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Objectives In the vast majority of Children's Hospitals, the critically ill patient can be found in one of three locations: the PICU, the neonatal ICU, and the cardiac ICU. Training, certification, and maintenance of certification for neonatology and critical care medicine are over seen by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and American Board of Pediatrics. There is no standardization of training or oversight of certification and maintenance of certification for pediatric cardiac critical care. Data sources The curricula from the twenty 4th year pediatric cardiac critical care training programs were collated, along with the learning objectives from the Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Society published "Curriculum for Pediatric Cardiac Critical Care Medicine." Study selection This initiative is endorsed by the Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Society as a first step toward Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education oversight of training and American Board of Pediatrics oversight of maintenance of certification. Data extraction A taskforce was established of cardiac intensivists, including the directors of all 4th year pediatric cardiac critical care training programs. Data synthesis Using modified Delphi methodology, learning objectives, rotational requirements, and institutional requirements for providing training were developed. Conclusions In the current era of increasing specialized care in pediatric cardiac critical care, standardized training for pediatric cardiac critical care is paramount to optimizing outcomes.

For decades, physicians have administered corticosteroids in the perioperative period to infants undergoing heart surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) to reduce the post-operative systemic inflammatory response to CPB. Some question this practice because steroid efficacy has not been conclusively demonstrated and because some studies indicate that steroids could have harmful effects. STRESS is a randomized, placebo-controlled, double blind, multi-center trial designed to evaluate safety and efficacy of perioperative steroids in infants (age < 1 year) undergoing heart surgery with CPB. Participants (planned enrollment = 1200) are randomized 1:1 to methylprednisolone (30mg/kg) administered into the CPB pump prime versus placebo. The trial is nested within the existing infrastructure of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons Congenital Heart Surgery Database (STS-CHSD). The primary outcome is a global rank score of mortality, major morbidities and hospital length of stay with components ranked commensurate with their clinical severity. Secondary outcomes include several measures of major post-operative morbidity, post-operative hospital length of stay and steroid-related safety outcomes including prevalence of hyperglycemia and post-operative infectious complications. STRESS will be one of the largest trials ever conducted in children with heart disease and will answer a decades old question related to safety and efficacy of perioperative steroids in infants undergoing heart surgery with CPB. The pragmatic “trial within a registry” design may provide a mechanism for conducting low cost, high efficiency trials in a heretofore-understudied patient population. Trial Registration Number