26/04/2023
Ottawa, Ontario — Wednesday April 26, 2023
The CHEO Research Institute (RI) and the CHEO Foundation are pleased to announce Dr. Kusum Menon as the CHEO Foundation Research Chair in Pediatric Intensive Care. This is the first-of-its-kind research chair position supported by donor dollars through the CHEO Foundation.
By thinking outside of the box to facilitate practice-changing research, the Chair position provides Dr. Menon, a Pediatric Intensive Care physician at CHEO and Senior Scientist at the CHEO RI, with protected time to carry out collaborative research work with partners across Canada and globally through numerous projects and leadership positions.
“The CHEO Foundation Research Chair in Pediatric Intensive Care is a new way in which we can strengthen and enhance research capacity and outputs at CHEO by providing a leading clinician scientist (Dr. Menon) dedicated time to focus on research with national and international partners,” said Dr. Jason Berman, CEO and Scientific Director of the CHEO RI and Vice-President of Research at CHEO. “Being the inaugural CHEO Foundation Research Chair, we are excited to see the scientific advancements and clinical impacts enabled by this support in hopes of establishing additional research chair positions at CHEO in the future.”
Research at CHEO would not be possible without the support of generous donors through the CHEO Foundation.
“This is such a great example of how donor dollars can not only facilitate innovative and life-saving care for kids at CHEO, but also fuel the ground-breaking discoveries that will impact the lives of children on a global scale. Research chair positions, fully funded by community donations, will allow the CHEO Research Institute to attract, retain and facilitate the work of Dr. Menon and others like her for years to come. We truly are a global leader in research, and this will help take innovative discoveries to children around the world,” said Steve Read, President and CEO of the CHEO Foundation.
Dr. Menon is the Chair-Elect of the Canadian Critical Care Trials Group (CCCTG) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research funded COVID-19 Network of Clinical Trials Networks (NoN), lead methodologist of the Society of Critical Care Medicine’s Pediatric Sepsis Definition Taskforce, a Co-Lead on an initiative to enhance international collaboration on Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) clinical trials and the Principal Investigator of a large Canadian-led international randomized controlled trial (SHIPSS = Stress Hydrocortisone in Pediatric Septic Shock). With this Chair position, Dr. Menon will build on national and international research collaboration in PICU trials, look to develop common approaches for obtaining consent and assent for PICU studies in Canada, and inform guidelines for the use of corticosteroids in pediatric septic shock.
“I am honoured to be named CHEO Foundation Research Chair in Pediatric Intensive Care and am grateful for the opportunity to not only further expand my ongoing clinical trial but unite the PICU research community worldwide,” said Dr. Menon, professor of Pediatrics at the University of Ottawa.
As Research Chair, Dr. Menon plans to expand the SHIPSS trial to more than 37 new sites in eight countries. Having established relationships with hundreds of PICU investigators around the world, Dr. Menon, as Chair of the CCCTG will be well positioned to lead the creation of an international PICU research collaborative.
“Answering important questions in our field often requires large trials that sometimes take more than 10 years to complete. Development of an international collaborative will allow us to provide evidence much faster. This Research Chair position will have significant reach and impact, not only to critically ill children at CHEO, but across Canada and globally,” added Dr. Menon.
To learn more on ways to support research at CHEO visit the CHEO Foundation.