A team at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, part of Temple Health, has been awarded nearly $1 million by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to help improve antibiotic prescribing for children with acute respiratory tract infections.

“Many children with symptoms of upper respiratory tract illness who are taken to see a pediatrician end up being prescribed antibiotics, even though they aren’t always needed,” explained Janet Lee, MD, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Lewis Katz School of Medicine. Dr. Lee and Claire Raab, MD, President and CEO of Temple Faculty Physicians, will co-lead the new PCORI initiative.

“Working with physicians and families, we want to contextualize for the community the significance of inappropriate antibiotic use and potential for antibiotic resistance,” Lee explained. Assuring appropriate antibiotic prescribing and use in pediatric populations can help prevent drug-resistant infections and avoid adverse side effects.

“Thanks to the new funding award, Dr. Lee and I can now spearhead vital progress toward greater antibiotic stewardship,” Dr. Raab said. “This funding will enable us to conduct groundbreaking work that will significantly benefit our community. The initiative also aligns perfectly with our commitment to evidence-based care.”

"The funding from PCORI further strengthens our mission at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine to deliver care that is both innovative and deeply rooted in the needs of our community," said Amy J. Goldberg, MD, FACS, The Marjorie Joy Katz Dean, Lewis Katz School of Medicine. "We are proud to lead initiatives that improve clinical outcomes and engage families and clinicians in ways that make care more accessible and effective for our youngest patients."

“This PCORI funding award will support Temple Health in promoting antibiotic stewardship for children with acute respiratory tract infections,” said PCORI Executive Director Nakela L. Cook, MD, MPH. “This project exemplifies PCORI's commitment to advancing the uptake of evidence into health care delivery settings to enable parents, caregivers and clinicians to make informed health care decisions and improve care delivery and health outcomes. We look forward to following the project’s progress and collaborating with Temple Health to share its results.”

In a previous PCORI-funded patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research (CER) study, researchers found that broad-spectrum antibiotics carry a greater risk of side effects relative to narrow-spectrum antibiotics, even though the two are equally effective in treating acute respiratory tract infections in children. The new initiative aims to implement and leverage these findings to improve antibiotic prescribing and stewardship.

“Along with implementing prior research to decrease broad-spectrum antibiotic use, we also are involving patients and families in focus groups and engaging with providers who see adult patients to help elevate the pediatric voice and guide messaging on antibiotic use,” Dr. Lee explained. Ultimately, these efforts could help delay the prescribing of antibiotics until their use is deemed absolutely necessary.

Temple Health is a participant in PCORI’s Health Systems Implementation Initiative (HSII) and was selected for funding through a PCORI opportunity in which HSII participants were recruited to promote evidence-based practice, based on findings generated from PCORI-funded patient-centered CER. HSII aims to reduce the estimated 17-year gap between evidence publication and clinical application. The initiative recognizes that practical experience and real-world insights acquired in diverse health care settings and health systems are crucial for sustainable, large-scale implementation of practice-changing findings in clinical care.

The funding support for Drs. Lee and Raab has been approved pending completion of PCORI’s business and programmatic review and issuance of a formal award contract.

PCORI is an independent, nonprofit organization authorized by Congress with a mission to fund patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research that provides patients, their caregivers and clinicians with the evidence-based information they need to make better-informed health and health care decisions.