Fifteen sites in states participating in the NIH Institutional Development Award (IDeA) program are being onboarded into the Pediatric Trials Network’s (PTN) POPS study of commonly used medications in children.
The IDeA program aims to build research capacities in states that have historically received low levels of NIH funding by supporting research, faculty development, and infrastructure improvements. The IDeA States Pediatric Clinical Trial Network (ISPCTN), a network of IDeA sites established by the NIH’s Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program, recruits study participants from states whose populations are disproportionately rural and medically underserved.
“Historically, these populations have been underrepresented in multicenter clinical trials and their involvement in this study will provide them an opportunity to participate in clinical research,” said Jeannette Y. Lee, principal investigator for the ISPCTN and Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. “PTN will also provide the sites with a way of interacting with a large community of clinical trial researchers and a venue for contributing to clinical research.”
The Pharmacokinetics of Understudied Drugs Administered to Children Per Standard of Care (POPS) study is designed to better characterize the pharmacokinetics of a variety of commonly used drugs in children and infants for which limited information is available in the pediatric population. More than 70 drugs (36 currently enrolling) used to treat nearly 50 diseases and conditions have been studied so far.
“We are excited to welcome these sites, and feel confident that they will make a vital contribution to the POPS study,” said Dr. Chiara Melloni, co-investigator of the study and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Duke University. “Their participation will allow PTN to expand enrollment and ensure that a more diverse and inclusive population of children is represented in this important study.”
The 15 new study sites are:
- Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage, Alaska
- Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children in Honolulu, Hawaii
- University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kansas
- Tulane University Health Science Center in New Orleans, Louisiana
- University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, Mississippi
- Children’s Mercy Hospitals and Clinics in Kansas City, Missouri
- University of Montana in Missoula, Montana
- Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Dartmouth, New Hampshire
- University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico
- University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska
- Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
- Rhode Island Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island
- University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington, Vermont
- University of South Carolina in Columbia, South Carolina
- West Virginia University Hospital in Morgantown, West Virginia
Four IDeA sites are already participating in the study: the Arkansas Children’s Research Institute in Little Rock, Arkansas; the Alfred I. DuPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Delaware; the University of Louisville Norton Children’s Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky; and the Medical University of South Carolina Children’s Hospital in Charleston, South Carolina.