Ann & Robert H. Lurie Youngsters’s Hospital of Chicago introduced final week that it has been awarded $12 million to review a brand new technique for prescribing antibiotics in younger kids with delicate pneumonia.
In partnership with College of Utah Well being, clinicians and researchers at Lurie Youngsters’s will examine whether or not an method often known as safety-net antibiotic prescription (SNAP) leads to lowered antibiotic use and comparable scientific enchancment in contrast with instant antibiotic use, which is the present commonplace of take care of younger kids with delicate 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 examine will probably 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 can 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 examine investigator Todd Florin, MD, of Lurie Youngsters’s and Northwestern College Feinberg College of Medication, stated the SNAP technique is at present beneficial 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 stated in a hospital press launch. “Regardless of this, most youngsters 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 unwanted side effects, akin to rashes that may mimic allergic reactions or an upset abdomen.”
Julia Szymczak, PhD, of College of Utah Well being, stated the examine may generate proof that can assist mother and father and pediatricians navigate what is usually a troublesome choice.
“No person desires to present pointless drugs, however it’s scary to care for a kid with pneumonia and it’s usually unclear whether or not an antibiotic will assist,” she stated. “SNAP empowers mother and father to present their baby an opportunity to battle off the an infection on their very own whereas additionally having quick entry to antibiotics if it turns into clear they’re wanted.”
