Paediatric Infectious Diseases (RaPID)
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The Randwick Paediatric Infectious Diseases (RaPID) research group is the clinical research arm of the Department of Infectious Diseases at the Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick and is affiliated with the University of New South Wales, Faculty of Medicine & Health. Our clinicians hold joint academic positions and are involved with a broad range of clinical trials, observational studies, surveillance and laboratory-based studies. We work collaboratively with other tertiary and non-tertiary paediatric hospitals, academic institutions and research institutes nationally and internationally.
Objectives
- Exploring novel antimicrobial strategies to minimise hospitalisations.
- Combatting antimicrobial resistance to preserve safe and effective therapies.
- Best practice for managing maternal and infant infections.
- Optimising antimicrobial treatment and supportive care for immunocompromised children.
- Enhancing immunisation uptake for all children.
- Active surveillance to lead policy on emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases.
- Capacity building for paediatric infectious diseases research across Asia-Pacific.
Impact
- We developed national and international policy, including guidelines for transitioning from IV to oral antibiotic therapy in children undertaken with the Australia and New Zealand Paediatric Infectious Diseases Group.
- We also formulated guidelines for the management of COVID-19 in children with the National COVID-19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce.
- Our BEST trial (BonE and joint infections - Simplifying Treatment in children) is a randomised, controlled trial looking at children with acute, uncomplicated, bone and joint infections, and whether an entirely oral antibiotic treatment is non-inferior to initial IV treatment for 1 to 7 days followed by an oral antibiotic course in achieving full recovery 3 months after presentation.
- Our OPTIMUM trial is a randomised controlled trial comparing food allergies outcomes in children following acellular pertussis versus whole cell pertussis vaccine.
- Our SNAP trial (Staphylococcus aureus Network Adaptive Platform) is an international trial aiming to identify the most effective commonly used clinical interventions to prevent all-cause 90-day mortality in patients with S. aureus bacteraemia.
- Our FOSUTI trial is a non-inferiority, pragmatic, multi-centre adaptive trial evaluating the safety, tolerability, efficacy, and pharmacokinetics of oral Fosfomycin in children with antibiotic-resistant urinary tract infections.
- We collaborated on the Australian cCMV Registry (ACMVR), a database of clinical information about children with confirmed cCMV born or living across Australia and New Zealand which will assist researchers to learn more about this important and little studied virus.
- We collaborate with the Paediatric Active Enhanced Disease Surveillance (PAEDS), a hospital-based active surveillance system which aims to actively monitor children hospitalised with severe disease and collect data to inform immunisation policy and improve child health outcomes.
Collaborators
- Kirby Institute (opens in a new tab)
- Murdoch Children's Research Institute (opens in a new tab)
- National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (opens in a new tab)
- NSW Health Pathology (opens in a new tab)
- Sydney Infectious Diseases Institute (opens in a new tab)
- University of Melbourne (opens in a new tab)
- University of NSW (opens in a new tab)
- University of Sydney (opens in a new tab)
- Virology Research Laboratory (opens in a new tab)
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Dr Phoebe Williams
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Biography
Phoebe is a paediatrician and infectious diseases physician and works within the policy team at NCIRS. As an NHMRC research fellow her work focuses on antimicrobial resistance in children in Southeast Asia and the Pacific.
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Dr Brendan McMullan
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Brendan is a Paediatric Infectious Diseases Specialist at SCH and Senior Research Fellow at UNSW. His research is focused on understanding and improving antimicrobial use in children.
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Dr Adam Bartlett
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Adam is a Paediatric Infectious Diseases Specialist at SCH and researcher at the UNSW Kirby Institute. He conducts research involving HIV, neglected tropical diseases, and geostatistics.
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Prof Pamela Palasanthiran
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Pamela is a Paediatric Infectious Diseases Specialist at the SCH and has a speciality interest in perinatal infections including congenital and postnatal CMV, and HIV.
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