Research

Research in the Division of Emergency Medicine is helping set new standards of care, both for first responders who transport infants and children in life-threatening situations and for the emergency department medical teams that treat them.

The division has a robust clinical research infrastructure including a dedicated research office adjacent to the Emergency Department. Our clinical researchers are led by Robert W. Hickey, MD and supported by five registered nurses and three research assistants. In recent years, the division’s clinical research team has annually enrolled, on average, about 2,400 children in various studies, a full list of which can be found here.

Our key studies are funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the division is a member of the prestigious Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network, a consortium of 18 children’s hospitals performing large-scale pediatric emergency medicine research studies funded by the federal government.

Recent clinical research programs by the division have examined treatment of urinary tract infections, treatment of concussion, management of young febrile infants, diagnosis of pneumonia, identification of cervical spine injuries, non-invasive diagnosis of strep throat, and prevalence of influenza, to name a few.

With NIH support, basic and translational research by the Division of Emergency Medicine is led by Mioara Manole, MD, FAAP, and includes investigations into pediatric asphyxial cardiac arrest, adult cardiac arrest, and pediatric and adult traumatic brain injury. Our state-of-the-art translational laboratory is also part of the internationally recognized Safar Center for Resuscitation Research.

Access our Clinical Studies at UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh »

Recent Publications

- Intranasal Fentanyl and Discharge from the Emergency Department Among Children with Sickle Cell Disease and Vaso-occlusive Pain: A Multicenter Pediatric Emergency Medicine Perspective. Rees CA, Brousseau DC, Ahmad FA, Bennett J, Bhatt S, Bogie A, Brown KM, Casper TC, Chapman LL, Chumpitazi CE, Cohen DM, Dampier C, Ellison AM, Grasemann H, Hatabah D, Hickey RW, Hsu LL, Bakshi N, Leibovich S, Patil P, Powell EC, Richards R, Sarnaik S, Weiner DL, Morris CR; SCD Arginine Study Group and PECARN.Am J Hematol. 2023 Jan 6. doi: 10.1002/ajh.26837. Online ahead of print.PMID: 36606705

- The development of a novel natural language processing tool to identify pediatric chest radiograph reports with pneumonia, Rixe N, Frisch A, Wang Z, Martin J, Suresh S, Florin TA, Ramgopal S. Front Digit Health, 2023, (In press).

- Increased severity of abusive head trauma during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Cercone DJ, Berger RP, Manole MD, Soung JK, Coombs CM, Noorbakhsh KA.  Child Abuse Negl. 2023 Jan;135:105971. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2022.105971. Epub 2022 Nov 21. PMID: 36427395.

- Ramgopal S, Jaeger L, Cercone A, Martin-Gill C, Fishe J. The Child Opportunity Index and Pediatric Emergency Medical Services Utilization. Prehosp Emerg Care. 2023;27(2):238-245. doi: 10.1080/10903127.2022.2076268. Epub 2022 May 31. PMID: 35536226.

- Point-of-care ultrasound for the evaluation of neck masses in the pediatric emergency department. Stem CT, Marin JR, Perera ND, Azhdam DB. . Pediatr Emerg Care 2022;38(2): e1019-e1021.

- Resource utilization during low-acuity pediatric emergency department visits. Li J, Ramgopal S, Marin JR. Pediatr Emerg Care 2022;39(2):e983-987.

- Pediatric patients brought by emergency medical services to the emergency department: An analysis from the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey Ramgopal S, Varma S, Janofsky S, Martin-Gill C, Marin JR.. Pediatr Emerg Care 2022;38(2):e791-e798.

- Risk-stratification in febrile infants 29 to 60 days old: A cost-effectiveness analysis. Noorbakhsh KA, Ramgopal S, Rixe NS, Dunnick J, Smith KJ. BMC Pediatrics. 2022 Dec;22(1):1-1.

- Comparison of crosswalk methods for translating ICD-9 to ICD-10 diagnosis codes for child maltreatment. Noorbakhsh KA, Berger RP, Ramgopal S. Child Abuse & Neglect. 2022 May 1;127:105547.

- The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on child protective services caseworkers and administrators.Veronica Renov, Lauren Risser, Rachel Berger, Tammy Hurley, Andrés Villaveces,Sarah DeGue, Abigail Katz,Cynterria Henderson, Kelly Premo Janine Talis,Judy C. Chang, and Maya Ragavan  PMID: 34953611