Paediatric Critical Care Research Group

The Paediatric Critical Care Research Group (PCCRG) was established in 2008 and is a collaboration of researchers in the field of paediatric critical care medicine based at the Queensland Children's Hospital (QCH) in the Division of Critical Care with the largest paediatric critical care service (PICU) in Australia and New Zealand. Our group has established a strong research background, with the highest number of peer-reviewed studies published in the field of paediatric critical care in Australia. Research areas include, but are not limited to, paediatric respiratory, infectious and cardiac critical care as well a strong interest in neurodevelopment, psychosocial research and long term outcome. We also collaborate with a number of key stakeholders in Queensland to efficiently translate research findings and to run several clinical quality and service delivery programs.

Key to the success of our group is an inclusive approach for problem solving and collaborating with metropolitan and regional hospitals in Queensland. Extensive national research collaboration with all tertiary children’s hospitals in Australia and New Zealand allowed the PCCRG to become the lead centre for all major research projects in paediatric critical care. This effort has been now internationally recognised by collaboration with European and UK research groups. Members of PCCRG are frequently invited as keynote speakers at international meetings and have won some major research awards.

The collaborative and inclusive spirit of PCCRG has fostered further collaborations and has helped to secure new research projects in several paediatric disciplines with other national and international paediatric research groups. PCCRG has strong connections and existing research grants with the national Emergency Medicine Foundation resulting in collaborations nationwide with paediatric emergency departments. New and promising research opportunities and relationships are also evolving in paediatric anaesthesia, cardiac surgery and cardiology. Several of these projects are innovative and leading the way in international collaboration.

PCCRG is also strongly affiliated to the adult equivalent research Critical Care Research Group at the Prince Charles Hospital. This strong connection is the most successful collaboration between paediatric and adult intensive care in Australia and has produced a great amount of research and grants. Our vision is to establish an academic paediatric critical care research group nested in the largest paediatric division of critical care in Australia and New Zealand and strive to become an international centre of excellence.

Grants

Award Type	Recipient	Administering Institution	Project Title	Year Awarded	Value	Duration
	Andreas Schibler	NHMRC	Practitioner Fellowship	2019	$365000
	Andreas Schibler	NHMRC	KIDS THRIVE	2019	$1.6Mio
	Andreas Schibler	Children`s Hospital Foundation	Sepsis Implementation	2019	$99,000
	Andreas Schibler	Children`s Hospital Foundation	High Flow	2019	$105,000
	Andreas Schibler	Children`s Hospital Foundation	Programme Support	2019	$645,000
	Andreas Schibler	TigerMed	VICTOR	2019	$130,000
	Andreas Schibler	Fisher & Paykel	High Flow	2019	$105,000
	Luregn Schlapbach	Queensland Genomics Health Alliance	Rapid pathogen sequencing	2019	$240,000
MRFF	Luregn Schlapbach	Medical Research Future Fund	Rapid host gene expression sequencing in sepsis	2019	$249,937
	Luregn Schlapbach	Financial Markets Foundation for Children	Sepsis RCT	2019	$159,496
	Luregn Schlapbach	Children`s Hospital Foundation	Machine Learning for Long-term outcomes	2019	$103,047
EMF	Amanda Harley		Parental Concern in Sepsis	2019	$39,685

SPANZA	S Humphreys		HAMSTER trial	2019	$10,000	12 months
ANZCA	S Humphreys		HAMSTER Trial	2019	$64,000

Innovator Grant	Trent Woodruff & Mark Coulthard and others	The University of Queensland	Eph receptor blockade to prevent and repair endothelial damage in systemic inflammation	2019	$199,878	2 years
SERTA	Jessica Schults	CHQ	Development of the paediatric appropriateness guide for endotracheal suction interventions	2019	$16,240	2 years
Australian College of Critical Care Nurses	Jessica Schults	Griffith University	Endotracheal suction interventions in the PICU	2019	$5,000	2 years
Children’s Hospital Foundation Preclinical and Clinical Research Grant	CI Jessica Schults (CIC Luregn Schlapbach)	Griffith University	ivWatch® to prevent severe extravasation injuries in the Paediatric Intensive Care: a pilot, randomized controlled trial.	2019	$81,292	1 year

Publications

Achten, N.B., et al., Association of Use of the Neonatal Early-Onset Sepsis Calculator With Reduction in Antibiotic Therapy and Safety: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. JAMA Pediatr, 2019.

