Synopsis

The Emergency Department is the entrance point for children with first presentations and acute exacerbations of illnesses and injuries ultimately cared for by all hospital clinical departments. For many conditions the evidence base for acute diagnosis and management is limited, and research in this area can be challenging because of service priorities. In addition, it is not clear how knowledge should be translated from this environment, when the majority of unwell children nationally are seen in non-tertiary settings. In the past 10 years the Emergency Department at RCH has built up expertise in single and multicentre research projects to investigate complex and high risk conditions. This Grand Rounds will present results of newly completed studies and updates on head injuries, bronchiolitis, sepsis, acute neurological problems and home vs hospital care. We will also discuss some of the challenges of research in acute care settings.

Speakers

Associate Professor Franz Babl is a paediatric emergency physician and Director of Research at the Emergency Department of The Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, head of emergency research at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and an Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne. His main research focus has been on capacity building in acute care research at RCH and nationally. Franz is the founding chair and current vice-chair of PREDICT, the paediatric emergency research network in Australia and New Zealand funded by an NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence grant, and an executive committee member of PERN, the global collaboration of emergency research networks. He has published 190 peer-reviewed papers and is an NHMRC Practitioner Fellow and a Melbourne Campus Clinician Scientist Fellow. His research includes single-centre and multicentre randomised controlled trials and observational studies in a wide range of emergency topics.