New federal grant boosts clinical trial access for Louisiana's children

A new $2.1 million federal grant will give more of Louisiana's children access to cutting-edge health research while training young scientists in pediatric research.

The five-year National Institutes of Health award will focus on boosting clinical trial access in five areas:

• Care before and after birth
• Obesity
• Upper and lower airways
• Brain development
• Physical, mental, and social well-being

Louisiana's children are affected by many health problems at a higher rate compared to other states. This is especially true in rural areas and areas that have less access to health care. The planned future research has the potential to improve the health of all the children in our state and across the United States."

Dr. Daniel Hsia, M.D., Associate Professor, Pennington Biomedical Research Center and co-lead investigator of the study

"By bringing new scientific discoveries to Louisiana's children, we can eliminate some of the barriers to care for many of our state's children," said Pennington Biomedical Executive Director John Kirwan, Ph.D. "We may also slow or even prevent the development of chronic diseases such as obesity and asthma, and the related health issues that continue on into adulthood."

"We are excited to continue our collaboration as we bring more cutting-edge clinical trials to the children of Louisiana in order to improve their health and well-being," said John Carlson, M.D., Ph.D Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Clinical Medicine at Tulane University and co-lead investigator of the study.

Dr. Hsia said this grant renewal is part of the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program, which is focused on enhancing the health of children for generations to come. The initial grant established the Louisiana site within the ECHO IDeA States Pediatric Clinical Trials Network (ISPCTN) in 2016. This earlier effort enhanced research capacity and infrastructure for pediatric clinical research, helping to train additional research staff and scientists.

The current effort will draw on researchers and resources from Pennington Biomedical, Tulane University, LSU Health Sciences Center, and the state's two freestanding children's hospitals, Children's Hospital New Orleans and Our Lady of the Lake Children's Hospital in Baton Rouge.

This grant is supported by the National Institutes of Health under award number 2UG1OD024959. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.