Overview/Mission
PTCIB supports research and training focused on preventing, treating, and reducing all forms of childhood traumatic injury and critical illness across the continuum of care.
These activities include research to understand the biobehavioral, psychosocial, and pathophysiologic aspects of trauma; to improve prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of trauma and critical illness in infants, children, adolescents, and young adults; and to reduce secondary injury and comorbidities.
Highlights
- OTA-25-001: Post-Crash EMS Data Science Initiative (PDF 244 KB)
- Now Available: HEAL KIDS (Knowledge, Innovation, and Discovery Studies) Pain Program. NICHD is leading activities for the KIDS Pain Program, part of NIH's Helping to End Addiction Long-term Initiative® (NIH HEAL Initiative®), through two Requests for Application (RFAs), RFA-HD-24-011 and RFA-HD-24-012. Check out these newly posted Frequently Asked Questions and the recording from a technical assistance webinar related to the KIDS Pain Program and the RFAs on the HEAL Initiative website.
- PTCIB leads and participates in NICHD’s activities related to COVID-19, which includes co-sponsoring NOT-HD-21-026: Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Research on the Impact of the Covid 19 Pandemic and Risks for Abuse and Injury Among Vulnerable Children and Youth
- PTCIB also co-sponsors NOT-HD-21-048: NOSI: Research on Drowning Prevention
- Highlights from selected branch-funded research:
- Lurie Children’s Hospital Launches App to Help Screen Bruises in Young Children for Potential Abuse. Lurie Emergency Medical Physician Mary Clyde Pierce, M.D., used the evidence she and colleagues helped gather for an NICHD-funded study on the prevalence of bruising among infants in pediatric emergency departments (EDs) (PMID: 26233923) to develop the Lurie Children’s Child Injury Plausibility Assessment Support Tool (LCAST) app. According to the study, many cases of physical child abuse (PCA) are missed initially because early signs of abuse go unrecognized. Bruising is one of the most common signs of PCA and is missed as an early warning sign in up to 44% of fatal and near-fatal cases. Dr. Clyde Pierce and colleagues based LCAST on the study’s research that derived, refined, and validated a bruising clinical decision rule that specifies body regions on which bruising is likely due to abuse in infants and young children. Learn more about LCAST from this CBS News Chicago interview with Dr. Clyde Pierce .
- ED Pediatric Readiness and Short-Term and Long-Term Mortality Among Children Receiving Emergency Care. This cohort study of nearly 800,000 children who received care in close to 1,000 U.S. EDs demonstrated significantly lower odds of in-hospital death among children who received care at EDs with a high readiness to care for children. Additionally, for children followed beyond hospitalization, the benefit of high-readiness ED care continued for up to 1 year. (PMID: 36637819)
- Licensing Examination and Crash Outcomes Postlicensure in Young Drivers. This cohort study of more than 130,000 adolescents and young adults (16 to 24 years old) revealed that driver license applicants between the ages of 16 to 17 who underwent comprehensive licensing requirements (including graduated driver licensing, driver education, and behind-the-wheel practice) performed better on licensing exams than their older counterparts who were not subject to these requirements. Moreover, this younger population with comprehensive licensing requirements had lower crash rates 1 year postlicensure. (PMID: 35467733)
- Video: PTCIB Chief Dr. Valerie Maholmes Talks About TBI in Kids
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