Can we learn how to prevent brain injuries in children by looking at local cases?

A project to explore whether brain injuries in children could be prevented through examining and understanding local cases has been awarded £10,000 by the NIHR Brain Injury Healthcare Technology Cooperative. The project is being led by the Child Injury Health Integration Team (HIT).

It will assess whether an approach inspired by child death overview panels could be applied to children who have sustained non-fatal brain injuries. Child death overview panels examine the circumstances surrounding the death of any child in the UK. They aim to see what could be learned and what could be changed to help prevent similar deaths in the future.

The reporting process required for these panels is necessarily labour intensive. This project will explore whether data and information already being collected on children with non-fatal injuries could inform a similar, but more ‘light touch’, process. It will focus on children who have experienced a brain injury and received treatment at the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children.

Julie Mytton, Director of the Child Injury HIT, who will be leading the project said:

“With this project, we want to look at whether it’s possible to identify what happened leading up to the brain injury event, and whether any features could be changed to stop such injuries from happening in the future. We will explore what information is already being collected about these children’s injuries, and whether it is possible to use it in this way. We want see if it’s feasible to make the most of existing information and groups to help prevent childhood brain injuries in the future, by better understanding the ones that are already happening.”