Simon J Parsons
Dr. Simon J Parsons BMedSc MBBS FRACP FRCPC FCICM MBioeth is Section Chief of Critical Care at the Alberta Children’s Hospital (ACH) and a Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Calgary. Dr. Parsons trained and practised Pediatrics and Critical Care in Melbourne, Hobart, Vancouver, Toronto, Edmonton and Calgary. He is the primary author of the majority of the Pediatric Critical Care Guidelines and he leads the ACH PICU physicians’ team in guideline development.
Dr. Parsons first recognized the need for a set of guidelines in order to support standardization and consistency of care within the ACH PICU. He conceptualized the PCCG website initiative as a way to broadly share the guidelines after receiving a number of requests – outside of Alberta Health Services – for access to the documents. His vision is to engage medical professionals in open, timely dialogue around protocols and procedures, and, in facilitating this sharing of clinical knowledge, develop up-to-date, evidence-based care guidelines that are globally accessible.
Dr. Parsons clinical and research interests include development of evidence-based guideline-directed care, and PICU quality of care measurement and improvement. He has led the ACH PICU team in implementing a system of rigorous adherence to best practices, and has recently studied the unit’s compliance to clinical practice guidelines. Measured over a 12-month period, the 12 most commonly used guidelines had approximately 80% compliance in the ACH PICU.
The ACH PICU was the first Canadian PICU to join the Virtual Pediatric Systems (VPS) system. ACH PICU consistently ranks among the best performing ICUs in North America, in terms of severity of illness adjusted mortality and severity of illness adjusted to length of stay ratios, indicating a very high quality and efficiency of care.