CPCE is accepting applications to our Pilot Grant Program through October 2.
Find out more about how to apply and past projects or contact us with questions.
Spotlight on:
ID Week 2017

The annual IDWeek conference, happening next week in San Diego, is the combined meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA), HIV Medicine Association (HIVMA), and Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society (PIDS). Over the course of five days, infectious diseases professionals from around the country meet, share experiences, and develop collaborations for the improvement of patient care and public health. 

Faculty and research staff from the CPCE Pediatric Infectious Disease, Epidemiology & Antimicrobial Stewardship (IDEAS) research group will be presenting throughout the conference. Highlights include Dr. Jeffrey Gerber ’s participation in the “Best Practices for Antimicrobial Stewardship Programs” pre-meeting workshop, Dr. Kristen Feemster ’s presentation on respiratory infection prevention in ambulatory settings, Dr. Julie Szymczak ’s presentation on sociobehavioral interventions at the “Controversies in Antimicrobial Stewardship Programs” session and Dr. Theo Zaoutis 's  "Mano-a Mano II: Controversies in Pediatric ID" session.

CPCE researchers will also have 15 posters displayed over the course of the conference. See a full list of the CPCE presentations at ID Week here and follow along on Twitter using #IDWeek2017 and #PediatricIDEAS. 

Upcoming Events
Ellen Hyman-Browne Memorial Lecture 
Date: October 5, 2017
Time: 4:00 PM
Location: Colket Translational Research Building, 1200B
The 2017 Keynote speaker is Ezekiel J. Emanuel, Vice Provost for Global Initiatives, the Diane v.S. Levy and Robert M. Levy University Professor, and Chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. He will present "Ethics and Pricing of Innovative Drugs." For more information and to register, click here.

Penn LDI 50th Anniversary Symposium
Date: October 5 - 6, 2017
Location: The Inn at Penn, 3600 Sansom Street
Join in a collaborative exchange of ideas on novel solutions to today’s health care challenges, together with leaders in health care policy and practice from academia, government, and the private sector. For more information and to register, click here. 

CHOP Pediatric Global Health Conference
Date: October 6 - 7, 2017
Location: CHOP Colket Translational Research Building
This conference will explore the state of immigrant and refugee health from a global, national and local perspective. Attendees will gain clinical, advocacy, public health and research tools to better serve these populations. Cases, discussions and stories will help us better understand the context of those who leave their homes seeking a better life. Find additional information online here. 

Mid-Atlantic Bioinformatics Conference
Date: October 10, 2017
Location: Colket Translational Research Building
Presented by the Department of Biomedical and Health Informatics (DBHi) at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Penn's Institute for Biomedical Informatics (IBI), the second annual Mid-Atlantic Bioinformatics Conference will feature a distinguished line-up of internationally recognized speakers who will discuss the role of epigenetics and 3-dimensional chromatin organization as it relates to primary analysis, integration with large-scale data from adult and pediatric data sets, and the growing challenges in integrating epigenomic data with other types of omics data in the era of precision medicine. For additional information and to register, click here.

mHealth Research Affinity Group Works In Progress
Date: October 16, 2017
Time: 12:30 - 2:00 pm
Location: Abramsom Research Center, 123-C
Sandra Amaral, MD, MHS will present "U-REAACT: a Multi-Center Trial to Engage Youth with Kidney and Urological diseases in their Treatment Adherence through text messaging, positive feedback and financial incentives." Gregory Tasian, MD, MSc, MSCE will present "PUSH: Integrating Technology, Financial Incentives, and Structured Problem Solving to Maintain High Fluid Intake Among Adolescents and Adults with Kidney Stones​."​ Register here.

