Translating scientific evidence into the art of caring for critically ill children across the globe.

Abstract

From the time that the earliest pediatric intensive care units (ICUs) were established in Europe, Australia, and North America in the 1950s and 60s, the specialty of pediatric critical care medicine has grown globally by leaps and bounds (1). Pediatric critical care medicine emerged as a unique specialty from the intersection of five important fields in medicine: adult respiratory intensive care, neonatology, and neonatal intensive care, pediatric general surgery, pediatric cardiac surgery, and pediatric anesthesiology. Following the establishment of pediatric ICUs, pediatric critical care medicine grew rapidly as an academic subspecialty to develop strong standards of care and train future generations of clinicians and scientists. Globally, pediatric critical care medicine has spread across all continents with numerous leaders and distinguished clinicians in many countries leading to further growth in clinical care and scientific research to fuel discovery and innovation (1-3). Multiple international societies such as the World Federation of Pediatric Intensive and Critical Care Societies (WFPICCS), Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM), European Society of Pediatric and Neonatal Intensive Care (ESPNIC), Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society (ANZICS), Sociedad Latinoamericana de Cuidados Intensivos Pediatricos (SLACIP), Red Colaborativa Pediatrcia de Lationamerica (LARed) and Pediatric Acute & Critical Care Medicine Asian Network (PACCMAN) have broadened the reach of pediatric critical care medicine across every country with cutting edge research collaboration and excellence in clinical care delivery models. It can be rightly said that pediatric critical care medicine belongs to the global village of practitioners and scientists who strive tirelessly to improve the health and future of critically ill children across the world.