The PTN Mercy Method tape study completes enrollment

The PTN’s Mercy Method™ tape study has successfully completed enrollment of 625 evaluable patients. Trial enrollment was concluded in less than two months.

The study team attributes this impressive enrollment rate to the efforts of lead investigator Susan Abdel-Rahman, PharmD, of Children’s Mercy Hospitals and Clinics in Kansas City, Missouri; principal investigators Ian Paul, MD, of Milton Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and Laura James at the University of Arkansas Medical Center in Little Rock, Arkansas; and their respective study personnel.

The Mercy Method™—developed at Children’s Mercy Hospital—estimates weight based on measurements of arm length and upper arm circumference using a novel measuring device designed for simple fabrication and use. The goal of the device is to guide delivery of age-appropriate, weight-based interventions, which remain the most accurate approach to delivering care in children.

The Mercy Method™ tape could also help to ensure that proper drug doses are administered to children under special circumstances, such as emergency medical care situations or in third world countries that lack suitable scales.

This study is the first device trial undertaken by the Pediatric Trials Network.

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