Midwest Pediatric Surgery Consortium (MWPSC) Multicenter Outcomes Research

Project start and end dates: 2014 – present

Background:
Many pediatric surgical conditions are rare, limiting single-center evidence. MWPSC was created to enable multicenter studies of common and rare pediatric surgical diseases.

Objectives:

• Quantify variability in surgical management
• Identify optimal strategies for congenital and acquired GI conditions
• Conduct prospective and patient-choice studies

Research Topics & Methods:

• Multicenter retrospective and prospective cohorts
• Patient-choice trial design
• Comparative effectiveness research

Implications:
MWPSC studies have directly informed best practices in appendicitis, congenital anomalies, and rare tumors.

Funders:

• PCORI (appendicitis patient-choice trial)
• Institutional consortium support

Collaborators:
MWPSC member institutions; national pediatric surgery leaders.

Key Publications:

• Minneci PC, Gadepalli S, et al. Nonoperative management vs appendectomy in children. JAMA. 2020. PMCID: PMC7385674
• Minneci PC, Gadepalli S, et al. Design of multicenter appendicitis trial. Contemp Clin Trials. 2019. PMCID: PMC7073001
• Srivatsa S, Gadepalli S, et al. Optimizing surveillance for sacrococcygeal teratoma. Int J Cancer. 2025. PMID:40536476