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Pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) has been developing rapidly but heterogeneously in many European countries in recent years, and many national PEM societies have been founded to improve the quality of care of ill and injured children and adolescents. Key facets of any such improvement are the development, delivery and translation of high-quality research. Research in European Pediatric Emergency Medicine (REPEM) has developed a robust international structure involving clinicians, academics and national PEM research networks. This structure facilitates research collaboration within Europe and with PEM research networks from other continents. Multicentre research carried out in this way will bring about improvements in the quality of emergency care for children in European emergency departments, and result in a better quality of life for children and adolescents. This paper outlines the background and achievements of REPEM to date and describes the current structure and next steps.

The objectives of the Pediatric Emergency Research Network's (PERN) meeting were to (i) learn about each of the participating network's missions, goals, and infrastructure; (ii) share important contributions that each network has made to the creation of new knowledge; (iii) discuss ‘best practices’ to improve each network's effectiveness and (iv) explore the potential for a collaborative research project as proof-of-concept that would help promote quality of care of the acutely ill and injured childyouth globally.

C-reactive protein (CRP) values are clinically useful in differentiating viral from bacterial illnesses in children, but the regular test is impractical in the emergency department (ED) setting.

To describe a combined program for ongoing medical education and quality assurance in the pediatric emergency department.

To investigate the contribution of diagnosis-specific information sheets at discharge from the emergency department on parental understanding of the discharge instructions.

International medical aid after natural disasters may take various forms, ranging from self-sufficient military forces to single experts or specialists who function primarily as advisers. A model integrating foreign and local medical staff has not previously been reported. In response to the call for international aid by the Honduran and El Salvadorian governments in the wake of Hurricane Mitch in November 1998 and the San Salvador earthquake in January 2001, Israel sent medical supplies and 10 member teams of medical professionals to each country. The aim of the present paper is to describe the unique Israeli approach to providing healthcare in disaster areas by integrating foreign and local medical staff, and to discuss its advantages and disadvantages. The paper focuses on the experience of the two emergency medicine physicians on the team who were assigned to the Atlantida General Hospital in La Ceiba, Honduras. The same team in San Salvador subsequently applied the same approach.