Division of Critical Care Medicine
Critical Care Medicine, CCM, faculty have active research programs across the domains of basic, translational, clinical, health services, and outcomes research, as well as research in informatics, simulation, medical education, and medical ethics.
CCM faculty have a wide range of research programs including:
- the largest CDC-sponsored pediatric COVID-19 research network
- leadership of the Pediatric Acute Lung Injury and Sepsis Investigators Network (PALISI), the largest pediatric clinical-translational research consortium
- a biomaterials, drug delivery, and nanoscience laboratory
- a laboratory focusing on healthcare-associated infections and vaccine development
- a translational program in the immunobiology of critical illness in children
- a perioperative and critical care center for outcomes research and evaluation
- a program on technology-dependent critically ill patients outside of the ICU
- a program to examine and improve the quality of delivery of sedation and analgesia to long-term mechanically ventilated pediatric critically ill patients
- a clinical and bench research program on the nutritional and gastroenterological ramifications of critical care
- a program that uses open data science and modeling tools to study the demand for, and access to, critical hospital services
- a program to develop best practices in educational methods as applied to pediatric critical care medicine
- a program that focuses on documentation related issues in pediatric hospitals
- a program to design and evaluate interactive online education for complex life support technologies including ECMO and cardiopulmonary bypass
- several members of the division who have advanced training in bioethics, and engage in both empirical and normative research on topics relevant to critical care medicine, such as decision making under uncertainty, end-of-life care, medical futility, and the determination of death
- Immersive Design Systems (IDS) laboratory designs and studies impact of immersive technologies (e.g., simulation) on healthcare training, human factors, systems performance, and outcomes
- biomedical informatics for the study of health care delivery to critically ill children
Fellows in critical care are all engaged in research, under the supervision of faculty members in the department (or outside, should the best expertise not be found here). Procedures are in place within the division to help with mentor selection and to track progress of research projects to completion and publication.
Divisional research is supported by divisional, departmental, and hospital funds, as well as federal funding (National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control, and Department of Defense, etc.) and funds from a variety of foundations and industry.
Critical Care Research Fellowship
The fellows in the Division of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, PCCM, become involved in research through a structured and mentored process that guides them to position themselves for an academic career in PCCM. The process also ensures that fellows complete the research requirements for certification by the American Board of Pediatrics. Fellows have pursued a range of research subjects at Boston Children's and at other institutions in Boston.