# Enhancing Quality in Pediatrics Sepsis with Shock Prediction and Early Electronic Decision Support (EQUIP with SPEED)

> **NIH AHRQ K08** · UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER · 2020 · $148,539

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT
 Pediatric septic shock is a leading cause of childhood death, in which morbidity-free survival depends
on timely diagnosis and treatment. Although the medical community, general public and state legislatures have
increasingly recognized that delays in diagnosing septic shock in children are an important cause of
preventable morbidity, there are no validated predictive models to improve early sepsis diagnosis in children.
The candidate, Dr. Halden Scott, is a pediatric emergency physician at Children's Hospital Colorado and the
University of Colorado School of Medicine. She has critically evaluated early diagnostic strategies in an
Electronic Health Record (EHR)-derived pediatric sepsis registry that she designed that will support the
proposed research. She is seeking to develop into an independent health services researcher, through the
proposed mentored research with the following goals: 1) Derive and test models to predict septic shock in an
existing EHR-derived dataset, comparing models derived with two modern modeling techniques; 2) create an
EHR decision support tool for the early recognition of septic shock; 3) conduct a pilot implementation trial of
decision support in community and academic pediatric emergency care settings within the Children's Hospital
Colorado network. This implementation and feasibility data will inform a future multicenter pragmatic trial of
computerized decision support in diagnosis of pediatric septic shock, which Dr. Scott will propose in an R01
application before the end of the K award. Dr. Scott's research trajectory is facilitated and enriched by strong
institutional clinical, informatics and administrative support, and her involvement in the Pediatric Emergency
Care Applied Research Network and international sepsis guidelines committees.
 This award would support Dr. Scott's career development goals: acquire skills in predictive modeling,
the use of health information technology in learning health systems, and pragmatic trials. Dr. Scott's nationally
renowned mentors will support these goals: Dr. Kempe, expert in pragmatic trials, program evaluation and
implementation research; Dr. Fairclough, expert in statistics and modeling; Dr. Kahn, expert in research and
clinical informatics. Additional advisors contribute expertise in machine learning, clinical pediatric emergency
research, critical care and sepsis. This proposal responds to AHRQ priorities: improving health care quality
through information systems, improving safety and quality by synthesizing evidence, and focuses on AHRQ
priority populations including children and those with chronic care needs. The research, mentorship and
training plan proposed are ideally suited to provide Dr. Scott with the skills needed to develop into an
independent health services researcher focused on improving the quality of care for pediatric emergency
conditions, particularly sepsis, through the use of health information technology in learning hea...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9985019
- **Project number:** 5K08HS025696-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER
- **Principal Investigator:** Halden F Scott
- **Activity code:** K08 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** AHRQ
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $148,539
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-08-01 → 2023-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9985019

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9985019, Enhancing Quality in Pediatrics Sepsis with Shock Prediction and Early Electronic Decision Support (EQUIP with SPEED) (5K08HS025696-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9985019. Licensed CC0.

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