Study protocol

Improving outcomes for ill and injured children in emergency departments: protocol for a program in pediatric emergency medicine and knowledge translation science

Shannon Scott^1,2 , Lisa Hartling² , Jeremy Grimshaw³ , David Johnson⁴ , Martin Osmond⁵ , Amy Plint⁵ , Rollin Brant⁶ , Jamie C Brehaut³ , Ian D Graham⁷ , Gillian Currie⁴ , Nicola Shaw⁸ , Maala Bhatt⁹ , Tim Lynch¹⁰ , Liza Bialy² and Terry Klassen²

¹  Faculty of Nursing, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada

²  Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada

³  Ottawa Health Research Institute, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada

⁴  Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada

⁵  Departments of Pediatric and Emergency Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada

⁶  Department of Statistics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

⁷  Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Ottawa, Canada

⁸  Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada

⁹  Division of Emergency Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Canada

¹⁰  Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada

author email corresponding author email

Implementation Science 2009, 4:60doi:10.1186/1748-5908-4-60

Published:	22 September 2009

Abstract

Approximately one-quarter of all Canadian children will seek emergency care in any given year, with the two most common medical problems affecting children in the emergency department (ED) being acute respiratory illness and injury. Treatment for some medical conditions in the ED remains controversial due to a lack of strong supporting evidence.

The purpose of this paper is to describe a multi-centre team grant in pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) that has been recently funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). This program of research integrates clinical research (in the areas of acute respiratory illness and injury) and knowledge translation (KT). This initiative includes seven distinct projects that address the objective to generate new evidence for clinical care and KT in the pediatric ED. Five of the seven research projects in this team grant make significant contributions to knowledge development in KT science, and these contributions are the focus of this paper.

The research designs employed in this program include: cross-sectional surveys, randomized controlled trials (RCTs), quasi-experimental designs with interrupted time-series analysis and staggered implementation strategies, and qualitative designs.

This team grant provides unique opportunities for making important KT methodological developments, with a particular focus on developing a better theoretical understanding of the causal mechanisms and effect modifiers of different KT interventions.