January 12, 2016

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Sandra Yacoub of International Patient Services is the latest Texas Children’s Super Star employee. “Being recognized is the icing on the cake,” Yacoub said. “It provides me with the motivation to continue giving the best I can give.” Read more of Yacoub’s interview and find out how you can nominate a Super Star.

Q&A: Sandra Yacoub, October 2015 Employee

Your name, title and department. How long have you worked here?
Sandra Yacoub, Senior Interpreter in International Patient Services. I’ve been working in IPS for seven and half years.

What month are you Super Star for?
October 2015

Tell us how you found out you won a super star award.
It was actually a HUGE surprise. We had an International Patient Services team meeting on October 15 to which I came late because I was in another meeting that ran a bit longer than anticipated. Julia Barreda Wong, International Patient Services senior coordinator, attended the first meeting with me. I could see her getting anxious to go the second meeting but I had no clue why because we already informed Iman Shebaro, our assistant director, that we might come late. Julia was practically running to the location of our second meeting and I was running behind her. As I walked in the conference room, everyone in the room started clapping and yelling “congratulations.” I still had no idea what was going on. Ivett Shah, assistant vice president of Women Services and Joann Lee, International Patient Services and Women Services director were present. As Iman told me that I won the Super Star Award I was speechless. I had no idea that I was even nominated. It was a very emotional moment for me. I just hope I didn’t embarrass myself. There also was a lot of good food and a delicious cake.

What does it mean to be recognized for the hard work you do? How has the organization helped you achieve your personal and professional goals?
In International Patient Services we all work from the heart, we all do our best to provide our families and our care providers with an excellent service. We all support each other, and we all know that we are highly supported by our leadership. Being recognized is the icing on the cake. It provided me with that much more motivation to continue giving the best I can give. I hear horror stories from my friends and acquaintances about the difficult times and lack of support they have to deal with in their workplace, which makes me realize how lucky I am with all the support that the organization, the leadership and the team offer.

What do you think makes someone at Texas Children’s a super star?
Their heart.

What is your motivation for going above and beyond every day at work?
Knowing what’s at stake. We help international patients who are not familiar with the country or the language to have access to the best medical care they can get. Each family has a story that we become a part of. It is truly a privilege.

What is the best thing about working at Texas Children’s?
The people.

What does it mean to you that everyone at Texas Children’s is considered a leader? What is your leadership definition?
A leader to me is someone who is willing to assume responsibility and take the necessary steps to do what needs to be done. It’s SERVICE WITH HEART.

Anything else you want to share?
I’m truly grateful for this recognition, for the opportunity to be working in Texas Children’s Hospital and to be working with the International Patient Services team. It is indeed a blessing.

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Dr. Sanjeev Vasudevan will receive the 2016 Young Alumnus Award from the Baylor College of Medicine Alumni Association. Vasudevan is a pediatric surgeon and researcher specializing in pediatric cancers such as neuroblastoma, liver cancer, renal tumors and sarcomas.

The Baylor Young Alumnus Award is presented to former students under the age of 46 who make outstanding contributions to biomedical or medical science through clinical service, research, education or administrative leadership. Vasudevan completed his residency in general surgery and fellowship in pediatric surgery at Baylor and Texas Children’s.

Vasudevan, who is also an assistant professor of surgery at Baylor College of Medicine, leads a robust clinical and molecular biology research program at Texas Children’s focusing on pediatric solid tumors, in particular neuroblastoma and liver cancer. Through his research, Vasudevan aims to find novel and less toxic therapeutic agents to improve outcomes for children with solid tumors.

“We are proud to be able support Dr. Vasudevan as pediatric surgeon scientist at Texas Children’s,” said Dr. Charles D. Fraser, Jr., Texas Children’s surgeon-in-chief. “I am confident his innovative research program will continue to provide many important contributions in the treatment of pediatric cancer.”

