<p><strong>OBJECTIVE: </strong>To examine quality measures for moderate and late preterm (MLP) infants.</p>

<p><strong>STUDY DESIGN: </strong>By prospectively analyzing Vermont Oxford Network's all NICU admissions database, we adapted Baby-MONITOR, a composite quality measure for extremely/very preterm infants, for MLP infants. We examined correlations between the adapted MLP quality measure (MLP-QM) in MLP infants and Baby-MONITOR in extremely and very preterm infants.</p>

<p><strong>RESULT: </strong>We studied 376,219 MLP (30-36 weeks GA) and 57,595 extremely/very preterm (25-29 weeks GA) infants from 465 U.S. hospitals born from 2016 to 2020. MLP-QM summary scores in MLP infants had weak correlation with Baby-MONITOR scores in extremely and very preterm infants (r = 0.47). There was weak correlation among survival (r = 0.19), no pneumothorax (r = 0.35), and no infection after 3 days (r = 0.45), but strong correlation among human milk at discharge (r = 0.79) and no hypothermia (r = 0.76).</p>

<p><strong>CONCLUSION: </strong>Modest correlation among hospital care measures in two preterm populations suggests the need for MLP-specific care measures.</p>

<p>Although inferior outcomes of children with Down syndrome (DS) and acute lymphoid leukaemia (ALL) are established, national supportive care patterns for these patients are unknown. A validated retrospective cohort of paediatric patients diagnosed with ALL from 1999 to 2011 was assembled from the US Pediatric Health Information System (PHIS) database to examine organ toxicity, sepsis, and resource utilization in children with and without DS. Among 10699 ALL patients, 298 had DS-ALL (2·8%). In a multivariate model, DS was associated with increased risk of cardiovascular (odds ratio [OR] 2·0, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1·6-2·7), respiratory (OR 2·1, 95% CI: 1·6-2·9), neurologic (OR 3·4, 95% CI 1·9-6·2), and hepatic (OR 1·4, 95% CI 1·0-1·9) dysfunction and sepsis (OR 1·8, 95% CI: 1·4-2·4). Children with DS-ALL used significantly more respiratory support, insulin, and anti-infectives, including broad-spectrum Gram-positive agents, quinolones, and azoles. They used significantly fewer analgesics and antiemetics compared to non-DS-ALL children. Ultimately, this study confirms the increased risk of infectious and end-organ toxicity in children with DS-ALL and quantifies important differences in resource utilization between children with DS and non-DS ALL. These findings highlight the importance of investigating the impact of these care variations and developing specific supportive care guidelines for this population.</p>

<p>This study is a pharmacoepidemiologic description of pediatric bortezomib use. Exposure was identified through billing codes in patients admitted to US children's hospitals that participated with the Pediatric Health Information System between 2004 and 2013. Associated information on underlying diseases, demographics, institutional use, mortality, and physician type was collected. Exposure to bortezomib was identified in 314 patients. Hematologist/Oncologists prescribed half of the bortezomib used. Use increased during the study period. Inpatient volume was positively correlated with bortezomib utilization. Bortezomib use in pediatrics is increasing for a variety of diseases. Variation in use exists across institutions. Further studies are needed to characterize bortezomib's efficacy in pediatric diseases.</p>

<p><strong>BACKGROUND: </strong>Oncology drug shortage is associated with increased patient adverse events and decreased enrollment on clinical trials for adult patients; however, the impact of oncology drug shortages has not been well studied in children with cancer.</p>

<p><strong>PROCEDURE: </strong>The Children's Oncology Group (COG) distributed a 5-item survey to 226 COG site-specific principal investigators (PI's) and 14-item survey to 161 COG pharmacists to gather data the impact of chemotherapeutic shortages on clinical trials and patient care.</p>

<p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>The response rate was 66.4% (150/226) for PI's and 29.8% (48/161) for pharmacists. COG PI's reported daunorubicin (73%), methotrexate (56%), asparaginase/PEG-asparaginase (42%), doxorubicin (26%), thiotepa (21%), and cytarabine (20%) were most commonly in shortage, while COG pharmacists reported daunorubicin (80%), methotrexate (66%), vincristine (21%), thiotepa (41%), asparaginase/PEG-asparaginase (34%), and cytarabine (34%) were most commonly in shortage over the past two years. Pharmacists were twice as likely to report a shortage compared with PI's (OR 2.1, 95% CI: 1.6-2.7, P &lt; 0.0001). Fifty percent (74/147) of COG PI's reported at least one patient enrolled on a clinical trial was impacted by drug shortage, and 66% (98/148) of COG PI's reported at least one patient had clinical care impacted by drug shortage.</p>

<p><strong>CONCLUSIONS: </strong>Chemotherapy shortages remain widespread across institutions, hinder clinical trials, and may contribute to adverse events in children with cancer. The increased frequency of chemotherapy shortages reported by pharmacists suggests that pharmacist efforts may mitigate negative impact chemotherapy shortages. Over half of pediatric institutions are implementing recommendations to address shortages, such as cross-institutional collaboration and center-level guidelines.</p>