New Chair for the Pediatric Emergency Research Networks

May 2014: The PERN Executive Committee is honored to announce that Dr. Nathan Kuppermann is the new Chair of the Pediatric Emergency Research Networks Executive Committee. Dr. Kuppermann is a Professor of Emergency Medicine and Pediatrics, and Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine, UC Davis School of Medicine, Sacramento, California.

He is a nationally recognized expert in pediatric emergency medicine. In addition to his clinical work, he has made outstanding research contributions, promoting global and national collaborations among leading pediatric emergency departments to advance the care of critically ill and injured children. He has been an inspirational and supportive member of PERN since its inception.

PERN’s departing chair, Dr. Terry Klassen, brought inspiration, leadership, friendship and extraordinary achievements to PERN. His investment and the effective collaborations he built are greatly valued and the Executive Committee looks forward to continue their successful work under Dr. Kuppermann’s leadership.

In October 2009, leaders of five pediatric emergency research networks formed a global research initiative known as Pediatric Emergency Research Networks (PERN). The participating networks include: the Pediatric Emergency Medicine Collaborative Research Committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics (PEMCRC, United States), Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN, United States), Pediatric Emergency Research of Canada (PERC, Canada), Pediatric Research in Emergency Departments International Collaborative (PREDICT, Australia and New Zealand), and Research in European Pediatric Emergency Medicine (REPEM, 15 countries in Europe and the Middle East). The inaugural meeting of PERN demonstrated a common desire for high-quality research and the dissemination of this research to improve health and outcomes of acutely ill and injured children and youths throughout the world.

High impact research has been supported since, resulting in collaborations that span the globe with five ongoing projects, three new proposals under review and publications like the 2013 Predictors of Severity of H1N1 Infection at Hospital Presentation in the British Medical Journal.

The five research networks have access to data from over 2 million pediatric emergency presentations per annum, in over 100 hospitals, in four of the six World Health Organization (WHO) regions. PERN supports involvement and/or initiation of similar networks from the remaining regions of Africa, Eastern Mediterranean and Asia as well as South America.

Over the last four years, strong collaborations have been built with a non-formalized group in Argentina, and Pediatric Emergency Research in the UK and Ireland (PERUKI) has officially been added as a sixth network. PERN will keep aiming for global collaboration, as this will result in appropriately powered and generalizable knowledge concerning the emergency treatment of children worldwide.

 The PERN Executive Committee meets quarterly, and open meetings are held annually at the Pediatric Academic Societies and biennially at International Conference on Emergency Medicine, where PERN has achieved the status of Special Interest Group under the IFEM Clinical Practice Committee.

We are inviting Members of PECARN, PREDICT, PERC, REPEM, PEMCRC and PERUKI to join us in congratulating and welcoming him to this new role. The Executive Committee is looking forward to continuing successful collaborations under his leadership.

More information about PERN can be found on its website: pern-global.org