# A Learning Health System Approach to Precision Sedation and Analgesia in Critically-Ill Children

> **NIH NIH K23** · UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH · 2022 · $162,172

## Abstract

PROJECT ABSTRACT
Approximately 500,000 children suffer critical illness every year in the United States and more than one third
will receive a continuous infusion of a sedative-analgesic medication such as an opioid or dexmedetomidine.
Such drugs are commonly administered to ease the burden of critical illness by treating serious pain and
anxiety associated with invasive organ support delivery and procedures in the intensive care unit. However,
there are no widely-accepted standards for the administration of these potent neuroactive medications and
several studies have demonstrated that children receive too little or too much of these medications nearly half
of the time they are administered. This imprecision in conventional dosing strategies leads to adverse events,
including acute physiologic deterioration, drug tolerance and dependency, prolonged illness and hospitalization
and life-threatening complications of invasive support such as unplanned extubation and post-extubation
airway obstruction. Evidence also indicates that relatively short exposures to these medications may be
detrimental to long-term neurodevelopment. More precise strategies for administering these medications to
children are needed and this is an issue of major

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10370414
- **Project number:** 5K23HD099331-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH
- **Principal Investigator:** Christopher Michael Horvat
- **Activity code:** K23 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $162,172
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-04-01 → 2025-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10370414

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10370414, A Learning Health System Approach to Precision Sedation and Analgesia in Critically-Ill Children (5K23HD099331-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10370414. Licensed CC0.

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