Does wildfire smoke impact respiratory events in pediatric patients undergoing anesthesia? When Division of Pediatric Anesthesia team members Marla Ferschl, MD and Benjamin Marsh, MD, sought to answer this question during the 2020 Northern California wildfire season, they turned to the UCSF Anesthesia Biostats and Clinical Research Design (ABCD) group for a clinical research road-map.
Established in 2018 and led by Romain Pirracchio, MD, PhD, chief of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care at the Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center (ZSFG), the ABCD group provides guidance and mentorship for faculty undertaking clinical research projects. This includes a lecture series (see below), help with study design, clinical research methodology, data acquisition and management, statistical planning, and grant writing. In addition, they help orient clinical researchers to appropriate resources and to colleagues with similar interests.
After submitting the ABCD intake form, Kerstin Kolodzie, MD, PhD, MAS, the principal investigator of the Perioperative Clinical Research Group, was assigned as the Pediatric Anesthesia study team’s project mentor. According to Ferschl, Kolodzie’s guidance and extensive training and experience with clinical research, including a 2-year clinical research fellowship in the Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care and completion of a 2-year master’s program in clinical research with the UCSF Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, proved to be crucial to the study team’s success.
Published in the August 11, 2022 issue of Anesthesiology, the study authors concluded that “pediatric patients with underlying risk factors for respiratory complications under general anesthesia had a greater incidence of adverse respiratory events during periods of unhealthy air quality caused by wildfire smoke,” and that importantly, providers should consider postponing elective anesthetics for this vulnerable patient population when air quality is poor. David Robinowitz, MD, MHS, MS and Adam Jacobson, director of Anesthesia IT, are also co-authors on the publication.
ABCD Lecture Series
December 1, 2020
How to Get Started in Clinical Research – Jacqueline Leung, MD, MPH, Anesthesia
January 19, 2021
History of Epidemiologic Approach – Michael Kohn, MD, MPP, Epidemiology & Biostatistics
February 16, 2021
Working with Report Writers – Rishi Kothari, MD & Jon Spinner, Anesthesia
March 16, 2021
Subgroup Analysis and Heterogeneity of Treatment Effect – Romain Pirracchio, MD, PhD, Anesthesia
May 11, 2021
How to Disseminate Your Research Using Social Media Tools – Alexander Smith, MD, MS, MPH, Geriatrics
May 25, 2021
P-values – Elizabeth Whitlock, MD, MS, Anesthesia
June 22, 2021
Tips and Tricks on Writing a Paper – Catherine Chen, MD, MPH, Anesthesia
September 28, 2021
How to Find a Research Mentor - Catherine Chen, MD, MPH , Adrian Gelb, MBChB, Jacqueline Leung, MD, MPH, Anesthesia
November 30, 2021
Design and Conception of Randomized Trials – Matthieu Legrand, MD, PhD
March 22, 2022
Working with MPOG Data – Catherine Chen, MD, MPH and Matthieu Legrand, MD, PhD, Anesthesia
June 14, 2022
Research Grants: Inside View from an NIH Study Section Member – Jacqueline Leung, MD, MPH, Anesthesia