The Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN)
The Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) is the first federally funded pediatric emergency medicine research network in the country. They conduct high-priority, multi-institutional research on the prevention and management of acute illnesses and injuries in children and adolescents. The current PECARN network includes six nodes, each with three hospital Emergency Departments (ED) and a Pre-Hospital Research Node with three EMS agencies. The hospitals represent over 1 million discrete ED visits a year.
Cincinnati Children's leads the Hospitals of the Midwest Emergency Research Node (HOMERUN) node of the PECARN network and continues to maintain a strong infrastructure while integrating the pre-hospital EMS Affiliate, the Cincinnati Fire Department (CFD), into our research initiatives.
- Nodal Principal Investigator Richard Ruddy, MD served as Chair of the PECARN Steering Committee and provided operational oversight of the network.
- Lynn Babcock, MD, MS is the Hospital Emergency Department Affiliates (HEDA) Principal Investigator and oversees PECARN projects at Cincinnati Children's in addition to working with the PECARN future investigator subcommittee in a mentorship role.
- Hamilton Schwartz, MD, MEd, EMS-Scientific Advisor (EMSA) Cincinnati, oversees our EMSA activities including the development and advancement of a Field Advisory Committee (FAC) where educational and research infrastructure and projects are discussed.
