Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trial Unit
Children’s Hospital and St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children (SCHC), currently linked through the Circle of Care, a HRSA Pediatric AIDS Demonstration Project, formed a Philadelphia Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trials Unit. The two institutions will enroll at least 50 HIV-infected children per year in phase I, phase II and phase III trials. Subjects are recruited from existing patient populations and through community outreach efforts by culturally sensitive individuals. Obstetrical and perinatal research is conducted at hospitals allied and/or associated with the two pediatric hospitals: Temple University Hospital with SCHC, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania with Children’s Hospital. Pregnant women and children of minority groups, predominately African-Americans and Latinos, comprise close to 90 percent of the patient population and hemophiliac children are included in clinical studies. The Philadelphia Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trials Unit facilitates basic as well as clinical research and provides ancillary services for HIV-infected children and their families in addition to fulfilling its primary mission as a clinical trials unit.