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Paediatrics pillar

The paediatric pillar focuses on diseases and disorders of childhood and seeks to evaluate and challenge established ideas and treatments in the emergency and critical care setting.
The team currently leads a 3 multi-site randomised controlled trials across the areas of paediatric airway management, haemostatic resuscitation and procedural sedation. Collaborating with the Paediatric Research in Emergency Departments International Collaborative (PREDICT) and the Paediatric Critical Care Research Group (PCCRG), we collaborate on a number of multisite research projects across the spectrum of paediatric emergency care.
In 2021/2022 the group was successful in more than A$3m in completive research grants from a number of funding bodies including the NHMRC, Emergency Medicine Foundation, The Thrasher Research Fund and Gold Coast Health.

Research themes

Our research focuses on various themes including:

  • Improving the safety of paediatric airway management
  • Improving recognition, diagnosis and management of paediatric sepsis
  • Haemostatic resuscitation techniques in children using viscoelastic haemostatic assays
  • The use and indications of nasal high flow respiratory support in children
  • Child centred care in the emergency department with a focus on minimising discomfort from procedures and treatment
  • Management of Acute Severe Behavioural Disturbance who have failed non pharmacological de-escalation 
  • To externally validate in children existing clinical decision rules by assessing the accuracy of detecting C-Spine Injury

Our team

Name Job title/s
A/Prof Shane George Pillar lead - Paediatric Emergency and Critical Care Physician
Dr Christa Bell Paediatric Emergency Physician
Dr Donna Franklin Research Fellow
Ms Joanna Cronin Research Nurse
Mr Kieran Owen Research Nurse
Mr Riku Haataja Research Nurse
Mr Nathan Goddard Research Nurse
Mr Anand Namasivayam Research Nurse
Mr Zac Smith Research Nurse
Ms Rachael Dunning Nurse Unit Manager
Ms Brittany Skelsey Department Support Officer

 

 

Our partners


Current projects

Sepsis accounts for more than 1 million annual childhood deaths globally. In Australia, more…

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Children may present to an emergency department with life threatening conditions that require…

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Traumatic injuries in children are a leading cause of death and disability in Australia. In high…

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Publications

Bronchiolitis: Translating evidence into practice

George, S. (2018). Emergency Medicine Australasia, 30(3), 292-292.


Trans-nasal Humidified Rapid Insufflation Ventilatory Exchange in children requiring emergent intubation (Kids THRIVE): a protocol for a randomised controlled trial.

George, S., Humphreys, S., Williams, T., Gelbart, B., Chavan, A., Rasmussen, K., Ganeshalingham, A., Erickson, S., Ganu, S.S., Singhal, N. and Foster, K., 2019. Transnasal Humidified Rapid Insufflation Ventilatory Exchange in children requiring emerg2ent intubation (Kids THRIVE): a protocol for a randomised controlled trial. BMJ open, 9(2), p.e025997.


Levetiracetam versus phenytoin for second-line treatment of convulsive status epilepticus in children (ConSEPT): an open-label, multicentre, randomised controlled trial. 

Dalziel, S.R., Borland, M.L., Furyk, J., Bonisch, M., Neutze, J., Donath, S., Francis, K.L., Sharpe, C., Harvey, A.S., Davidson, A., Craig, S., Phillips, N., George, S., Rao, R., Cheng, N., Zhang, M., Kochar, A., Brabyn, C., and Babl, F. 2019. Levetiracetam versus phenytoin for second-line treatment of convulsive status epilepticus in children (ConSEPT): an open-label, multicentre, randomised controlled trial. The Lancet, 393(10186), pp.2135-2145.



Last updated 30 Jan 2023