform enables multiple important clinical questions to be investigated simultaneously, reflecting the complex reality of PICU care, in which children are often exposed to multiple therapies at once.
Using an innovative Bayesian adaptive trial methodology, PLATINUM aims to accelerate the generation of high-quality evidence to guide intensive care treatment decisions and improve outcomes for children and families.
The program has been shaped through strong collaboration with clinicians, researchers, and consumers, with consumer- and clinician-informed focus groups and a Consensus Workshop contributing to the development of core PLATINUM elements, including the primary outcome, patient eligibility criteria, and the initial trial domains.
PLATINUM is led by a multidisciplinary team with national and international collaborations, including partnerships with ICNARC (UK), the Paediatric Critical Care Society Study Group (UK), all Australian and New Zealand PICUs, and ANZICS CORE. The project is supported through MRFF Innovative Trials funding for infrastructure development and contributes to research capacity building through mentorship of emerging researchers, statisticians, and health economists.
Funding: MRFF Innovative Trials
Contact: platium@uq.edu.au
Key Contacts: Prof Kristen Gibbons (Lead Investigator) | Dr David Pennisi (Principal Research Coordinator)
Status: In Progress
BUILD: Beta-lactam Antibiotic Infusions in Septic Critically Ill Children - A Pilot Randomised Controlled Trial
BUILD is a multicentre binational randomised controlled trial investigating the optimal way to administer beta-lactam antibiotics to critically ill children with sepsis. The study compares continuous, extended, and intermittent antibiotic infusions to determine whether prolonged infusion strategies can improve outcomes for children admitted to paediatric intensive care. BUILD aims to generate high-quality evidence to inform future sepsis treatment guidelines and improve care for critically ill children across Australia and New Zealand.
Funding: Intensive Care Foundation
Contact: build@uq.edu.au
Key Contacts: Dr Sainath Raman (Lead) | Dr Delphine Levy-Bencheton (Clinical Trials Manager)
Status: In Progress
RESONANCE PICU: Buffered Solutions versus 0.9% Sodium Chloride for Intravenous Fluid Therapy to Improve Outcomes for Critically ill Children: The RESONANCE-PICU Multicentre, Binational Randomised Controlled Trial
RESONANCE-PICU is a multicentre, registry-based randomised controlled trial investigating the safest and most effective intravenous fluid therapy for critically ill children. As intravenous fluids are administered to the majority of children admitted to paediatric intensive care, the study aims to determine whether alternative fluids can improve outcomes and reduce complications such as acute kidney injury. Bringing together all Australian and New Zealand PICUs and international collaborators, RESONANCE-PICU will provide high-quality evidence to guide one of the most common interventions in paediatric intensive care.
Funding: NHMRC MRFF Clinical Trials Activity
Enquiries: k.gibbons@uq.edu.au
Key Contacts: Dr Sainath Raman (Lead) | Prof Kristen Gibbons (Chief Investigator)
Status: In Progress
The NITRIC Follow-up Study: Nitric Oxide During Cardiopulmonary Bypass to Improve Recovery in Infants With Congenital Heart Defects
Each year, over 1000 children with childhood heart disease (CHD) in Australia require heart surgery. The short and long-term outcomes of these children are determined by the impact of the surgical intervention, the response to cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB), and the direct consequences thereof during their intensive care stay. Neurodevelopmental disabilities remain among the most common and damaging adverse outcomes in children undergoing heart surgery.
One out of four infants undergoing heart surgery develops a harmful response to CPB, which leads to low cardiac output syndrome (LCOS). LCOS results in prolonged (multi-) organ dysfunction and adverse short-term outcomes, which can manifest into poor outcomes at school age. Currently, we lack reliable, sensitive, and rapid predictors of LCOS or of adverse early and long-term outcomes. Preventive strategies to reduce LCOS remain of limited effectiveness.
