EnRICH Lab: Enhancing Research Impact in Child Health

About the EnRICH Research Group and Network

Dr. Martin Offringa’s program of research is captured under the Enhancing Research Impact in Child Health (EnRICH) program.

Clinical research in children poses particular methodological, ethical and practical challenges. Recently the paucity of safety and efficacy data informing the rational use of medicines has been recognized with new regulations in the USA and in Europe which mandate proper clinical evaluations in children before a new drug can be labelled and licensed for adults To inform policy decisions researchers need to ensure their research is reliable and relevant. And so, while more research is needed, we need to embrace new conceptual and methodological advances in the design, conduct and reporting of child health research. Current challenges include age specific dosages, age specific formulations and administration, adequate sample sizes, relevant and justified comparators, qualified, relevant and standardized outcomes, contained risk of bias, short term and long term participants’ safety, clear roles of data monitoring committees, harmonized ethics review of research protocols, appropriate engagement of children and families from design to implementation of research.

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Find us on Twitter:

@martinoffringa

@STaRChildHealth

@enrichresearch

@InsPECT2019

@TORCH_research

Updated June 2020