NIH grant: Pediatric Sepsis Criteria for the Emergency Care Continuum (1R01HD117962-01A1)

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NIH grant 1R01HD117962-01A1: Pediatric Sepsis Criteria for the Emergency Care Continuum
Institute: {'code': 'HD', 'abbreviation': 'NICHD', 'name': 'Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development', 'admin_org_id': '12500030', 'admin_funding_url': ''}. PI: Tellen  Bennett. Award: $749653.
Start: 2026-06-25T00:00:00.
Title: Pediatric Sepsis Criteria for the Emergency Care Continuum
Sepsis is a global public health problem for children, who experience 25 million cases and 3.4 million deaths
annually. Timely diagnosis can be lifesaving, but existing diagnostic tools lack accuracy for identifying at-risk
children early. Previous work by members of this study team to develop the Phoenix criteria for pediatric sepsis
was a breakthrough in achieving consensus on data-driven criteria for defining sepsis. These criteria have
several strengths, but they do not inform clinicians which children are at risk for sepsis and could benefit from
earlier treatment. This project will fill this gap by developing and validating screening and diagnostic criteria
tailored to emergency care settings where children with sepsis first receive treatment. We will leverage three
unique datasets, two of which we will generate during the study period, which collectively include >3 million
pediatric emergency visits. We will also engage a multi-disciplinary panel of Emergency Care Continuum
experts, including emergency physicians and nurses from pediatric and general Emergency Departments
(EDs), prehospital clinicians, and pediatric ICU physicians. SA 1 will develop and validate suspected sepsis
criteria to identify children at risk for sepsis during emergency care. The criteria will predict Phoenix sepsis. In
an iterative data-driven Delphi process, machine learning will guide the development of the best-performing
suspected sepsis criteria; the process will also incorporate implementation feasibility and clinical context. SA 2
will design and evaluate prototype Electronic Health Record (EHR) and mobile clinical decision support tools
for pediatric sepsis screening in emergency settings. We will build tools suitable for prehospital, general ED,
and pediatric ED settings based on the new suspected sepsis criteria, using human-centered design methods.
SA 3 will validate the suspected sepsis criteria in a prospective deployment in the EHR at 2 sites. We have
assembled a team of accomplished investigators who will work in partnership with national, multicenter
emergency care and sepsis organizations to advance the science and clinical care of children with sepsis.
Successful completion of this work will produce a set of pediatric sepsis prediction criteria that are feasible,
pragmatic, and accurate across emergency care settings and designed and optimized for dissemination. In
addition, we will develop clinical decision support tools that run in EHRs and on mobile devices and are ready
for use at the bedside and in the field. These tools have the potential to improve early identification, first-hours
treatment, and outcomes of children with sepsis wherever they first receive emergency care. This work aligns
with NIH priorities including care and treatment of critical illness in pediatric populations and collaborative
multidisciplinary research across the continuum of care.

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