The Paediatric Improvement Collaborative (PIC) was formed in 2018 between Clinical Excellence Queensland, the NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation, Safer Care Victoria, and the Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH). Since initial establishment, other states and territories have expressed interest in being involved and, in 2023, South Australia’s Women’s and Children’s Health Network became a PIC partner. In the coming year it is planned to expand the PIC to include all states and territories in Australia, thereby becoming a national collaborative.

A key objective of the collaboration, outlined in a Memorandum of Understanding, is to improve care and to reduce unwarranted variation in clinical care for children. This is supported via the development, endorsement, publication, and promotion of evidence-based paediatric clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) that outline best practice clinical management of high volume and/or high risk paediatric clinical conditions. The guidelines are designed for all clinicians, especially more junior clinicians, to support the provision of clinical care.

The PIC is governed by a Steering Committee with representatives from all partners and has strengthened interjurisdictional relationships in working toward improving care through collaboration. The PIC is the first collaboration in Australia that clearly aims to harness joint efforts to reduce variation in care for children. It is also the first time jurisdictions have formally partnered in what has become a long-term program to provide clinical advice that is appropriate for paediatric care. Expanding the PIC to a national collaborative will strengthen this work and enable the production of Australian Paediatric Clinical Practice Guidelines.

The partnership builds on the core work that has been undertaken at RCH for many years, supported by the RCH Foundation. RCH is the host partner for the CPG development work, the CPG website and CPG App, and is also the fund holder for the Collaborative.

Hear more about the background and history of the PIC and why it's important to use clinical practice guidelines that are specific for children in order to provide the best standard of care: