What’s the point of evidence? It’s to gain knowledge, so that we can treat our patients better. But what happens when the data is wrong, faked, misleading, or simply made up? Retraction Watch (www.retractionwatch.com, and @retractionwatch) collates retractions from journals around the world. Their database makes terrifying reading: tens of thousands of papers which have been retracted are all listed, including hundreds of COVID papers. Individual authors have a “leaderboard” (loserboard?) headed by someone with an incredible 194 retractions. We were lucky enough to speak to Ivan Oransky, one o ..read more

From the 2023 PediCritiCon conference in Pune, India, I was lucky enough to chat with Bala Ramachandran from Chennai. He gave a great talk on precision medicine, its implications, and what the future may hold. What’s the difference between personalised medicine and precision medicine? How does it differ to “usual” medicine? What are the tools we can use? Is precision medicine all about the genomics (side note: what’s the difference between genomics and genetics?), or can we make our own practice more precise with the tools we have now? What investigations can we use, and are they ready for rol ..read more

Much research is technical and esoteric. Some research is fundamental and answers questions we want to answer every day. Often the first is easy to do (just add a lab and equipment), but the second is really, really hard. Mark Peters and team have just published the OxyPICU trial in the Lancet. It’s the world’s biggest ever individually randomised trial in PICU, and involved most of the PICUs in the UK to achieve almost 2000 randomisations. The question posed is simple: is a goal of 88-92% oxygen saturations better than 94-98%? We go through the methodology, the statistics (probabalistic index ..read more

PicPod went to the 2023 PediCritiCon conference in Pune, India. It was a superb conference full of content, learning, and Bollywood dancing…! We sat down with Brenda Morrow, Professor of Paediatrics at the Red Cross Hospital in Cape Town, physiotherapist, and president of the World Federation of Paediatric Intensive and Critical Care. She gave the keynote lecture at the conference. Brenda has unparalleled knowledge of the state of intensive care around her region. We discuss the incredible progress which has been made in Malawi, but also the context within intensive care operates. What is “cri ..read more

At the PCCS2023 conference Harish and I were delighted to be invited to be a part of the conference. We were interviewed on stage by Zoltan Gyorgyi and Peter Donnelly, who asked us about the birth of PicPod, the process, and some highlights and lowlights. Unfortunately questions from the audience were not recorded, but thank you to everyone there, and honestly, we were humbled at your thanks. We don’t do this “for the likes”, (note this quote by Banksy), we do this because it’s interesting and fun, but stories of inspiration and learning through the PicPod mean a lot. So PicPod75 is a little d ..read more

One of the most entertaining talks at the 2023 Paediatric Critical Care Society Conference was by Roddy O’Kane, consultant neurosurgeon in Glasgow, on the management of ICP. On the theme of the conference, he was very clear: proper management of ICP depends on excellent team work, and listening to all the members of the team. He spoke also about the dangers of being in PICU: what damage does the deep sedation we use do? Is the primary goal to keep the patient flat, or to get out of PICU? On decompressive craniectomies: what did Rescue ICP tell us, or did it just underline what we thought we kn ..read more

At the 2023 PCCS conference in Edinburgh we chatted to Marie Spiers, Emergency Department consultant in Glasgow, about paediatric traumatic cardiac arrest. How does traumatic cardiac arrest differ to medical cardiac arrest? Is the treatment different? What should we be focusing on? What is the point in chest compressions, and when should they be the absolute priority, and when are they a side show? What can studies in pigs show us, and are they extrapolatable? And, crucially, is “unhose” a word? (it’s not, by the way. Apologies ..read more

Every day we go round the patients, making clear, robust plans so that the day works like clockwork. However, do you know how much of this information sticks with the team? It’s a shockingly low percentage (even JUST AFTER the plan has been made). Listen to Lindsey who spoke at the 2023 PCCS conference in Edinburgh. She goes through the systems which are in place in her unit in Cincinnati, meaning that team knowledge has increased hugely. How does protocolising a ward round help? How do we listen (no, really, really listen) to our team? How are team members empowered to be a part of the proces ..read more

In conjunction with the 2023 Paediatric Critical Care Society Conference in Edinburgh, we have interviewed Cathy MacDonald, one of the keynote speakers. Cathy has had a long career as a police hostage and crisis negotiator. What can she teach us about crisis negotiation? What are the parallels between her world and ours? What are the strategies which can help us when conflict arises? What are the four dimensions of need? Cathy’s a truly inspiring listen, honestly we could have listened to her for hours. Sadly we have cut it down to just under 44 minutes, but every one of those is worth listeni ..read more

This year’s Paediatric Critical Care Society conference in Edinburgh is a sell-out blockbuster. We spoke to Chris Kidson, part of the organising committee, to go over some of the highlights. These range from a hostage negotiator, talks about nutrition, debates on APRV, transfers to Norway, Scottish country dancing, and an early morning run. Can’t wait ..read more