We hypothesise that gene expression transcripts identify the harmful response to CPB, which leads to LCOS and prolonged severe organ failure post-heart surgery in infants. The combination of transcripts will yield a signature allowing rapid discrimination of patients who will progress to LCOS and adverse outcomes. We will assess both short- and long-term outcomes manifesting in school-age. This can ultimately enable the development of biomarkers for point-of-care testing.
Eqnuiries: nitricmrff@uq.edu.au
Funding: NHMRC, HeartKids Foundation, Children's Hospital Foundation, Perth Children's Hospital Foundation, Green Lane Research and Education Fund NZ, Dutch National Health Insurance Innovation Fund
Key Contacts: Prof Kristen Gibbons (Co-Lead, Chief Investigator) | Prof Debbie Long (Co-Lead, Chief Investigator)
Status: In Progress
RAPIDS: Rapid Personalised Diagnosis of Sepsis in Children
Sepsis is a major cause of death and disability in children, causing around 3 million deaths globally each year. Early diagnosis remains challenging because initial symptoms often resemble mild viral illnesses, leading to delays in treatment. Faster and more reliable diagnostic methods could improve outcomes, reduce healthcare costs, and minimise unnecessary antimicrobial use.
Advances in omics technologies now allow systematic analysis of host responses to infection at transcriptomic, proteomic, and metabolomic levels, offering new opportunities to identify biological mechanisms and biomarkers for sepsis.
This study aims to improve paediatric sepsis diagnosis using proteomics and metabolomics in a prospective cohort of critically ill children with suspected sepsis. We will investigate pathways associated with severe disease and compare bacterial and viral infections with those in non-infected controls. Using machine learning on multi-omics data, we aim to identify novel disease phenotypes and clinically relevant diagnostic signatures.=
Enquiries: paedsepsisresearch@uq.edu.au
Funding: ETH Zurich
Key Contacts: Prof Kristen Gibbons
Status: In Progress
REDUCE: Restrictive vs Standard Fluid Management in Mechanically Ventilated Children Admitted to PICU - A Pilot Randomised Controlled Trial
The provision of intravenous fluids is a key component of treatment for a variety of conditions within the paediatric intensive care unit (PICU). However, there is currently a lack of evidence regarding the appropriate amount of fluid that should be administered to critically ill children. Excess fluid causes oedema, which can impede oxygen delivery to cells and, as such, result in increased respiratory support and a longer PICU stay. The REDUCE trial aims to assess whether administering a safe, restricted volume of intravenous fluids will improve outcomes compared with a liberal approach to fluid management.
Enquiries: sainath.raman@uq.edu.au
Status: Completed
Precision Medicine & Data-driven Decision Making
MELODY: Machine Learning in the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit, Development of Risk Prediction Models
Tailoring medical treatments to account for a patient’s individual variability is the future of healthcare. Clinical trials have demonstrated that such “precision medicine” approaches can improve clinical outcomes for patients. Recently, breakthroughs in applying computational science to healthcare have shown the promise of using computer algorithms to analyse health data and assist in clinical decision-making. For the most critically unwell children admitted to hospital, there is a lack of high-quality research for the treatments they receive—the sickest children are often excluded from high-quality trials, and thus may not receive treatments that are optimal for them. A large amount of health-related data is generated in paediatric intensive care units (PICUs), but to date, it has not been fully utilised. Using extensive, high-resolution data from >32,500 patient admissions across three large PICUs (Brisbane, Melbourne, and Zurich), this project will employ advanced machine learning techniques to develop a model that assists clinicians in detecting early deterioration in a child’s condition, enabling prompt intervention. This will result in the right treatments being delivered at the right time — reducing mortality, decreasing neurodevelopmental complications, and ultimately increasing quality of life for children admitted to intensive care.
