Fostering research in pediatric interventional radiology: needs assessment and suggestions for support

Michael J Temple; Todd A Abruzzo; Fernando Gómez Muñoz; João G Amaral; Kristi A Bogan; Craig Gibson; Premal A Patel; Luke M Toh; Jin Zhang; Walid M Mubarak; Bairbre L Connolly; Sally E Mitchell; Alex M Barnacle; Anne Marie Cahill; Leah E Braswell; Francis E Marshalleck; Manish N Patel; G Peter Feola; Gulraiz A Chaudry; S Murthy Chennapragada; Shellie C Josephs; Aparna Annam; Simal K Goman

doi:10.1007/s00247-023-05722-6

Fostering research in pediatric interventional radiology: needs assessment and suggestions for support

Pediatr Radiol. 2023 Oct;53(11):2245-2252. doi: 10.1007/s00247-023-05722-6. Epub 2023 Aug 12.

Authors

Michael J Temple^{1

2}, Todd A Abruzzo³, Fernando Gómez Muñoz⁴, João G Amaral⁵, Kristi A Bogan⁶, Craig Gibson⁷, Premal A Patel⁸, Luke M Toh⁹, Jin Zhang¹⁰, Walid M Mubarak¹¹, Bairbre L Connolly⁵, Sally E Mitchell¹², Alex M Barnacle⁸, Anne Marie Cahill¹³, Leah E Braswell¹⁴, Francis E Marshalleck¹⁵, Manish N Patel¹⁶, G Peter Feola¹⁷, Gulraiz A Chaudry¹⁸, S Murthy Chennapragada¹⁹, Shellie C Josephs²⁰, Aparna Annam²¹, Simal K Goman⁵

Affiliations

¹ Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada. michael.temple@stjude.org.
² St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN, USA. michael.temple@stjude.org.
³ Phoenix Children's Hospital, Phoenix, AZ, USA.
⁴ Hospital Clinic de Barcelona/Hospital Sant Joan de Deu, Barcelona, Spain.
⁵ Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada.
⁶ Akron Children's Hospital, Akron, OH, USA.
⁷ Perth Children's Hospital, Nedlands, WA, Australia.
⁸ Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children, London, UK.
⁹ KK Women's and Children's Hospital, Singapore, Singapore.
¹⁰ Guangdong Provincial Peoples' Hospital, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China.
¹¹ Sidra Medicine, Ar-Rayyan, Qatar.
¹² Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital, St. Petersburg, FL, USA.
¹³ Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
¹⁴ Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, OH, USA.
¹⁵ Riley Children's Hospital, Indianapolis, IN, USA.
¹⁶ Cincinnati Children's Hospital, Cincinnati, OH, USA.
¹⁷ Primary Children's Hospital, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
¹⁸ Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
¹⁹ Children's Hospital at Westmead, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
²⁰ Lucille Packard Children's Hospital, Stanford, CA, USA.
²¹ Children's Hospital Colorado, Aurora, CO, USA.

PMID: 37568041
DOI: 10.1007/s00247-023-05722-6

Abstract

Background: Due to the rarity of pediatric diseases, collaborative research is the key to maximizing the impact of research studies. A research needs assessment survey was created to support initiatives to foster pediatric interventional radiology research.

Objective: To assess the status of pediatric interventional radiology research, identify perceived barriers, obtain community input on areas of research/education/support, and create metrics for evaluating changes/responses to programmatic initiatives.

Materials and methods: A survey link was sent to approximately 275 members of the Society for Pediatric Interventional Radiology (SPIR) between May and October 2020. Data was collected using a web-based interface. Data collected included practice setting, clinical role, research experience, research barriers, and suggestions for future initiatives.

Results: Fifty-nine surveys were analyzed with a staff physician survey response rate of 28% (56/198). A wide range of practice sizes from 15 countries were represented. Respondents were predominantly staff physicians (95%; 56/59) with an average of 11 years (range: 1-25 years) of clinical experience working at academic or freestanding children's hospitals. A total of 100% (59/59) had research experience, and 70% (41/58) had published research with a mean of 30 peer-reviewed publications (range: 1-200). For job security, 56% (33/59) of respondents were expected or required to publish, but only 19% (11/58) had research support staff, and 42% (25/59) had protected research time, but of those, 36% (9/25) got the time "sometimes or never." Lack of support staff, established collaborative processes, and education were identified as top barriers to performing research.

Conclusions: The needs assessment survey demonstrated active research output despite several identified barriers. There is a widespread interest within the pediatric interventional radiology community for collaborative research.

Keywords: Child; Interventional radiology; Needs assessment; Pediatric; Respondents; Societies; Survey.