Fighting Asthma Disparities Summit
Date: October 17, 2017
Time: 7:45 AM - 4:00 PM
Location: Roberts Center for Pediatric Research
A look at the past 20 years of childhood asthma research and clinical practice guidelines and a view of current trends in asthma diagnosis and treatment, particularly as it relates to morbidity, mortality and racial and ethnic disparities, will deepen our knowledge of the current state of this issue and assist us in understanding and identifying gaps in policy and programming. Register here by October 5. Contact Yolanda Williams at 215-590-5261 or capp1@email.chop.edu with any questions.
CPCE in
the News!
Recent Publications
There are few reports on treatment of antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis (AAV) in children. This study by Dr. Pamela Weiss and colleagues characterizes the use of cyclophosphamide, rituximab, and plasma exchange in children hospitalized with AAV in the United States.

CPCE experts describe treatment approaches and treatment-related complications in 138 hospitalized children with disseminated Lyme disease. Patients who received parenteral antibiotics had a higher rate of complications than those who received oral therapy, suggesting that oral therapy should be used preferentially if either route is supported by current guidelines.

Dr. Pamela Weiss led a multicenter retrospective comparative effectiveness study of children diagnosed with enthesitis-related arthritis to characterize the effect of anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF) therapy compared to conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (csDMARD).

A newly proposed surveillance definition for ventilator-associated conditions among neonatal and pediatric patients has been associated with increased morbidity and mortality among ventilated patients in cardiac ICU, neonatal ICU, and PICU. This study aimed to identify potential risk factors associated with pediatric ventilator-associated conditions.

Parents may experience psychological distress when a child is acutely hospitalized, which can negatively affect child outcomes. Interventions designed to support parents' coping have the potential to mitigate this distress.

To determine age-stratified prevalence of concomitant bacterial meningitis in infants ≤60 days with a urinary tract infection, Dr. Fran Balamuth along with the Pediatric Emergency Medicine Collaborative Research Committee (PEM CRC) HSV Study Group performed a 23-center, retrospective study of 1737 infants with urinary tract infection.

The recommended first-line treatment for young children infected with HIV includes the liquid formulation of the co-formulated protease inhibitors lopinavir/ritonavir Kaletra. Clinical reports indicate that some children readily accept the taste of Kaletra, whereas others strongly reject it, which can deter therapeutic adherence and outcomes. As a proof-of-concept approach, a sensory panel of genotyped adults was used to document the range of individual differences in the taste and palatability of the liquid formulation of Kaletra and other taste stimuli. The use of a sensory panel holds promise as a first step in determining the nature of individual differences in the palatability of existing pediatric drug formulations and sources of variation.

National guidelines recommend blood cultures for children hospitalized with presumed bacterial community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) that is moderate or severe. This research sought to determine the prevalence of bacteremia and characterize the microbiology and penicillin-susceptibility patterns of positive blood culture results among children hospitalized with CAP.

Invasive fungal disease (IFD) is a life-threatening condition, especially in immunocompromised children. The role of diagnostic imaging in children at risk for an IFD is multifactorial, including initially detecting it, evaluating for dissemination of infection beyond the primary site of disease, monitoring the response to antifungal therapy, and assessing for potential relapse. The objective of this review was to synthesize the published literature relevant to the use of various imaging modalities for the diagnosis and management of IFD in children.
sive fungal diseases are important clinical problems that are often complicated by severe illness and therefore the inability to use invasive measures to definitively diagnose the disease. Tests for a range of fungal biomarkers that do not require an invasive sample-collection procedure have been incorporated into adult clinical practice, but pediatric data and pediatric-specific recommendations for some of these diagnostic tools are lacking. In this review, Dr. Brian Fisher and colleagues summarize the published literature and contemporary strategies for using the biomarkers galactomannan, (1→3)-β-d-glucan, Candida mannan antigen and anti-mannan antibody, and fungal polymerase chain reaction for diagnosing invasive fungal disease in children.

Considerable progress has been made in the prevention, diagnosis, and management of pediatric patients with invasive fungal disease (IFD). The reported decreasing trend in the incidence of invasive candidiasis (IC) over the past 15 years in both neonates and children has been encouraging. Nevertheless, due to the growing number of immunocompromised children at risk for IFD, this disease continues to be associated with significant morbidity and death and with increased financial burden to the health care system. Therefore, it is important to understand the contemporary epidemiology of IFD.