Eqnuiries: k.gibbons@uq.edu.au
Funding: NHMRC Investigator Grants, Ramaciotti Health Investment Partnership
Key Contacts: Prof Kristen Gibbons | Dr Moloud Abdar
Status: In Progress
LYRICAL: Evaluating an assisted decision-making tool on clinical outcomes in critically ill children
There is a paucity of high-quality trials to inform the life-saving care of children admitted to the PICU. >75% of all PICU trials have ≤100 participants, >80% recruit from a single centre, and only 3% use an innovative trial design, severely hampering the delivery of robust and generalisable results. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need for agile trial infrastructure and international networks to rapidly generate gold-standard, personalised evidence to inform practice. Adult intensive care researchers demonstrated the feasibility of such an approach in a critical care setting by enrolling thousands of patients in global interventional trials using innovative designs. These learnings need to be translated to the paediatric setting to trial precision medicine approaches in a robust, efficient manner, delivering the best care for children. This project will lay the foundations for translating a machine-learning model into clinical practice. Components of the project will include conducting a systematic review; developing and deploying simulation models in clinical care; collecting and evaluating stakeholder feedback on the implementation of these models; and using implementation science to design best-practice tools to promote the highest level of successful model translation.
Enquiries: k.gibbons@uq.edu.au (Lead, Chief Investigator)
Key Contacts: Prof Kristen Gibbons | Mr Eugene Slaughter
Status: In Progress
Supporting Families & Improving Long-term Outcomes
Educational Outcomes of PICU Sepsis Survivors in Queensland
Sepsis is a dangerous condition in children caused by the body's response to infection, which can lead to organ problems and even death if not treated quickly. Children who survive sepsis may face ongoing developmental and educational difficulties and poorer long-term quality of life. To better understand these long-term effects, this project will use data from a 20-year period, linking information about sepsis survivors in pediatric intensive care units (PICU) with developmental, educational and health administrative datasets in Queensland. The results will help inform support programs for this vulnerable group, ensuring they receive the necessary help to succeed in their education.
Enquiries: p.gilhom@uq.edu.au
Key Contacts: Dr Trish Gilhom | Prof Kristen Gibbons
Status: In Progress
PaeNut ECMO: Nutrition Therapy in Paediatric Patients Receiving ECMO: A Prospective Multi-Site Observational Study
The PaeNut ECMO Study is a prospective, multi-site observational study investigating nutrition therapy in infants and children receiving extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) across Australia and New Zealand.
Children requiring ECMO are among the most critically unwell patients in paediatric intensive care. However, there is limited evidence to guide optimal nutrition support during ECMO treatment. The study will examine how nutrition is prescribed and delivered throughout hospitalisation and explore the relationship between nutrition intake, feeding outcomes, growth, organ function, and recovery.
By benchmarking current practices across paediatric ECMO centres, the study aims to inform future evidence-based models of nutrition care and improve outcomes for children supported on ECMO.
Enquiries: j.woodgate@uq.edu.au
Key Contacts: Jemma Woodgate
Status: In Progress
Building Together
Building Together is a collaborative research program focused on improving consent practices for critically ill patients and their families. In intensive care, treatments are often time-critical, and patients or families may not be able to consider research participation before urgent care begins.
The program is exploring the use of consent-to-continue, an approach that allows eligible patients to be enrolled in certain studies before consent is obtained, with consent sought as soon as possible once the immediate emergency has passed.
By working with patients, families, clinicians, researchers, and ethics committees, Building Together aims to better understand experiences of consent-to-continue and develop practical resources to support clearer communication, ethical decision-making, and meaningful family involvement in intensive care research.
Enquiries: r.lemarsney@uq.edu.au
Key Contacts: Ms Renate Le Marsney
Status: In Progress
SPARK-KIDS: Synergistic Partnership Advancing Research Knowledge in Paediatric Intensive Care
SPARK-KIDS is a consumer and community partnership program that brings together researchers and people with lived experience of paediatric intensive care. By working together, the team aims to shape meaningful research that reflects the needs, priorities, and experiences of children and families. The program will also explore how to strengthen consumer partnerships in paediatric intensive care research.
Enquiries: Alyssa.Serratore@rch.org.au
Key Contacts: Ms Alyssa Serratore
Status: In Progress