Asner, S.A., et al., Burden of Streptococcus pneumoniae Sepsis in Children After Introduction of Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccines: A Prospective Population-based Cohort Study. Clin Infect Dis, 2019. 69(9): p. 1574-1580.

Borghini, L., et al., Identification of regulatory variants associated with genetic susceptibility to meningococcal disease. Sci Rep, 2019. 9(1): p. 6966.

Dow, B.L., et al., Cognitive/affective factors are associated with children's acute posttraumatic stress following pediatric intensive care. Psychol Trauma, 2019. 11(1): p. 55-63.

Farrell, D., G. MacLaren, and L.J. Schlapbach, Infections on Extracorporeal Life Support in Adults and Children-A Survey of International Practice on Prevention, Diagnosis, and Treatment. Pediatr Crit Care Med, 2019. 20(7): p. 667-671.

Franklin, D., et al., Nasal High Flow in Room Air for Hypoxemic Bronchiolitis Infants. Front Pediatr, 2019. 7: p. 426.

Franklin, D., J.F. Fraser, and A. Schibler, Respiratory support for infants with bronchiolitis, a narrative review of the literature. Paediatr Respir Rev, 2019. 30: p. 16-24.

Franklin, D., et al., Multicentre, randomised trial to investigate early nasal high-flow therapy in paediatric acute hypoxaemic respiratory failure: a protocol for a randomised controlled trial-a Paediatric Acute respiratory Intervention Study (PARIS 2). BMJ Open, 2019. 9(12): p. e030516.

George, S., et al., Transnasal Humidified Rapid Insufflation Ventilatory Exchange in children requiring emergent intubation (Kids THRIVE): a protocol for a randomised controlled trial. BMJ Open, 2019. 9(2): p. e025997.

Harley, A., J.M. Latour, and L.J. Schlapbach, The Role of Parental Concerns in the Recognition of Sepsis in Children: A Literature Review. Front Pediatr, 2019. 7: p. 161.

Hough, J.L., et al., Effect of randomization of nasal high flow rate in preterm infants. Pediatr Pulmonol, 2019. 54(9): p. 1410-1416.

Hough, J.L., et al., Nasal high flow in preterm infants: A dose-finding study. Pediatr Pulmonol, 2019.

Humphreys, S. and A. Schibler, Nasal high-flow oxygen in pediatric anesthesia and airway management. Paediatr Anaesth, 2019.

Humphreys, S., et al., High-flow oxygen for children's airway surgery: randomised controlled trial protocol (HAMSTER). BMJ Open, 2019. 9(10): p. e031873.

MacLaren, G., H.J. Cho, and L.J. Schlapbach, Transforming Data Into a Crystal Ball-Predicting Outcomes After Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation. Pediatr Crit Care Med, 2019. 20(5): p. 490-491.

MacLaren, G., L.J. Schlapbach, and A.M. Aiken, Nosocomial Infections During Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation in Neonatal, Pediatric, and Adult Patients: A Comprehensive Narrative Review. Pediatr Crit Care Med, 2019.

Mashbat, B., et al., A Rare Mutation in SPLUNC1 Affects Bacterial Adherence and Invasion in Meningococcal Disease. Clin Infect Dis, 2019.

Mattke, A.C., A. Black, and P. Venugopal, Pump-controlled retrograde trial off: considerations. Perfusion, 2019. 34(2): p. 173.

Mattke, A.C., et al., Pump controlled retrograde trial off using the Cardiohelp console: safety considerations. Perfusion, 2019: p. 267659119865827.

Mattke, A.C. and P. Venugopal, Prognostic Evaluation of Mortality after Pediatric Resuscitation Assisted by Extracorporeal Life Support. J Pediatr Intensive Care, 2019. 8(3): p. 191-192.