Some of the most difficult clinical ethics consultations involve patients who have both medical and mental health needs, as these cases can result in considerable moral distress on the part of the bedside staff. In this article Dr. Chris Feudtner and team examine the issues that such consults raise through the illustrative example of a particular case.

Funding Opportunities
The Caplan Foundation for Early Childhood is intended to be an incubator of promising research and development projects that may ultimately enhance the development, health, safety, education or quality of life of children from infancy through seven years of age across the country. Each of its grants is made with the expectation that a successful project outcome will be of significant interest to other investigators or developers, within the grantee’s field of endeavor, and will be amenable to beneficial application or adaptation elsewhere. In essence, the foundation’s goal is to provide seed money for those imaginative endeavors, addressed to the needs of young children, which appear most likely to bear fruit on a national scale.

The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) will release a new Funding Announcement (PFA) on Implementation of Effective Shared Decision Making Approaches in Practice Settings on September 1, 2017.

CPCE offers awards twice each year through its Pilot Grant Program. The purpose of this program is to promote and support CHOP investigators in clinical effectiveness pilot research studies that will attract external support for large-scale studies. Selected proposals will be supported for up to a maximum of $10,000 for one year. Projects should be able to be completed within one year.

The program provides up to 12 months of funding for laboratory, translational and clinical research projects to enable the continuation of an essential level of activity that can lead to additional external funding. Investigators and faculty with extramurally funded research projects administered through CHOP Research Institute are eligible for bridge funding. Pilot studies or other unfunded research will not be considered.

The Greenwall Faculty Scholars Program in Bioethics is a career development award to enable junior faculty members to carry out innovative bioethics research. Applicants must be junior faculty members holding at least a 60% appointment in a tenure series at a university or non-profit research institute in the United States. Priority will be given to applicants who have not yet been considered for tenure, who have not received a comparable career development award, and whose work will have an impact on public policy, biomedical research, or clinical practice. The award supports 50% of a Scholar’s salary plus benefits for three years, plus $5,000 each year for limited project support and travel.

Grants of up to $20,000 are available to help support the research of faculty members or post-doctoral researchers affiliated with non-profit human service organizations in the United States and Canada. Areas of interest to the Fund are: studies to develop, refine, evaluate, or disseminate innovative interventions designed to prevent or ameliorate major social, psychological, behavioral or public health problems affecting children, adults, couples, families, or communities, or studies that have the potential for adding significantly to knowledge about such problems.

The American Kidney Fund Clinical Scientist in Nephrology (CSN) fellowship program enhances the training of nephrologists who wish to pursue an academic career and whose primary professional commitment is to scholarship in the provision of patient care. CSN fellows conduct prevention and outcomes research while receiving advanced training in essential skills such as medical ethics, biostatistics and epidemiology.

Last year, the NIH received approximately $30 billion in federal support. In spite of this amount, about 42,500 grants were not funded. To address these unfunded proposals, the NIH has a new Pilot Program that is designed to match researchers with nonprofit disease Foundations or with investments from private companies. Through a new collaboration between the NIH and the private contractor Leidos, researchers can now upload their unfunded NIH Proposals into an online portal at the Online Partnership to Accelerate Research (OnPAR). Foundations and other potential funders can review the NIH scores, and decide whether they might be interested in funding the Projects. Currently, this Pilot Program allows researchers with priority scores better than the 30th percentile to submit their abstracts. Interested Foundations might ask that a researcher send their full NIH Application along with its scores. The consensus opinion is that there are a lot of worthy grants being submitted to the NIH, but there is only so much funding available. OnPAR is one way of trying to match researchers with private Foundations. 
About CPCE
We are a pediatric research center dedicated to discovering and sharing knowledge about best practices in pediatric care by facilitating, organizing and centralizing the performance of clinical effectiveness research -- research aimed at understanding the best ways to prevent, diagnose and treat diseases in children. CPCE’s multidisciplinary team conducts research on a diverse range of clinical effectiveness topics grouped within four areas of research: