Join this free webinar sharing the major results of PERFORM (PErsonalised Risk assessment in Febrile illness to Optimise Real-life Management across the European Union); the five-year Horizon2020 project to develop easy to use, personalised tests to distinguish between bacterial and viral infections in febrile children.

Chief Investigator, Prof. Mike Levin from Imperial College London will introduce PERFORM’s consortium of researchers and paediatric doctors to present their findings, followed by a plenary discussion for the audience to ask questions to the researchers.

Further information

Fever is the most common reason that children are brought to professional healthcare services to seek medical treatment. Yet, in many cases it can be challenging for doctors to distinguish the relatively small number of children with serious bacterial infections from the majority that have milder viral illnesses.

Current diagnostic tests are far from perfect, being too slow or not accurate enough to influence the decision on whether to give antibiotics. As a result, a large proportion of children with fever are treated with antibiotics when they do not need them, whilst others with serious bacterial infections may be missed, resulting in severe consequences.

Rather than attempting to detect the specific bacteria and viruses that cause a fever, the PERFORM project took a different approach. Instead, it aimed to improve the diagnosis and management of fever by developing simple, personalised tests to distinguish between bacterial and viral infections by using patterns of molecules detected in the blood. The project has subsequently looked at identifying best-management strategies for using these new tests in varied healthcare settings across Europe.

The full agenda is available here. 

Speakers 

Prof. Mike Levin, Imperial College London (UK)
Prof. Federico Martinón-Torres, Servizo Galego de Saúde (Spain)
Dr Clementien Vermont, Erasmus Universitair Medisch Centrum Rotterdam (The Netherlands)
Prof. Luregn Schlapbach, University Children’s Hospital Zurich (Switzerland)
Prof. Marieke Emonts, Newcastle University (UK)
Dr Michael Carter, University of Oxford (UK)
Dr Effua Usuf, The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (UK)
Dr Ching-Fen Shen, National Cheng Kung University (Taiwan)
Dr Marie Voice, Micropathology (UK)
Dr Priyen Shah, Imperial College London (UK) (ICL)
Dr Myrsini Kaforou, Imperial College London (UK)
Dr Karen Brengel-Pesce, bioMérieux (France)
Prof. Marien de Jonge, Academic Medical Center Amsterdam (The Netherlands)
Prof. Shunmay Yeung, The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (UK)
Prof. Enitan Carrol, University of Liverpool (UK)