OBJECTIVES: Mechanical power (MP) transferred from the ventilator to the lungs has been proposed as a summary variable that may impact mortality in children with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). To date, no study has shown an association between higher MP and mortality in children with ARDS.

DESIGN: Secondary analysis of a prospective observational study.

SETTING: Single-center, tertiary, academic PICU.

PATIENTS: Five hundred forty-six intubated children with ARDS enrolled between January 2013 and December 2019 receiving pressure-controlled ventilation.

INTERVENTIONS: None.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Higher MP was associated with increased mortality (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] 1.34 per 1 sd increase, 95% CI 1.08-1.65; p = 0.007). When assessing the contribution of individual components of MP, only positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) was associated with mortality (HR 1.32; p = 0.007), whereas tidal volume, respiratory rate, and driving pressure (ΔP = [peak inspiratory pressure (PIP)-PEEP]) were not. Finally, we tested whether there remained an association when specific terms were removed from the MP equation by calculating MP from static strain (remove ΔP), MP from dynamic strain (remove PEEP), and mechanical energy (remove respiratory rate). MP from static strain (HR 1.44; p < 0.001), MP from dynamic strain (HR 1.25; p = 0.042), and mechanical energy (HR 1.29; p = 0.009) were all associated with mortality. MP was associated with ventilator-free days only when using MP normalized to predicted body weight, but not when using measured weight.

CONCLUSIONS: Higher MP was associated with mortality in pediatric ARDS, and PEEP appears to be the component most consistently driving this association. As higher PEEP is used in sicker patients, the association between MP and mortality may reflect a marker of illness severity rather than MP itself being causal for mortality. However, our results support future trials testing different levels of PEEP in children with ARDS as a potential means to improve outcome.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Consumer home monitors (CHM), which measure vital signs, are popular products marketed to detect airway obstruction and arrhythmia. Yet, they lack evidence of infant death prevention, demonstrate suboptimal accuracy, and may result in false alarms that prompt unnecessary acute care visits. To better understand the hospital utilization and costs of CHM, we characterized emergency department (ED) and hospital encounters associated with CHM use at a children's hospital.

METHODS: We used structured query language to search the free text of all ED and admission notes between January 2013 and December 2019 to identify clinical documentation discussing CHM use. Two physicians independently reviewed the presence of CHM use and categorized encounter characteristics.

RESULTS: Evidence of CHM use contributed to the presentation of 36 encounters in a sample of over 300 000 encounters, with nearly half occurring in 2019. The leading discharge diagnoses were viral infection (13, 36%), gastroesophageal reflux (8, 22%) and false positive alarm (6, 17%). Median encounter duration was 20 hours (interquartile range: 3 hours to 2 days; max 10.5 days) and median cost of encounters was $2188 (interquartile range: $255 to $7632; max $84 928).

CONCLUSIONS: Although the annual rate of CHM-related encounters was low and did not indicate a major public health burden, for individual families who present to the ED or hospital for concerns related to CHMs, there may be important adverse financial and emotional consequences.

<p><strong>OBJECTIVE: </strong>Training disruptions, such as planned curricular adjustments or unplanned global pandemics, impact residency training in ways that are difficult to quantify. Informatics-based medical education tools can help measure these impacts. We tested the ability of a software platform driven by electronic health record data to quantify anticipated changes in trainee clinical experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic.</p>

<p><strong>METHODS: </strong>We previously developed and validated the Trainee Individualized Learning System (TRAILS) to identify pediatric resident clinical experiences (i.e. shifts, resident provider-patient interactions (rPPIs), and diagnoses). We used TRAILS to perform a year-over-year analysis comparing pediatrics residents at a large academic children's hospital during March 15 - June 15 in 2018 (Control #1), 2019 (Control #2) and 2020 (Exposure).</p>

<p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>Residents in the exposure cohort had fewer shifts than those in both control cohorts (p &lt; 0.05). rPPIs decreased an average of 43% across all PGY levels, with interns experiencing a 78% decrease in Continuity Clinic. Patient continuity decreased from 23% to 11%. rPPIs with common clinic and emergency department diagnoses decreased substantially during the exposure period.</p>

<p><strong>CONCLUSIONS: </strong>Informatics tools like TRAILS may help program directors understand the impact of training disruptions on resident clinical experiences and target interventions to learners' needs and development.</p>

<p><strong>Objective: </strong>Electronic health record (EHR) simulation with realistic test patients has improved recognition of safety concerns in test environments. We assessed if simulation affects EHR use patterns in real clinical settings.</p>

<p><strong>Materials and Methods: </strong>We created a 1-hour educational intervention of a simulated admission for pediatric interns. Data visualization and information retrieval tools were introduced to facilitate recognition of the patient's clinical status. Using EHR audit logs, we assessed the frequency with which these tools were accessed by residents prior to simulation exposure (intervention group, pre-simulation), after simulation exposure (intervention group, post-simulation), and among residents who never participated in simulation (control group).</p>

<p><strong>Results: </strong>From July 2015 to February 2017, 57 pediatric residents participated in a simulation and 82 did not. Residents were more likely to use the data visualization tool after simulation (73% in post-simulation weeks vs 47% of combined pre-simulation and control weeks, P &lt;. 0001) as well as the information retrieval tool (85% vs 36%, P &lt; .0001). After adjusting for residents' experiences measured in previously completed inpatient weeks of service, simulation remained a significant predictor of using the data visualization (OR 2.8, CI: 2.1-3.9) and information retrieval tools (OR 3.0, CI: 2.0-4.5). Tool use did not decrease in interrupted time-series analysis over a median of 19 (IQR: 8-32) weeks of post-simulation follow-up.</p>

<p><strong>Discussion: </strong>Simulation was associated with persistent changes to EHR use patterns among pediatric residents.</p>

<p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>EHR simulation is an effective educational method that can change participants' use patterns in real clinical settings.</p>