Louisiana Pediatric Clinical Trials Network

Louisiana's children experience significant health risks compared to their peers across the country and bear a high burden of several diseases. Enhancing the ability to implement high quality clinical trials directed toward the five focus areas of the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program (pre-, peri-, and postnatal outcomes; obesity; upper and lower airways; neurodevelopment; and positive health) has the unique potential to improve health outcomes for all children in Louisiana and across the United States. The Louisiana site of the IDeA States Pediatric Clinical Trials Network (ISPCTN) was established in 2016 (Cycle 1) and expanded through 2025 (Cycle 2), led by pediatric researchers from Pennington Biomedical Research Center and Tulane University, with the Ochsner Health System joining in 2022. The network brings together physician scientists from the two free-standing children’s hospitals in the state, Our Lady of the Lake Hospital and Children’s Hospital, and a third now under construction at the Ochsner Health System. Each entity contributes to state-wide reach. In Cycles 1 and 2, the Louisiana ISPCTN site participated in every clinical trial in the network (five as a clinical site and a sixth as a member of the protocol and writing committees), successfully enhanced pediatric research capacity and infrastructure to conduct clinical trials, and trained new pediatric researchers. Moreover, continuing to work with the established infrastructure and modeling the processes of inter-institutional collaboration created by the Louisiana Clinical and Translational Science Center (LA CaTS) Center (PI: John Kirwan; U54 GM104940; IDeA CTR) will allow for further dissemination and conduct of clinical trials across Louisiana. The aims for Cycle 3 are to: 1) Develop, conduct, and disseminate findings from multicenter clinical trials research, assuring the participation of children living in our IDeA state; 2) Build pediatric clinical trial research capacity at the clinical sites; and 3) Engage interested parties such as community members, nonprofit organizations, and professional societies to enhance ECHO ISPCTN clinical trial impact, transferability, rigor, and feasibility. We will accomplish these goals by fostering an innovative collaboration between the three largest and most prominent academic institutions in the region – Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Tulane University, and LSU Health Sciences Center – and the three leading hospital and clinic networks in Louisiana – Ochsner, Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital in Baton Rouge, and Children’s Hospital New Orleans, plus their networks of affiliated clinics. By uniting these esteemed partners, the Louisiana ECHO ISPCTN site will be positioned to strengthen its momentum in delivering advancements and new discoveries to the children of Louisiana while addressing the health risks that affect the state. Louisiana’s children are affected by many health problems at a higher rate compared to other states. The goals of this proposal are to expand access to cutting-edge research for more children in Louisiana, to build pediatric trial research capacity and train future pediatric researchers, and to address the specific health needs of children locally and nationally. We will accomplish these goals by combining resources and a team of researchers led by Pennington Biomedical Research Center and Ochsner Health System along with collaboration from Tulane University, LSU Health Sciences Center, and the state’s only two freestanding children’s hospitals, Children Hospital New Orleans and Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital in Baton Rouge, plus their networks of affiliated clinics.