Ann & Robert H. Lurie Youngsters’s Hospital of Chicago introduced final week that it has been awarded $12 million to check a brand new technique for prescribing antibiotics in younger kids with gentle pneumonia.
In partnership with College of Utah Well being, clinicians and researchers at Lurie Youngsters’s will examine whether or not an method referred to as safety-net antibiotic prescription (SNAP) ends in lowered antibiotic use and related medical enchancment in contrast with quick antibiotic use, which is the present commonplace of look after younger kids with gentle pneumonia. With the SNAP method, suppliers do not give the kid an antibiotic except the kid’s signs worsen or don’t enhance inside 3 days.
The research might be performed at Lurie Youngsters’s and three different pediatric emergency departments throughout the nation, in addition to 12 pediatric main care places of work and three pressing care facilities which might be a part of the Pediatric Analysis Consortium at Youngsters’s Hospital of Philadelphia. The funding comes from the Affected person-Centered Outcomes Analysis Institute.
Avoiding pointless antibiotics
Co-principal research investigator Todd Florin, MD, of Lurie Youngsters’s and Northwestern College Feinberg Faculty of Medication, mentioned the SNAP technique is at present really helpful for youngsters’s ear infections however has not been evaluated in pneumonia.
“Most pneumonias in younger kids are attributable to a virus, which the physique fights off with out antibiotics,” Florin mentioned in a hospital press launch. “Regardless of this, most kids with pneumonia are at present handled with antibiotics. It is very important keep away from exposing kids to pointless antibiotics for a lot of causes, together with their negative effects, akin to rashes that may mimic allergic reactions or an upset abdomen.”
Julia Szymczak, PhD, of College of Utah Well being, mentioned the research might generate proof that may assist dad and mom and pediatricians navigate what generally is a troublesome choice.
“No one needs to provide pointless drugs, however it’s scary to care for a kid with pneumonia and it’s typically unclear whether or not an antibiotic will assist,” she mentioned. “SNAP empowers dad and mom to provide their youngster an opportunity to combat off the an infection on their very own whereas additionally having quick entry to antibiotics if it turns into clear they’re wanted.”