I first became involved in the GenOMICC Study during the pandemic, initially recruiting paediatric patients in paediatric intensive care (PICU). This then evolved to helping run the study recruiting adult patients in ITU with Covid 19. When I moved Hospital Trusts in 2021 I was keen to get GenOMICC up and running on my paediatric portfolio at MCHT. I knew from my previous experience that the study team were extremely approachable and happy to help and that set-up would be quite straightforward, the only hitch was the lack of a PICU here. However, after discussion with the study team and our consultants we decided that the throughput of our paeds High Dependancy Unit justified opening the study here, especially with the inclusion of RSV+ cases and the Hepatitis of Unknown Origins case rise we had seen.
Because the study is a one off sample and data collection and can be done prospectively or retrospectively, I find families are really receptive to participation, and the option of switching a blood sample for saliva if no clinical bloods are being done is an added bonus when recruiting paediatrics.
The database on RedCap is easy to follow and quick to use without lengthy follow up data and the team are very quick at responding to any queries which reduces and data queries in the future. Since setting up for Paeds the Adult side has also been opened to by my counterparts and we have hit the top 15 recruitment sites a couple of times which is always a fantastic email to receive at the end of a week!
