Pediatric Critical Care and Emergency Medicine

Pediatric critical care and emergency medicine play a vital role in the survival and recovery of children with life-threatening illness or injury. Care often begins in the prehospital setting or emergency department and continues through transport, intensive care, rehabilitation, and follow-up. Recent advances in sepsis care, respiratory support, trauma systems, point-of-care ultrasound, neurocritical care, extracorporeal support, simulation, care bundles, and digital health have improved outcomes for many children. However, care remains uneven across settings due to differences in resources, training, implementation, referral pathways, and access to pediatric expertise. Evidence is also often limited, as many clinical practices are adapted from adult data. There is a need for focused research that connects early emergency recognition with high-quality critical care and long-term recovery.The goal of this Research Topic is to highlight new evidence, innovations, and clinical strategies that improve the care of critically ill and injured children. Despite progress in pediatric emergency and intensive care medicine, preventable deaths and complications still occur due to delayed recognition, inconsistent resuscitation, limited access to specialized care, and gaps in pediatric-specific guidelines. Recent advances, including high-flow nasal cannula, non-invasive ventilation, goal-directed sepsis bundles, point-of-care ultrasound, telemedicine, predictive analytics, and simulation-based training, offer new opportunities to improve care delivery. This Research Topic aims to bring together studies that evaluate these advances, identify best practices, and support their implementation across diverse healthcare systems. It seeks to promote safer triage, faster intervention, better team communication, equitable access to care, and improved survival and quality of life for children and families.This Research Topic welcomes manuscripts addressing pediatric critical care and emergency medicine across emergency, prehospital, transport, and intensive care settings. We encourage submissions on themes including:• Pediatric resuscitation, triage, and early recognition of clinical deterioration• Sepsis, shock, respiratory failure, and acute organ dysfunction• Pediatric trauma, burns, toxicology, and disaster medicine• Neurologic emergencies, cardiac critical care, and post-resuscitation care• Transport medicine, emergency preparedness, and regionalized systems of care• Intra-operative and post-operative hemodynamic and pain management• Clinical pathways, quality improvement, safety, and implementation science• Health equity, global pediatric emergency care, and resource-limited settings• Telemedicine, digital health, artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, and point-of-care tools• Simulation, workforce training, interprofessional teamwork, and family-centered careWe welcome Original Research, Systematic Reviews, Reviews, Mini Reviews, Methods articles, Brief Research Reports, Perspectives, and clinically relevant Case Reports or Case Series where appropriate. Manuscripts should offer clear implications for improving outcomes, safety, access, or care delivery for critically ill or injured children. Topic editors: Dr. Antonio M. Esquinas PhD, FCCP, FNIV, Daniela Perrotta Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/86788/pediatric-critical-care-and-emergency-medicine