 The VPICU team members held a fall retreat on Monday, November 3, 2003, at the Executive Meeting Center in the Glendale Hilton. The primary focus of the retreat was to allow everyone that is involved with the VPICU to have an opportunity to update fellow team members on their individual projects, learn more about the projects of others, and brainstorm as a group for future planning.
Dr. Randall Wetzel’s keynote address started the day. He covered all the history of the VPICU, our shared goals and mission, as well as an update on current activities with outside agencies. Grounding all of us in the VPICU vision of extending critical care to children and their health care providers through informatics and technology provided the underlying theme for the day.
Those in attendance included Dan Crichton, M.S. and Tina Xiao from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology National Aeronautics and Space Administration (JPL); Dr. Christopher Newth (Childrens Hospital Los Angeles); Dr. David Stewart (Manchester, United Kingdom); Robert Kaptan (Relcor); Paul Vee (VPICU Webmaster); Chris Baker (VPICU Administrator) and Dr. Randall Wetzel (VPICU Director). Those not able to join us included Paul Ramirez (JPL) and Cristina Lorenzo (VPICU Research Nurse). Each participant provided an excellent overview of his or her project, accomplishments, partners and what is currently on their radar screen.
The work in collaboration with JPL and Relcor on “Building an Informatics Infrastructure for the Virtual Pediatric Intensive Care Unit” has been summarized in a poster presentation that Dan Crichton and Dr. Wetzel are scheduled to present to at the Informatics and Digital Biology Meeting in Washington D.C. sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Dr. Newth’s presentation emphasized the efforts realized thus far in translating the extensive data collection associated with critically ill children into working tools for the intensive care physician. Dr. Stewart shared some notable approaches to educational presentations of core critical care curriculum as well as the progress he has made in combining physiological modeling with artificially intelligent feedback for healthcare professionals. An update on the implementation of telemedicine network, including equipment capabilities and types of children being seen, as well as the current status of the nationwide VPS (VPICU Performance system) with our partner at NACHRI was presented by Chris Baker. Finally, the capabilities of our website in communicating the VPICU efforts, registering Intensive Care Units around the world for the VPS, and providing education (as well as listings for educational opportunities) was presented by Paul Vee.
The presentations set an excellent stage for the remainder of the activities – a S.W.O.T. analysis and brainstorming. The opportunity for this diverse group to hear first hand about the projects associated with the VPICU, clarify questions, and make suggestions was greatly appreciated and everyone realized the interrelatedness of the various VPICU projects. In addition, following the afternoon it was clear that everyone felt we were on the right track and remained enthusiastic in continuing to develop the VPICU into a national and international cornerstone of pediatric health care. |
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