Abstract

The first instruction to examination candidates is to read and answer the question actually set. Doing so in this case leads to the following conclusions: how research has changed my clinical practice includes the act of doing research, as well as reading about the work of others. Thus, this article refers to my own clinical practice (tertiary referral paediatric respiratory medicine in a setting where we do not service an accident and emergency department), rather than that of others. This means excluding important conditions such as acute croup and uncomplicated community acquired pneumonia. I should write about what has changed my practice, not what other people think I ought to have changed. So this will be a personal view, limited to research published in a peer review format at the time of writing. I shall also assume that change is an ongoing process, so I shall include change in progress, provided it is supported by published literature.