For over 25 years, Dr. Flori’s primary research focus has been to study the epidemiology, diagnosis, clinical and biological risk factors, management and long-term outcomes of pediatric acute respiratory distress syndrome (PARDS). Through her early collaborations, she co-authored an NIH R01 on Biomarkers and Genetics of Acute Lung Injury (BALI; HL095410) with Drs. Dahmer and Quasney. BALI was the first, large pediatric critical care ancillary study to a parent randomized controlled trial, the NHLBI funded RESTORE trial of sedation practices in pediatric acute respiratory failure (RESTORE; U01 HL086622). The results yielded from these BALI studies directly informed the team’s current ancillary study, ENSNARE (R01 HL149910) to the PROSpect: Prone and Oscillation Pediatric Clinical Trial (UG3 HL141736-01), again as co-principal investigator with Dr. Dahmer. Dr. Dahmer and Dr. Flori completed the first latent class analysis in PARDS patients (R21HD097387) published in Lancet Respiratory Medicine in December 2021. Dr. Flori’s research efforts remain centered on further characterizing these latent classes, aka phenotypes, so as to provide predictive enrichment for future research trial design and prognostic enrichment for routine clinical care for these patients with great morbidity and mortality.
Dr. Flori was one of the original members at the first Pediatric Acute Lung Injury and Sepsis Investigator network in 2002 and is currently Vice-Chair of the network. She has supported many other independent, usually fellow-led, pediatric clinical research efforts over the years as well, including studies in sepsis, ventilator associated pneumonia, noninvasive mechanical ventilation, transport medicine, acupuncture in post op surgical patients and others.
Clinically, Dr. Flori has served as Medical Director for a total of 10 years across 2 PICUs. She enjoys collaborating on quality improvement and patient safety initiatives and improving patient throughput. Dr. Flori has also been fortunate to be a co-author of both the Pediatric Acute Lung Injury Consensus Conferences and the Pediatric Surviving Sepsis Campaigns.