May, M.L.A., et al., Polymerase chain reaction for human parechovirus on blood samples improves detection of clinical infections in infants. Mol Biol Rep, 2020. 47(1): p. 715-720.

McKenna, R., et al., Paediatric intensive care admissions during the 2015-2016 Queensland human parechovirus outbreak. J Paediatr Child Health, 2019. 55(8): p. 968-974.

Morin, L., et al., Translational gap in pediatric septic shock management: an ESPNIC perspective. Ann Intensive Care, 2019. 9(1): p. 73.

Moynihan, K.M., et al., Epidemiology of childhood death in Australian and New Zealand intensive care units. Intensive Care Med, 2019. 45(9): p. 1262-1271.

Moynihan, K.M., et al., Viral Respiratory Infections Diagnosed After PICU Admission. Pediatr Crit Care Med, 2019. 20(1): p. e46-e50.

Obonyo, N.G., L.J. Schlapbach, and J.F. Fraser, Sepsis: Changing Definitions, Unchanging Treatment. Front Pediatr, 2018. 6: p. 425.

O'Brien, S., et al., Australasian bronchiolitis guideline. J Paediatr Child Health, 2019. 55(1): p. 42-53.

Pandya, N.R., et al., A comparison of pump-controlled retrograde trial off to arterio-venous bridging for weaning from venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. Eur J Cardiothorac Surg, 2019.

Perumal, G., et al., Postoperative catecholamine resistance following fetal methamphetamine exposure. Asian Cardiovasc Thorac Ann, 2019. 27(1): p. 30-32.

Schlapbach, L.J., Paediatric sepsis. Curr Opin Infect Dis, 2019. 32(5): p. 497-504.

Schlapbach, L.J. and A. Argent, Applying Sepsis-3 Criteria for Septic Shock to Children-Not As Shocking As at First Sight? Pediatr Crit Care Med, 2019. 20(3): p. 299-300.

Schlapbach, L.J., et al., Defining benefit threshold for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation in children with sepsis-a binational multicenter cohort study. Crit Care, 2019. 23(1): p. 429.

Schlapbach, L.J., et al., Global paediatric critical care research: mind the gaps. Intensive Care Med, 2019. 45(5): p. 753-754.

Schlapbach, L.J., et al., Study protocol: NITric oxide during cardiopulmonary bypass to improve Recovery in Infants with Congenital heart defects (NITRIC trial): a randomised controlled trial. BMJ Open, 2019. 9(8): p. e026664.

Schlapbach, L.J., K. Thompson, and S.R. Finfer, The WHO resolution on sepsis: what action is needed in Australia? Med J Aust, 2019. 211(9): p. 395-397 e1.

Schlapbach, L.J., S.L. Weiss, and J. Wolf, Reducing Collateral Damage From Mandates for Time to Antibiotics in Pediatric Sepsis-Primum Non Nocere. JAMA Pediatr, 2019. 173(5): p. 409-410.

Schults, J.A., et al., "When no-one's looking," the application of lung recruitment and normal saline instillation with paediatric endotracheal suction: An exploratory study of nursing practice. Aust Crit Care, 2019. 32(1): p. 13-19.

Schults, J.A., et al., Insertion, management, and complications associated with arterial catheters in paediatric intensive care: A clinical audit. Aust Crit Care, 2019.

Schults, J.A., et al., Adverse events and practice variability associated with paediatric endotracheal suction: An observational study. Aust Crit Care, 2019.

Secka, F., et al., Bacteremia in Childhood Life-Threatening Infections in Urban Gambia: EUCLIDS in West Africa. Open Forum Infect Dis, 2019. 6(9): p. ofz332.

Ullman, A.J., et al., Innovation in Central Venous Access Device Security: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial in Pediatric Critical Care. Pediatr Crit Care Med, 2019. 20(10): p. e480-e488.

Grants

Publications

Clinical Trials

Our research team

Paediatric Critical Care Research Group

Grants

Publications

Clinical Trials

Our team in the news

Parents to learn signs of sepsis

Sepsis diagnosis challenge leads to overuse of antibiotic

Our research team