General Scholarship Requirements for PCCM Fellows
The American Board of Pediatrics requires scholarship productivity (i.e., a written work product) for certification. Examples of scholarship activity include basic, clinical, or translational biomedicine, health services, quality improvement, bioethics, education, public policy, critical meta-analyses of the literature, systematic review of clinical practice, and curriculum development. Work products include peer-reviewed publications, manuscript preparation under-review, postdoctoral theses or dissertations, extramural grant applications, or progress reports from extended projects such as clinical trials. Traditional training focuses on biostatistics, clinical and laboratory research methodology, study design, preparation of applications for funding and/or approval of clinical or research protocols, critical literature review, principles of evidence-based medicine, ethical principles involving clinical research, and the achievement of proficiency in teaching.
Scholarship for PCCM Fellowship at JHACH
The Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital (JHACH) Pediatric Critical Care Medicine (PCCM) Fellowship regards the above as a minimum requirement. We aim to develop and foster fellows’ passions into anticipated and distinctive academic careers both during and after completion of training. The field of PCCM offers a wide variety of scholarship opportunities and, as such, the exceptional training of the fellow must be both targeted and broad regarding scholarship. Through a combination of core-curriculum, peer-to-peer review, faculty engagement, and expert, transdisciplinary mentorship pairing, our fellows receive both a comprehensive exposure and tailored career development to last far beyond their three years of fellowship.
Our PCCM fellows interested in clinical, translational, and basic sciences participate, after application submission and approval, in the JHAC Clinical and Translational Research Track (CTRT) Training Program. The CTRT program is a 15-month career development program focused on fellows and junior faculty that pairs program mentees with expert clinical scientists and biostatisticians. Quarterly meetings include experiential, didactic, and small-group education and training on the conduct of research, bioethics, team science, and grantsmanship. At the same, time, invested CTRT mentors develop, curate, and drive to completion a mentee’s protocol of interest. Included in the CTRT program is an optional JHAC Foundation Pilot Grant Award for those mentees requiring additional funding. Specific PCCM Fellow projects that have or are currently part of the CTRT program include those thematically characterized by medical education, simulation science, clinical science, and translational science protocols.
Medical Education is fundamental to the mission at JHACH. As such, we have the infrastructure and commitment to shape future leaders in medical education. We give our fellows access to master level classes in medical education and our state-of-the-art simulation center offers a simulation fellowship that our fellows can complete simultaneously with PCCM fellowship. Commitment to crafting medical education leaders includes medical education scholarship. Our fellows interested in medical education will learn to design curricula and publish them through the peer review process on Med-Ed portal. They also will be incorporated into the resident education process and structure research projects around the best ways to train medical professionals.
Our division is also committed to developing leaders in quality improvement. The division chief, Nathan Dean, personally mentors all fellows through a quality improvement project with other members of the division offering their expertise along the way. Every fellow completes a quality and safety course given by our patient safety team.
Past and Current Mentored PCCM Fellow Projects
| Clinical Research | Identifying the role for near infrared spectroscopy on appropriate timing of packed red blood cell transfusion among critically ill children. |
| Clinical Research | Evaluating childhood opportunity index and inpatient mortality and severe inpatient morbidities. |
| Translational Research | Immunomodulation using macrolide antibiotics for children undergoing treatment of critical asthma. |
| Translational Research | Optimal non-invasive ventilation strategies for pediatric critical asthma. |
| Translational Research | Candidate biomarkers of gastrointestinal stress and mesenteric near infrared spectroscopy among children with critical congenital heart disease. |
| Medical Education and Simulation Research | Curriculum development for resident physicians as simulation leaders for pediatric critical care medicine content. |
| Medical Education and Simulation Research | Perceptions analyses, curriculum development, and identification of best practices for pediatric critical care medicine teleconsultation services. |
| Quality Improvement | Limiting fluid overload among critically ill children. |
Other JHACH PCCM Faculty Projects and Interests
- Identification of at-risk pediatric subpopulations and molecular mechanisms for hospital-acquired venous thromboembolism including proceeding thromboprophylaxis clinical trials.
- Evaluation of platelet activation on hospital-acquired venous thromboembolism in systemically inflamed children.
- Assessment of novel global and fibrinolytic plasma assays for pediatric subpopulations including those undergoing invasive mechanical ventilation and hospitalized for COVID-19 infection.
- Exhaled gas condensate for identification of biomarkers for acute lung injury in pediatric patients with acute respiratory failure
- Stewardship regarding endotracheal culture practices among invasively ventilated children.
- Utilization of multicenter pediatric registry data to describe treatment and clinical outcomes among children hospitalized for critical asthma.
- Safe and optimal nutrition delivery among critically ill children receiving non-invasive ventilation and advanced respiratory therapies.
- Social determinants of health, inpatient mortality, and severe inpatient hospital morbidities among children hospitalized in the United States.
- Determining the efficacy of inhaled helium and anesthetic agents for pediatric critical asthma.
- Assessment of barriers to lumbar puncture proficiency and comfort level in trainee physicians.
- Examining the epidemiological outcomes of pulmonary atresia with intact ventricular septum.
- Body mass index and healthcare disparity among children hospitalized with COVID-19 on non-invasive ventilation.
- Conducting clinical trials regarding ideal systemic corticosteroids for pediatric critical asthma.
- Global epidemiologic assessments and characterization of mortality for influenza virus and RSV.
- The utility of high-resolution predictive analytics for determination of noninvasive ventilation nonresponse in children
- Nurse-led pediatric intensive care unit rounds: assessment of efficiency, rounding objectives, and shared mental model development
- The utility of transcutaneous carbon dioxide measurement during pediatric determination of neurologic death
- The effect on enteral nutrition during non-invasive ventilation on respiratory variables and clinical outcomes for children admitted with acute respiratory failure
- Measurement of shared mental model during transitions of care during intrafacility emergency center to intensive care unit handover
- Predictors of exacerbating respiratory failure during non-invasive ventilation among children hospitalized for acute viral bronchiolitis.
- Safety and anthropometric growth after percutaneous gastrostomy placement among critically ill children undergoing cardiothoracic surgery for critical congenital heart disease.
- ICU- Resuscitation and quality CPR, improving outcomes through education and standardization
- Assessing quality of CPR differences on night and weekends versus day time
- Outcomes of CPR stratified based on vasoactive received prior to and during CPR
- Predicting neurologic outcomes utilizing MRI and biomarkers
- Assessing leadership skills in pediatric residents during simulated resuscitation events
- Evaluating the effect of complimentary and alternative medicine strategies on stress experienced by family members of pediatric ICU patients
- Maximizing learning during simulation for multiple level of learners with various experience and expertise