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In an effort to make the operating room schedule run more efficiently, Perioperative Services has added a position to streamline operating room (OR) efficiency. Joyce Enochs has accepted the position and will work on surgery schedules for operating rooms in both the Clinical Care Center (CCC) and the Main OR in West Tower.

Enochs will use her seven years of OR experience to ensure the surgery schedule is accurately posted, appropriately scheduled and effectively communicated. Division schedulers or surgeons should contact her to schedule difficult surgeries, or if they experience issues in scheduling a surgery. Enochs can be reached at Ext. 4-5701 or 3-0739.

“The goal is to have every surgical procedure performed in the right place, at the right time and with the right staff,” said Janet Winebar, director of Perioperative Services. “By ensuring this, we will create a patient-friendly efficient operating room.”

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Dr. Sundeep Keswani, pediatric surgeon, was chosen by the Association for Academic Surgery to receive the 2016 International Visiting Professorship Award to attend the Columbia Surgical Association Congress in Bogota, Colombia, in August 2016.

Keswani is the principal investigator for the Texas Children’s Laboratory for Regenerative Tissue Repair. His clinical interests are in fetal diagnosis and therapy, neonatal surgery, congenital diaphragmatic hernia, Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation and pediatric wound care.

His National Institute of Health-funded laboratory studies the molecular mechanisms of regenerative fetal tissue repair and is actively developing novel therapeutics to achieve postnatal regenerative wound healing.

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Dr. Sanjiv Harpavat, a pediatric gastroenterologist at Texas Children’s and Baylor College of Medicine, received the 2015 Jan Albrecht Clinical and Translational Research Award in Liver Diseases from the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) Foundation.

His study titled, “Assessment of a Novel Newborn Screening Tool for Biliary Atresia,” explores a new strategy to detect infants with biliary atresia earlier.

Biliary atresia is the most common indication for pediatric liver transplantation in the United States and worldwide. The only proven treatment for the disease is the Kasai portoenterostomy but this treatment has variable success in preventing or delaying need for transplantation.

One way to improve the success of the Kasai operation is to perform it earlier, with Kasai operations performed in the first 30 days of life correlating with the best outcomes. Unfortunately, infants with biliary atresia may appear normal in the first weeks of life and are difficult to detect. Because of this, in the United States, infants with biliary atresia are diagnosed and treated after 60 days of life on average.

Previously Harpavat and colleagues showed that all infants with biliary atresia have high direct or conjugated bilirubin measurements at birth. Using retrospective data, they predicted the test could be very sensitive and specific for biliary atresia.

Now Harpavat and colleagues hypothesize that universal newborn screening with direct or conjugated bilirubin measurements could be an effective way to identify biliary atresia earlier. They will prospectively screen all newborns from 10 hospitals in the Houston area and south Texas to determine the test’s sensitivity and specificity. They will also perform a cost-effective analysis using data obtained from the screen. Finally, they will assay easier ways to perform direct or conjugated bilirubin measurements, using a heel stick instead of venipuncture, for example.

Harpavat’s research study represents a broad collaboration among many divisions at Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine, including investigators from Gastroenterology/Hepatology, Neonatology, Pediatric Surgery, Interventional Radiology, and Pathology. In addition, the group is working with public health experts at the University of Texas School of Public Health and clinicians at a large birth hospital in south Texas.

“Our goal is to improve outcomes in biliary atresia,” Harpavat said. “We are evaluating an affordable, widely-available, easily-interpretable test, that has the potential to hasten diagnostic times for infants with this serious disease.”

January 7, 2016

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To celebrate their AFC South title and to get ready for the first round of the playoffs, the Houston Texans hosted a party Wednesday for patients and families at Texas Children’s Hospital.

Held in the Child Life Zone on the 16th floor of West Tower, the party was filled with all sorts of fun, including face painting, playoff T-shirt giveaways, arts and crafts, and visits from TORO, Texans cheerleaders Jordan and Randi, and Texans ambassadors J.J. Moses, Wade Smith and Eric Brown.

