Research

Paediatric Intensive Care Research

Paediatric intensive care research is an exciting field, which addresses a spectrum of diseases and conditions which continue to challenge our critically ill children. The Royal Children's Hospital intensive care research team are delighted to be part of a number of national and international collaborative studies, as well as undertaking local projects. Our areas of particular interest include cardiac disease, acquired brain injury, lung injury and renal replacement therapy.

All intensive care staff are encouraged to undertake research, and in addition we have a dedicated group of nurses who together co-ordinate our research projects. This enables us to efficiently screen all children admitted to the unit, each day, for their suitability for inclusion in our projects.

Data & Research Staff
Published Work 2010
Published Work 2009
Published Work 2008
Previous Years Published Work
Research Currently running in PICU

Intranet site research protocols

Data & Research Staff

All staff from medical, nursing and technology departments within the intensive care unit are encouraged to undertake research. The skills and experience of the intensive care consultant group have provided a strong foundation for the continued growth of research within the unit.

Staff involved in research are assisted by:

Data, Quality & Audit Team Leader

Carmel Delzoppo

Manager of the Intensive Care Database and responsible for the development, implementation and maintenance of the clinical database in intensive care, and for producing reports and statistics for use in research within the hospital and externally, with particular reference to the collaborative effort with Australian and New Zealand Paediatric Intensive Care Registry. Team leader of the collaborative data and research team.            

Intensive Care Research Co-ordinator, responsible for monitoring and co-ordinating research projects in the intensive care unit and liasing with staff interested in performing research. Carmel also assists with data collection for the intensive care database and for the organ donor database sponsored by the Red Cross.  Steering Committee member for the Paediatric Study Group in the Clinical trials Group for Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society.                                                                          

Telephone: 61 3 9345 4766  
e-mail:  carmel.delzoppo@rch.org.au 

Database & Research Assistants

Claire Daffey, Sheila Embleton, Liz Fletcher & Lis Wilson 

Database & Research Assistants contribute to data collection, maintenance of the intensive care database, audits and clinical research projects. The team also perform PICU patient outcome calls.

Telephone: 61 3 9345 4766, or ICU data room: 4483 
e-mail: claire.daffey@rch.org.au, sheila.embleton@rch.org.au, liz.fletcher@rch.org.au , elisabeth.wilson@rch.org.au

Murdoch Affiliated Research Coordinators

Michelle Goldsworthy 
Telephone: 61 3  93454732
e-mail: michelle.goldsworthy@rch.org.au

Research currently running in PICU

Published work 2010

Simpson, C. M., Smolich, J. J., Shekerdemian, L.S. and Penny, D. J. (2010) [Heart Research Group, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, Departments of Cardiology and Intensive Care, Royal Children's Hospital, Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Vic., Australia.], 'Urotensin-II contributes to pulmonary vasoconstriction in a perinatal model of persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn secondary to meconium aspiration syndrome', Pediatric Research; vol.67(2), pp.150-7

Gilmore, H., Millar, K. J., Weintraub, R. G., Hislop, J., Negri, J., Brizard, C. P., d'Udekem, Y. (2010). Australian Experience with VAD as a Bridge to Paediatric Cardiac Transplantation. Heart, Lung and Circulation, 19(1), 26-30.

Horton, S., d'Udekem, Y., Shann, F., Butt, W., Bennett, M., Best, D., Brizard, C. (2010) Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation via sternotomy for circulatory shock. The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, 139(2), e12-e13.

Simpson, C. M., Smolich, J. J., Shekerdemian, L. S., & Penny, D. J. (2010). Urotensin-II contributes to pulmonary vasoconstriction in a perinatal model of persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn secondary to meconium aspiration syndrome. Pediatric Research, 67(2), 150-157.

Duke, T. (2010). Systemic inflammatory response syndrome and bacteremia in developing countries. Pediatric Critical Care Medicine: A Journal Of The Society Of Critical Care Medicine And The World Federation Of Pediatric Intensive And Critical Care Societies, 11(1), 153-154.

Published work 2009

Butt WW. Outcome assessment--what outcome do we want?. Pediatric critical care medicine : a journal of the Society of Critical Care Medicine and the World Federation of Pediatric Intensive and Critical Care Societies 10 (1) : 133 - 4; discuss(2009)

Maclaren G, Butt W. Controversies in paediatric continuous renal replacement therapy. Intensive Care Medicine 35 (4) : 596 - 602(2009)

Martin J, Shekerdemian LS. The monitoring of venous saturations of oxygen in children with congenitally malformed hearts.. Cardiology in the Young 19 (1) : 34 - 9(2009)

Newall F, Ignjatovic V, Summerhayes R, Gan A, Butt W, Johnston L, Monagle P. In vivo age dependency of unfractionated heparin in infants and children.. Thrombosis Research 123 (5) : 710 - 4(2009)

Sivarajan V, Penny DJ, Filan P, Brizard C, Shekerdemian LS. Impact of antenatal diagnosis of hypoplastic left heart syndrome on the clinical presentation and surgical outcomes: The Australian experience.. Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health Epub 2009 : (2009)

Subhi R. Smith K. Duke T. When should oxygen be given to children at high altitude? A systematic review to define altitude-specific hypoxaemia, Archives of Disease in Childhood. 94(1):6-10, 2009 Jan.

