The Medicine Critical Care Program (MCCP) consists of physicians and scientists who cover two distinctly unique critical care units and conduct clinical and basic research spanning the spectrum from cellular to clinical research. The broad goal of the MCCP within the Department of Medicine is to advance the care of critically ill children both within and well beyond the walls of Children?s Hospital Boston.

Although the majority of patients are emergency admissions, the ICP welcomes planned admissions for initiation of non-invasive ventilation (CPAP, BiPAP) and for desensitization protocols to vital medications. Nurses in the ICP are trained in Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) and are largely IV certified.

The Medicine Intensive Care Unit (MICU) opened in March 2008 in response to an institutional need for increased critical care capacity. This twelve bed unit cares for critically ill medical patients with the full range of pediatric diagnoses.

MICU Intensivists are strong advocates for non-invasive ventilation when feasible, but are experts in all forms of invasive mechanical ventilation when it becomes necessary. The unit is a state-of-the-art facility with the newest and most advanced structural layout and equipment available, including a specially designed ICU-sleep study room fully equipped as both an ICU bay and infrared-lit sleep facility for patients with particular needs, including those chronically ventilated via tracheostomy.

As in the rest of the institution, advanced techniques and cutting edge research are brought to bear on each patient in order to provide the best possible care in a patient-centered multidisciplinary team approach. MICU nurses are critical care nurses trained in PALS and are largely IV certified.

MCCP faculty members are leading researchers in their respective fields, with particular expertise in cell stretch and mechanical injury, tight glycemic control in critically ill children with a focus on "closing the loop" on automated control of blood glucose with insulin, and broader applications of control theory to complex systems in pediatric critical care. Clinical and bench research is supported with multi-million dollars in research funding from the National Institutes of Health, internal and external foundations, as well as wide collaborations with leading corporate participants in the quest for improved outcomes in pediatric critical care and endocrinology.