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Incidence of Healthcare-Associated Influenza-Like Illness After a Primary Care Encounter Among Young Children.

Acute respiratory tract infections and health maintenance are among the most common reasons for visits to a pediatric primary care setting, thus, healthy children are often exposed to communicable diseases in these settings. Despite the obvious risk of disease transmission, little is known about the risk of healthcare-associated infections attributable to outpatient encounters. New research from Dr. Kristen Feemster found that pediatric clinic visits during respiratory virus season were significantly associated with an increased incidence of subsequent influenza-like illness in children aged 2 – 6 years. These results could aid in the development of effective infection-prevention strategies for primary care settings, which offer multiple opportunities for disease transmission. 

Support for Self-Management and Prenatal Health Behavior Change: Implications for Pediatric Promotion of Interconception Care.

While it is often considered difficult to promote positive health behaviors among new parents, pregnancy is considered a time when women are particularly able to adopt positive health behaviors. Many factors may account for the relative ease of behavior change during pregnancy, including access to health insurance, increased health care utilization, and eligibility for services such as home visiting or employer-based wellness programs. However, behavior change models suggest that the interconception period, or the time between pregnancies, should be a favorable time for health behavior change as well. Women often stay in frequent contact with the health care system during this period as they seek routine care for their infants. Understanding the factors that drive behavior change during pregnancy could allow health systems to replicate those features in pediatric settings, allowing pediatricians to attempt to sustain those behaviors through the interconception period. 

Comparison of Empiric Antibiotics for Acute Osteomyelitis in Children.

Broad-spectrum antibiotics are commonly used for the empiric treatment of acute hematogenous osteomyelitis and often target methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) with medication-associated risk and unknown treatment benefit. Dr. Ron Keren and colleagues aimed to compare clinical outcomes among patients with osteomyelitis who did and did not receive initial antibiotics used to target MRSA.

The Codesign of an Interdisciplinary Team-based Intervention Regarding Initiating Palliative Care in Pediatric Oncology. 

Children with advanced cancer are often not referred to palliative care or hospice care before they die or, if they are referred, it is only close to the time of death. Many parents of children who die of cancer wish that they had received palliative care. Palliative care referrals may be delayed because clinicians are unfamiliar with palliative care, unsure of when referrals are appropriate, worried about upsetting families by mentioning palliative care, and for many other reasons. The goals of this project were to learn about pediatric oncology team members’ perspectives on palliative care, to collaborate with team members to modify and tailor three separate interdisciplinary team-based interventions regarding initiating palliative care, and to assess the feasibility of this collaborative approach.

"We did not know what was wrong"-Barriers along the care cascade among hospitalized adolescents with HIV in Gaborone, Botswana.

Worldwide, adolescent AIDS-related deaths are increasing, despite improvements in access to antiretroviral therapy. High mortality among adolescents with HIV reflects delays and failures in the care continuum. Dr. Elizabeth Lowenthal and colleagues sought to elucidate critical missed opportunities and barriers to care among adolescents hospitalized with HIV at Botswana’s tertiary referral hospital. They conducted semi-structured interviews with adolescents and their caregivers to explore delays and barriers to care. Barriers to adherence to antiretroviral therapy included nondisclosure, isolation, and mental health concerns. To improve treatment outcomes, greater access to disclosure support, peer groups, adherence support, and mental health care is needed. 

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American Society for Hematology Bridge Grants Program (due May 1)

The mission of the American Society for Hematology is to further the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disorders affecting the blood, bone marrow, and immunologic, hemostatic and vascular systems through the promotion of research, clinical care, education, training, and advocacy in hematology. To that end, ASH is accepting proposals from hematologists whose research would not otherwise be accomplished due to cuts in NIH funding. The Bridge Grants program will provide at least thirty one-year awards annually, in the amount of $150,000 each, to ASH members who applied for an NIH R01 grant or equivalent but were denied funding due to budget cuts. Grants will support projects in basic, translational, patient-oriented, or outcomes-based research.

Gerber Foundation Pediatric Research Projects (concept paper due May 15)

The foundation awards grants for research focused on issues faced by care providers that, when implemented, will improve health, nutrition, and/or developmental outcomes for infants and young children. Projects can address the etiologic mechanisms of disease; new, improved, or less invasive diagnostic procedures; the reduction or elimination of side effects; the alleviation of symptoms; new, improved, or less invasive therapies or treatments; dosage or dosing requirements or mechanisms for drugs, nutrient supplementation, or other therapeutic measures (under or overdosing); and preventative measures. The total requested grant size should be no more than $350,000.

Children's Cardiomyopathy Foundation Research Grants (LoI due June 13)

The Children’s Cardiomyopathy Foundation is accepting Letters of Intent from investigators for basic science, clinical, population/epidemiologic, and translational research on cardiomyopathies affecting children age 18 and younger. Grants of up to $50,000 will be awarded to studies focused on the causes, diagnosis, or treatment of dilated, hypertrophic, restrictive, arrhythmogenic right ventricular, and left ventricular non-compaction cardiomyopathy. The grants are designed to provide seed funding to help secure long-term funding by the National Institutes of Health and other major granting institutions.

Rheumatology Research Foundation Scientist Development Award (due July 2)

The Rheumatology Research Foundation is accepting applications for its 2018 Scientist Development Award, an annual program designed to provide support for a structured, formal, clinical, or basic science research training program for rheumatologists or health professionals in the field of rheumatology. Grants of up to $225,000 for up to three years will be awarded to individuals in the early stages of their careers or those without significant prior research experience who plan to embark on a career in biomedical and/or clinical research in arthritis and rheumatic diseases. 

American Legion Child Welfare Foundation Grants (due July 15)

The American Legion Child Welfare Foundation supports organizations that contribute to the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual welfare of children. The foundation awards grants for the dissemination of information about new and innovative programs designed to benefit youth or information already possessed by well-established organizations. Projects must have the potential to help American children in a large geographic area (more than one state).

OnPAR Program for Unfunded NIH Proposals

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.