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Research
Concurrent

Precision, Innovation, and Relentless Improvement: Rethinking Standardization in the PICU

Monday, March 23, 2026
9:45 AM - 10:45 AM Central Time
Location: W185

In today’s complex healthcare landscape, the drive for standardization and corporatization is reshaping critical care—often by centralizing control from a single location. Yet the art and science of medicine demand that each patient be seen as an individual with unique needs, and much of the progress in medicine has been achieved through improvements based on lessons learned through the care of individual patients. This session challenges the one-size-fits-all model, examines the unintended consequences of rigid protocols and over-reliance on population-level evidence, and explores the dynamic balance between centralized systems and individualized care. Speakers will also address the emerging role of AI in creating actively learning systems designed to continuously optimize patient outcomes.

Learning Objectives:

  • Examine how performance improvement initiatives designed to enhance safety and consistency can lead to protocol misalignment and impact misattribution
  • Analyze the risks of protocol weaponization to meet corporate metrics instead of to serve individual patients
  • Contrast the way corporatization centralizes and controls care from a central hub with the inherent complexity and human aspect of medicine, which requires tailoring individualized treatment plans
  • Explore the emerging role of AI in critical care and how AI might help create actively learning systems
  • Develop strategies to integrate patient-centered learning into clinical practice to ensure a dynamic, evolving performance improvement process that responds to both collective trends and individual patient stories

Presentations:

  • 9:50 AM - 9:59 AM Central Time
    Building a Culture of Continuous, Patient-Centered Learning

    Peta Alexander, MBBS, FRACP, FCICM – Boston Children's Hospital

  • 9:59 AM - 10:08 AM Central Time
    AI and Actively Learning Systems: The Future of Pediatric Critical Care

    Christopher Horvat, MD, MHA – University of Pittsburgh

  • 10:08 AM - 10:17 AM Central Time
    Rethinking Quality Improvement in Pediatric Critical Care

    Amanda Bettencourt, PhD, CCNS (she/her/hers) – University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing

  • 10:17 AM - 10:26 AM Central Time
    Centralization Versus Individualization: The Corporatization Challenge

    Jeffrey Geppert, JD

  • 10:26 AM - 10:35 AM Central Time
    Clinical Trial Design for the Future of Pediatric Critical Care

    Ryan Barbaro, MD, MS – University of Michigan Health System