PPKC Members
The Consortium is comprised of the Children's Mercy Hospital, the Arkansas Children's Hospital Research
Institute, Cook Children's and the Children's Hospital of the Louisiana State University Medical Center
in Shreveport. As reflected in the descriptive profiles, each of the institutions has developed
state-of-the-art pediatric clinical pharmacology program and facilities capable of supporting early
phase clinical trials of drugs and biologics across a wide spectrum of pediatric disease states and
patient age groups.
Arkansas Children's Hospital Research Institute
Arkansas Children's Hospital is the only pediatric medical center in Arkansas and was named one of
the Fortune 100 Best Companies to work for. It is one of the largest pediatric hospitals in the United
States serving children from birth to age 21. The pediatric health care facility boasts an
internationally renowned reputation for medical breakthroughs and intensive treatments, unique surgical
procedures and forward-thinking medical research - all dedicated to fulfilling their mission of enhancing,
sustaining and restoring children's health and development.
Since 1989, the Arkansas Children's Hospital Research Institute, a not-for-profit corporation owned by Arkansas Children's
Hospital has maintained a dedicated pediatric clinical research
unit that was developed to support phase I-II clinical trials. This six bed unit has the capacity to conduct
a wide variety of studies and also has a dedicated isolation room and an infant room. It is staffed by research nurse coordinators
with experience and training in pharmacokinetic studies done in accordance with GCP standards. It also
contains a centralized nursing station and a wet laboratory suitable for the handling and preparation of
biological samples. A dedicated playroom and conference room meet the needs of the subjects/families and
research staff.
Unit Director: Laura P. James, MD
Children's Mercy Hospital
Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics is a comprehensive pediatric medical center which is the only free-standing
children's hospital between St. Louis and Denver. It is consistently ranked among the leading children's hospitals
in the nation, and was the first hospital in Missouri or Kansas to receive the prestigious Magnet designation for
excellence in patient care from the American Nurses Credentialing Center. The facility provides state-of-the-art
care for children from birth to age 18 who come from throughout Missouri and Kansas and beyond.
Established in 1998, the Children's Mercy Hospital has operated the Pediatric Clinical Research Unit. This 3200
ft2 facility contains 6 monitored research beds, a play room, a fully equipped research kitchen, a wet laboratory
and a dedicated, centralized nursing station. The unit is staffed by a group of six clinical research coordinators,
four of whom are pediatric nurses with experience ranging from intensive care medicine (NICU and PICU) to outpatient
medicine. As well, the unit operates in strict compliance with GCP standards and those required for phase I and II
clinical trial units.
Unit Director: Gregory L. Kearns, PharmD, PhD
Cook Children's
Cook Children's is one of the country's leading integrated pediatric health care delivery systems. Based in Fort Worth,
Texas, the non-profit organization includes a nationally recognized Medical Center, Physician Network, Home Health Company,
Health Plan, Health Foundation and Health Care System. Cook Children's includes more than 35 pediatric primary care offices
and specialty clinics throughout Texas.
Cook Children's has proven its ability to fulfill the enrollment goals of Phase I-IV pediatric and young-adult
clinical investigations involving inpatient or outpatient populations in strict accordance with GCP standards. All
research activity and project-specific staffing is managed through a single, centralized Research Administration
Office, offering our industrial partners a fully responsive, "one-stop" shop for the life of every clinical trial.
The Cook Children's IRB meets twice each month and expedited review is available daily. A fully-electronic,
web-based records system links every patient's medical information across the entire system, and we employ the iMedRIS
system as the backbone of communications between investigative staff and the IRB. Uniquely, Cook Children's has
developed a state-of-the-art primary care research network, including a fully-staffed Clinical Research Center, by
linking its pediatric practices with mobile-flexible research staffing and instant communications tools. Inpatient
beds for clinical trials are available, and a dedicated GCRC staffed by experienced clinical research nurse coordinators
is under development.
Unit Director: James D. Marshall, MD
LSU Health Sciences Center - Shreveport
Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at Shreveport is an academic health sciences center, including
three health professions schools--medicine, allied health professions and graduate studies—and three teaching
hospitals across North Louisiana. The university teaching hospital includes a Children’s Hospital which cares for
children from throughout the North Louisiana, East Texas and Southwest Arkansas region. Assets of the LSU Health
Sciences Center include a level III regional NICU, a regional Burn Center, a Level One Trauma Center, and two
state-designated centers of excellence: the Feist-Weiller Cancer Center and the Center of Excellence for Arthritis
and Rheumatology. Our Department of Pediatrics holds one of only six affiliations in the nation with the world-famous
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Translational and clinical research are signature programs of the LSU Health
Sciences Center at Shreveport.
The Children's Hospital of the LSU Health Sciences Center at Shreveport maintains and operates a state-of-the-art,
GCP-compliant pediatric research unit. This dedicated facility, established more than 10 years ago as part of the
institution’s aggressive clinical trials program, contains three beds and can be immediately configured for studies
involving children of any age. As well, it contains an "in-unit" laboratory for specimen handling / preparation. The
unit is staffed by experienced pediatric nurses and trained research coordinators who have successfully performed both
phase II and III clinical drug trials.
Unit Director: John T. Wilson, MD