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Institute for Prehospital Pediatrics and Community Research (IPPER) Locations Contact Information Request an Apppointment     Email This Page Print This Page           Institute for Prehospital Pediatrics and Community Research (IPPER) The Institute for Prehospital Pediatrics and Community Research (IPPER) is the interface between Children’s National Medical Centerand the Emergency Medical Services for Children (EMSC) community. The institute promotes improved regional and national care for pediatrics in the emergency setting. The institute manages a large grant portfolio of programs and research to investigate and improve the care of critically-ill and injured children in the Washington, DC, region and provides resources to the national EMSC community. IPPER Projects CARN is one of four nodes comprising the organizational structure of the national Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN). PECARN is the first federally-funded pediatric emergency medicine research network, consisting of 21 hospital emergency departments dedicated to rigorous, multi-institutional research on the prevention, and management of acute illness and injury in children. PECARN has a dedicated governance structure that maintains stringent project oversight and management to monitor quality assurance and provide additional data management and analysis support. For more information on PECARN and PECARN-related research, visit www.pecarn.org Children with Special Healthcare Needs IPPER addresses the development and implementation of model EMS protocols for children with special healthcare needs. The program developed a Special Children's Outreach and Prehospital Education (SCOPE) curriculum, which educates prehospital medical providers on tools, techniques, and orientation to the special needs of medically complicated children. The EMS Outreach program connects the parents of children with special healthcare needs with local EMS providers to ensure that their needs are better met in the context of a medical emergency. Emergency Medical Services for Children(EMSC) The EMSC program supports improvements in the quality of pediatric medical care to reduce childhood morbidity and mortality resulting from severe illness or trauma. This federal initiative evolved out of a growing recognition that children have unique needs in emergency situations, which often vary from those of adults due to physiological, developmental, and psychological differences. The program is federally-funded to expand and improve emergency medical services for children in each state. Since its establishment in 1984, the EMSC has improved the availability of child-appropriate equipment in ambulances and emergency departments. Through grants to states and territories, it supports hundreds of programs to prevent injuries and provides thousands of hours of training to EMTs, paramedics, and other emergency medical care providers. Support for the EMSC Program led to legislation mandating EMSC programs in several states and the development of educational materials to cover every aspect of pediatric emergency care. EMSC in the Nation’s Capital IPPER has an ongoing relationship with the DC Department of Health and EMS Advisory Committee. This partnership successfully revised the prehospital pediatric protocols to reflect a state-of-the-art standard of care adapted to the needs of the nation’s capital. The DC EMSC program facilitates direct and indirect pediatric medical oversight for prehospital care through updated protocols and education courses such as PALS (Pediatric Advance Life Support). District of Columbia EMSC The District of Columbia’s current EMSC grant, “Operational Capacity, Training Maintenance, and EMSC Permanence in the District of Columbia” aims to: Assess specific performance measures related to the District’s operational capacity to provide appropriate and effective pediatric emergency care, including on-line and off-line medical direction, prehospital ambulance equipment and supplies, hospital recognition process, and interfacility transfer agreements Promote and monitor the adoption of requirements for pediatric education for paramedics Advocate for and monitor the established permanence of education and protocolization of EMSC in the District’s EMS system Establish EMSC permanence in District of Columbia statues/rules Model Protocols DC’s EMSC developed a model set of prehospital protocols for children with special healthcare needs. These protocols will be published as a national model for EMS protocols.