While waiting to get a glimpse of TORO, 7-year-old Gael Esquivel intently colored a football he drew on a playoffs poster he created at the arts and crafts station. The child quickly stopped his coloring when TORO waived him over for a handshake and photo op.

“He’s a huge fan of the Texans and has always wanted to meet TORO,” Gael’s mother, Joanna Esquivel, said as she looked at her son’s smiling face. “As you can tell, he’s very excited.”

Mike Manis said he brought his 2-year-old son Rayden Manis to the playoff party because his family is a huge fan of the Texans and of Texas Children’s Hospital, an organization he described as “going above and beyond for its patients and families.”

“This kind of thing is really great for the kids,” Manis said. “It brightens their day.”

Shannon Green agreed and said her 10-year-old daughter Eden Green has attended various uplifting events at Texas Children’s Hospital during the past several months while being treated for a rare form of bone cancer. Although she wasn’t able to come to the playoff party, Eden got a T-shirt, socks and a signed football from her mom and sister who were able to attend.

“We are huge Texans fans,” Shannon Green said. “We will definitely be rooting for them on Saturday.”

The Texans clinched the AFC South title with January 3rd’s win over the Jacksonville Jaguars, finishing with a final mark of 9-7. The team – which partnered with Texas Children’s almost a year ago to inspire children to lead healthier, more active lives – is the AFC’s 4th seed and will host the Kansas City Chiefs in the first round of the playoffs at 3:35 p.m. Saturday, January 9 in the AFC Wild Card Game.

To show our pride for our home team and partner, CEO Mark A. Wallace is encouraging Texas Children’s fans to wear Texans jerseys, shirts or team colors Friday and Saturday. Khakis or similar slacks may be worn, but please no denim blue jeans, as we wish to present a spirited yet professional appearance to our families.

And we want to see your team spirit too: Send our communications team photos of you and your co-workers in your Texans gear, and you may just end up on Texas Children’s Twitter (@texaschildrens) and Instagram feeds (oneamazingteam). Email your photos to connectnews@texaschildrens.org.

January 5, 2016

1616TheCenter2Anniv640Texas Children’s Health Plan is thrilled to celebrate the one-year anniversary of The Center for Children and Women in Southwest Houston. Since opening its second location in November 2014, The Center has provided excellent comprehensive primary care for pediatric and obstetrics members of Texas Children’s Health Plan.

The Center provides state-of-the-art health care that integrates a wide variety of services in one location. Through a partnership with Baylor College of Medicine and UT School of Dentistry, services include pediatric and obstetrics/gynecology care, imaging, behavioral health services, dental, optometry, speech therapy and an onsite laboratory and pharmacy. By having all these services under one roof and offering extended hours, members can have all their healthcare needs met on the same day.

“Our extended hours and patient-centered approach means that more families have access to the highest quality care and improved health outcomes,” said Dr. Lisa Hollier, medical director of Obstetrics and Gynecology at The Center for Children and Women. “Our team is so proud of the incredible impact we’ve had on our members in Southwest Houston.”

The Center has made quite an impact on the Southwest area by providing care to more than 5,890 patients in the last 12 months. This number includes more than 4,988 pediatric patients and 902 obstetric patients. Since opening, there have also been 356 births. The actual number of appointments in the past year may best demonstrate The Center’s true footprint in the community. That number totals more than 33,297 appointments in just 12 months.

“After one short year, it is exciting to see the number of families our amazing team has helped,” said Dr. Heidi Schwarzwald, medical director of Pediatrics at The Center for Children and Women. “I am so proud of the care that we offer and the way our team is always innovating to respond to the needs of the community.”

The Center also hosts a series of programs, including breastfeeding, car seat safety, healthy cooking, and exercise and nutrition classes that help educate the community and promote wellness.

“As I reflect on The Centers and the communities we serve, I am so grateful to be a part of such an amazing team who is making a difference and redefining healthcare for those often considered less fortunate,” said Tangula Taylor, director of Operations at The Center for Children and Women.