Supported by grant U03MC00008, Maternal and Child Health Bureau,

doi: 10.1016/j.jen.2006.03.010August 2006 32:4in pediatrics must overcome these obstacles by increasing the number of large multicenter research investigations to provide evidence-based pediatric guidelines. The purpose ofC hildren account for an estimated 25 million of the total ED visits in the United States each year.1 Although substantial progress has been made in the education of health care providers concerning the pro-vision of emergency care for children, clinical research in this area has been limited. Despite a general awareness of the importance of pediatric research, pediatric emergency care providers continue to have insufficient research data to guide clinical practice. In particular, studies in prehos-pital care are lacking. Many common practices used in caring for children have not been studied extensively or standardized.2 Children who become critically ill or in-jured often are admitted to hospitals lacking pediatric resources and expertise, thus making the availability of established clinical guidelines essential.3 Furthermore, re-search outcomes and clinical protocols in adult medicine often are extrapolated and applied to children despite sig-nificant physiologic differences between children and adults; this is especially true in drug development.4,5 ResearchersApplied Research Networkthis article is to describe pediatric emergency care research needs, challenges, and a federally funded program estab-lished to respond to these needs—the Pediatric Emergenc