Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN)

Starting in 2001, the Emergency Medical Services for Children (EMSC) Program awarded four competitive cooperative agreements to academic medical centers through a competitive funding mechanism known as the Network Development Demonstration Project (NDDP). These cooperative agreements form the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN), the first federally-funded, multi-institutional network for research in pediatric emergency medicine.

Following the inception of PECARN, a cooperative agreement was awarded to the University of Utah to serve as the Network's Central Data Management and Coordinating Center (CDMCC).

In addition to CDMCC, PECARN is comprised of four Research Node Centers (RNCs) and more than 20 Hospital Emergency Department Affiliates (HEDAs). The RNCs and HEDAs represent academic, community, urban, rural, general, and children’s hospitals. The entire PECARN network serves approximately 800,000 acutely ill and injured children every year.

The network’s goal is to conduct meaningful and rigorous multi-institutional research into the prevention and management of acute illnesses and injuries in children and youth across the continuum of emergency medicine health care.

Learn more about PECARN, its structure, and its current and recently completed studies on the PECARN web site. To submit a study idea to PECARN, visit the site’s training module.