Paul McNally
Director of Research & Innovation, Children’s Health Ireland
With insights from: Mary Costello, Research Programme Manager, Children’s Health Ireland
Clinical research in children is essential if we are to find new ways of preventing, diagnosing and treating childhood diseases.
Most of the medicines currently given to children have only been tested in adults. However, young adults, children and newborn babies often react differently to medicines than adults. They are not simply ‘small adults.’ Having access to clinical trials enables children in Ireland to benefit from the latest advances in medicines and treatments for children.
Facilitating paediatric clinical trials
Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) is a hospital group currently participating in over 80 clinical trials. These span across 15 different therapeutic areas and include trials assessing new treatments for a range of rare and common childhood illnesses including paediatric cancer, cystic fibrosis, haemophilia, paediatric heart failure, peanut allergy, achondroplasia and Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
Clinical Research Centre and Cancer Clinical Trials Unit
Trials are conducted through CHI’s Clinical Research Centre (CHI-CRC) and Cancer Clinical Trials Unit (CCTU), both HRB-funded clinical research infrastructures. Together, they provide dedicated staff and expertise to enable clinical teams and study sponsors to carry out trials for new drugs, medical devices and other medical advancements.
Already operating across four clinical sites Crumlin, Temple Street, Connolly and Tallaght, it is an exciting time for research. Our hospital charity partners have merged into the Children’s Health Foundation, a key supporter of the development of our trials capability in CHI. The move to the new hospital in 2025 means new state-of-the-art research facilities and, bringing more opportunities to participate in innovative trials.
Collaboration is central to this work
CHI is connected to national and international networks to share ideas and best practices and provide children in Ireland with access to large multinational clinical trials. One such network is In4kids, the HRB-funded Irish Network for Children’s Clinical Trials.
In4Kids is the Irish hub of c4c (conect4children), a large collaborative European network that aims to facilitate the development of new treatments for the entire paediatric population. With In4kids, the CHI-CRC will launch a new National Young Patient Advisory Group (YPAG) in 2024 to drive the involvement of young people in the design of new clinical trials. Paediatric research across Ireland has also been supported over many years by the Children’s Health Foundation.