Children’s researchers pull out all the stops for RECOVERY trial | Latest news

Within a week of the national priority COVID-19 RECOVERY trail being extended to include children - and by working closely with colleagues including the DREEAM Research Team in critical care, paediatric consultants and pharmacists from across NUH – the team had the new protocol set up and were ready to include suitable paediatric and neonatal patients in this national randomised trial.

“I’m really proud of what the team achieved within just seven days, in terms of getting the Nottingham Children’s Hospital and other NUH research groups on board,” commented Helen Navarra, Children’s Clinical Research Manager at the Children’s Hospital (pictured with colleagues Boyanka Petrova and Ouliana Panagioti). “This was a really great example of us working cross-functionally.”

Although RECOVERY, which has five arms of treatment for COVID-19, is already available for adults with over 180 patients at NUH taking part, there were a number of challenges to overcome in adapting the trial for children and young people.

Drug supply and how to deliver the treatments to patients was a crucial issue. So the Children’s Research Team worked with NUH's paediatric pharmacist and clinical trials pharmacy to ensure there can be a constant supply.

The team also identified a team of research nurses, comprising Laura Anderson, Laura Looby and Boyanka Petrova, who will be working as part of a rota spanning seven days a week.

The trial has been adapted to reduce the lower age limit for inclusion to cover every patient from newborn babies, children and adults. The drugs comprising all five arms of the trial are an option for paediatric patients, but as a second stage intervention, Tocilizumab cannot be given to children before their first birthday. More detailed information on the RECOVERY protocol for paediatric patients is available here.

The DREEAM Research Team will be identifying patients through screening which includes those that are receiving greater than 40% oxygen as part of their treatment in hospital and are suspected of having COVID-19, or present with PIMS-TS (paediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome).

Helen carried out training for paediatricians who will be involved in the trial, including the background to RECOVERY, using virtual learning techniques to maintain the safety of staff and socila distancing.

Paediatric and neonatal consultants at both QMC and Nottingham City Hospital will confirm suitability of patients to be included in RECOVERY, and answer additional questions from parents.

Consultants Dr Patrick Davies, a paediatrician, and neonatal leads Dr Steve Wardle for QMC and Dr Dush Batra at City Hospital will be the senior doctors managing RECOVERY for paediatric and neonatal patients.