Published work 2008

Cantwell-Bartl AM, Tibballs J. "Place, age, and mode of death of infants and children with hypoplastic left heart syndrome: Implications for medical counselling, psychological counselling, and palliative care." J Palliative Care 2008; 24: 76-84.

Gutierrez J.A., Duke T., Henning R., South M. "Respiratory Failure and Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome." In Taussig L.M., Landau L.I., etal (eds) Paediatric Respiratory Medicine 2nd Edition Philadelphia: Mosby 2008

Henning R. Chapter  "Shock and cardiac Disease in Children" Oh TH, ed. Intensive Care Manual. Sydney: Butterworths, 6th ed 2007. (In press.)

Henning R., "Lung trauma: Near drowning and toxic inhalation." In Taussig L.M., Landau L.I., etal (eds) Paediatric Respiratory Medicine 2nd Edition Philadelphia: Mosby 2008

Kinney S, Tibballs J, Johnston L, Duke T. "Clinical profile of hospitalized children provided with urgent assistance from a medical emergency team." Pediatrics 2008; 121: e1577-84.

Linton S., Grant C., Pellegrini J., "Supporting families through discharge from PICU to the ward: The development and evaluation of a discharge information brochure for families." Intensive and Critical Care Nursing, In Press, Corrected Proof, Available online 26 July 2008

MacLaren G, Kluger R. "The feasibility of myocardial velocity, strain and strain rate measurements during aortic valve replacement surgery." J Cardiothorac Vasc Anesth 2008;22(4):648-649

MacLaren G, Yeow SF, Spelman D. "Antibiotic prophylaxis in cardiac surgery." Heart 2008;94(5):646

MacLaren G, Kofidis T, Klima U. "Nonpharmacologic support of the failing right ventricle." Crit Care Med 2008;36(2):662

Perez A., Butt W., Millar K.J., Best D., Thiruchelvam T., Cochrane AD, Bennett M, Shekerdemian L.S. "Long-distance transport of critically ill children on extracorporeal life support in Australia." Critical Care Resuscitation. 2008 Mar;10(1):34.

Plunkett A., De Marco P., Vuillermin P., Duke T. "Klebsiella pneumoniae": Archives of Disease in Childhood. Paediatric Intensive Care Unit, Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne. Department of Haematology, Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne. Child Health Research Unit, Barwon Health.

Sung V. Massie J. Hochmann MA. Carlin JB. Jamsen K. Robertson CF. "Estimating inspired oxygen concentration delivered by nasal prongs in children with bronchiolitis." [Journal Article. Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't] Journal of Paediatrics & Child Health. 44(1-2):14-8, 2008 Jan.
 Tibballs J. Paediatric cardiopulmonary resuscitation: recent changes to  guidelines. Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health 2008; 44: 67-9.

Tibballs J. "Organ donation after cardiac death: legal and ethical justifications for antemortem interventions" (letter). Med J Aust 2008; 188: 186-7.

Tibballs J, Cantwell-Bartl A. "Outcomes of management decisions by parents for their infants with hypoplastic left heart syndrome born with and without a prenatatal diagnosis." J Paediatr Child Health 2008; 44: 321-4.

Tibballs J, Thiruchelvam T. "A case of Commotio cordis in a young child caused by a fall." Resuscitation 2008; 77: 139-41.

Tibballs J. The non-compliance of clinical guidelines for organ donation with Australian statute law. Journal of Law & Medicine. 16(2):335-55, 2008 Oct.

Tibballs J, van der Jagt E. "Medical emergency and rapid response teams." Pediatr Clin N Am 2008; 55: 989-1010.

Tibballs J, Russell P. "Reliability of pulse palpation by healthcare personnel to diagnose paediatric cardiac arrest." Resuscitation 2008; 77: Suppl 1; S30.

Tibballs J, Winkel KD. "Envenomation syndromes". In: Roger's Textbook of Pediatric Intensive Care. 2008. Nichols DG. Ed-in-Chief. Wolters Kluwer/Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins. Philadelphia. pp482-507.

In Press:
.
Tibballs J. Paediatric resuscitation. In: Intensive Care Manual, Tech OH (ed).
Tibballs J. Poisoning, in Intensive Care Manual, Tech Oh (ed).
Tibballs J. Envenomation, in Intensive Care Manual, Tech Oh (ed).
Tibballs J. Equipment for paediatric intensive care, in Intensive Care Manual, tech Oh (ed).  
Tibballs J. Poisoning and Envenomation. In: RCH Paediatric Handbook
TibballsJ. Medical emergencies, In: RCH Paediatric Handbook

Previous years published works

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