BC Children’s Hospital is part of a new cross-Canada network to ensure a coordinated research response to COVID-19. Supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the platform will enhance collaboration and information-sharing between research teams to fully understand the impacts of COVID-19 and improve the health and wellbeing of children and youth.
The federal government is investing $6.7M over two years in the pediatric COVID-19 research platform: Pediatric Outcome Improvement through Coordination of Research Networks (POPCORN). The overall objective of POPCORN is to further understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and to prepare child health researchers and their networks for the next pandemic or public health issue of importance.
Led by Dr. Caroline Quach at the Centre hospitalier universitaire Sainte-Justine in Montreal, POPCORN will support 16 research sites in pediatric hospitals across the country, including BC Children’s Hospital. This collaboration will allow research sites to mobilize knowledge and provide the latest evidence to decision-makers in Canada and around the world.
Dr. Quynh Doan, interim Senior Executive Director at the BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute and one of the investigators participating in the new research platform in partnership with Pediatric Emergency Research Canada (PERC), says, “This network will help us build on the lessons we’ve learned in this pandemic and assess the impact of COVID-19 on child health. We are proud that BC Children’s investigators are integral to this new network and our involvement is a testament to the world-leading work that is carried out at our research institute.”
Other BC Children’s Hospital investigators involved in POPCORN include:
- Dr. Garth Meckler, also in partnership with PERC.
- Dr. Matt Carwana is the co-PI for the Unintended Consequences POPCORN project across all 16 sites and is also an investigator with the Paediatric Inpatient Research Network (PIRN).
- Dr. Fiona Muttalib is the site lead for the POPCORN network in Vancouver and together with Dr. Srinivas Murthy are part of the Canadian Critical Care Trials Group (CCCTG).
- Dr. Manish Sadarangani is the lead investigator on behalf of the Canadian Immunization Monitoring Program, ACTive (IMPACT).
- Dr. Julie Bettinger, Dr. Jen Tam and Dr. Tatiana Sotindjo are involved across the POPCORN network in the areas of epidemiology (Dr. Bettinger), training (Dr. Tam) and equity, diversity and inclusion (Dr. Sotindjo).
Credit: CIHR News release
