The quality of the care offered to patients depends in part on the advancement of knowledge and its alignment with patient needs. Several of the Initiative’s projects are therefore aimed at supporting professionals in the continuous improvement of their surgical practices in order to provide care that is increasingly adapted to the needs of families. Ultimately, these practices will allow caregivers to personalize their approach, hence enabling patients and families to feel more supported and enjoy a more streamlined care experience. Surgery-related research and training projects are therefore being developed within MUSCO.

MUSCO Projects

Creation of the Chair

CanCORPS Pediatric Surgery Consortium

Surgical Training

Training Plan — MEDICAL Component

Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS)

Montreal Children’s Hospital

Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS)

Project leader

Sherif Emil Chairholder, Mirella & Lino Saputo Foundation Chair in Pediatric Surgical Education and Patient and Family Centred Care, Montreal Children’s Hospital

The project

Develop protocols to encourage Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) in pediatric care

MUSCO Strategic Goal

Ease the transfer of research innovations to clinics to the benefit of patients.

Project Objectives

1

Oversee awareness, information and training activities for practitioners with regard to this new approach
2

Incorporate the ERAS approach into the pediatric surgical culture of partner institutions by 2023
3

Enable practitioners from different specialties to apply multiple ERAS protocols
4

Improve surgical safety for patients
5

Be a leader in the translation of this approach to a pediatric setting
6

Become a national and international leader in the field

Progress Report

The aim of this project is to improve recovery after surgery (RAAC) and is one of the main projects undertaken as part of the Mirella & Lino Saputo Foundation Chair in Pediatric Surgical Education and Patient and Family Centred Care.

ERAS is a particularly innovative approach that has a major impact on patients, first and foremost by forging closer ties between the medical profession and families, so as to offer the latter better support throughout their surgical journey.

With this in mind, the aime was to develop and implement a number of surgical protocols for enhanced recovery in pediatrics. An initial pathway was established for the correction of Pectus Excavatum/Carinatum, whose patient booklet was drafted based on the experience of several families and patients who had gone through the procedure.

This is the result of a close collaboration between the teams at the Montreal Children’s Hospital and the Shriners Hospitals for Children — Canada. Teams from surgery, anesthesiology, nursing, physiotherapy, nutrition, social work and psychology have come together to form a single multidisciplinary team. More than 20 contributors from both sites have joined forces to develop this protocol which has reduced hospitalization after the NUSS procedure (minimally invasive pectus excavatum repair) from around a week to just one night.

In addition, the first-ever canadian multidisciplinary conference on Enhanced Recovery after Surgery (ERAS) in pediatrics was held in April 2023. More than 100 participants from various sectors across Quebec came to learn about the essential principles and processes of ERAS, the specific issues related to its application in pediatrics, and the future and the implementation of a pediatric PAC culture within hospitals.

In order to continue expanding and refining this recovery-centred approach, which benefits patients, their families and healthcare professionals alike, a broader program to incorporate pediatric ERAS protocols into certain surgical subspecialties is currently being developed. The aim is to disseminate these protocols in Quebec and beyond, so that the greatest possible number of healthcare professionals can take advantage of them. The goal is to become a global leader in ERAS by participating actively in the ERAS Society.