Research

Our Division has an active clinical research program supported by funding from federal and industry sources. PEM faculty conduct research across a wide range of interests including health disparities, adolescent reproductive and sexual health, adolescent relationship abuse, reproductive coercion, disease surveillance, medical education, and simulation. PEM faculty participate in multi-institutional studies, as well as collaborate across disciplines at Children’s Mercy.

The Division provides robust support for fellows’ research, including biostatisticians, REDCap for data collection, library services for literature searches, editing services and writing workshops through the CM Medical Writing Center. Fellows may apply for internal grant funding, including the Division of Emergency Medicine Simone Fund. The ED Research Team includes a team manager and research coordinators who staff the ED for recruiting approximately 12 hours daily. Additional resources for fellows include training, mentoring, and funding opportunities through Frontiers, the University of Kansas Clinical and Translational Science Institute. Children’s Mercy is a Frontiers Partner Institution.

Fellows also have the opportunity to refine their research question and brainstorm ideas and troubleshoot with faculty and peers throughout the course of their project during fellow conference sessions called “Works in Progress” (WIP) and work with faculty and peers in our “Writing Accountability Group” (WAG).

Scholarly activity

PEM fellows are required to complete a scholarly project during their fellowship, which have generally been in one of four areas: clinical research, administrative/quality improvement, health policy & advocacy, or education & curriculum development.  Our fellows are expected to present their findings at a national meeting and at Children’s Mercy Hospital’s Research Days Conference. Finally, all projects are required to be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal for publication by completion of training.

View PEM Fellow Workflow & Timeline

Read publications from our faculty, fellows and alumni:

Pediatric Emergency Medicine fellowship scholarship

Pediatric Emergency Medicine division scholarship

Scholarly Oversight Committee (SOC)

This committee is comprised of two PEM faculty who serve as your co-chairs and a statistician who is the required external member of the committee. The SOC provides ongoing mentoring, guidance, and assistance in the project development process to manuscript submission. The SOC is responsible for formally reviewing the scholarly activity progress in a semi-annual format and determining the fellow has satisfactorily met the American Board of Pediatrics work product requirements .

Problem Solving for Fellows Course

This course is taken in the 2nd year with the goal to learn and apply tools and techniques that are effective in Quality Improvement (QI). The fellows receive support from our ED QI Director and ED QI collaborative to develop and implement a project during training. A QI project must be completed by the end of fellowship training. Fellows may also choose to have a robust QI project as their scholarly work product.  

Grant writing

During the 1st year, fellows participate in a grant writing workshop & are paired with a faculty mentor to write a grant. There are opportunities to apply for fellow-specific grants available from the hospital and division of emergency medicine. Our fellows have been successful in applying for and receiving both internally- & externally-funded grants.