April 15, 2024

The Department of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital recently held the Ralph D. Feigin Memorial Grand Rounds featuring honored speaker Dr. Peter Hotez, co-director of Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development (CVD) and professor and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine.

“What a privilege it was to host this very special Grand Rounds presentation with such an impressive in-person turnout of past and current faculty and trainees,” said Pediatrician-in-Chief and Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine Dr. Lara Shekerdemian. “The occasion was made even more special by our speaker and colleague, Dr. Peter Hotez, who gave an enlightening presentation on the science versus the anti-science of global vaccinations and even shared how his path crossed with Dr. Ralph Feigin’s many times while doing this important work.”

Also in attendance was Texas Children’s President Dr. Debra Feigin Sukin, daughter of the event’s namesake Dr. Ralph D. Feigin, who is considered by many as the foremost pediatrician in the world, and who served as Texas Children’s Physician-in-Chief and Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine from 1977 until his passing in 2008.

“I was incredibly honored to be able to present Dr. Hotez with the Baylor College of Medicine Endowed Lectureship medal named after my father…who left an enduring legacy of excellence with his passion for clinical care, teaching and research,” added Sukin. “I am profoundly grateful for Dr. Hotez – his courage, his advocacy and the life-changing work he has dedicated himself to have had an immeasurable impact on eradicating infectious diseases and impacting the lives of millions of children and women across the globe.”

“I’m deeply appreciative for this opportunity to share my work with peers and colleagues I respect so much at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s,” said Dr. Hotez. “I first met Dr. Feigin when I was a pediatric house officer at Mass General in Boston, where he was also a resident, and we remained in contact over the years…this made it a special honor for me to deliver this year’s Ralph D. Feigin Memorial Lecture.”

“The fact that our Center for Vaccine Development developed a COVID-19 vaccine technology at the Feigin Center, administered to 100 million people globally, made it even more special.”

The Annual Ralph D. Feigin Memorial Grand Rounds not only honored the legacy of Dr. Feigin but also reaffirmed the commitment of Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital to advancing pediatric health care through education, research and innovation.

Held weekly on Fridays, Baylor College of Medicine’s Pediatric Grand Rounds, provided by Texas Children’s Hospital, are designed to utilize current medical literature to inform physicians, residents and fellows on advancements in the field. Click here to learn more.

Dr. Richard Hopper (left) and Dr. William C. Pederson (right)

Dr. William C. Pederson, chief of Plastic Surgery at Texas Children’s Hospital, has been named the Josephine Abercrombie Endowed Professor in Plastic Surgery Research, and Dr. Richard Hopper, medical director of Plastic Surgery in Austin, has been named the Samuel Stal, MD Endowed Chair in Plastic Surgery.

“Both Dr. Pederson and Dr. Hopper are exceptionally worthy recipients of these endowed positions,” said Texas Children’s Surgeon-in-Chief Dr. Larry Hollier. “We are grateful to our generous donors and hospital leadership for creating these endowments to recruit and retain the most talented surgeons to care for our patients.”

The Josephine Abercrombie Endowed Professorship in Plastic Surgery Research was established by Ms. Abercrombie’s son, George Robinson, to honor his mother and the Abercrombie legacy of giving to Texas Children’s and Baylor College of Medicine. J.S. Abercrombie, Josephine’s father, was one of the founders of Texas Children’s Hospital.

Dr. Pederson is an internationally renowned hand and microvascular surgeon with faculty appointments in plastic surgery, orthopedics, neurosurgery and pediatrics at Texas Children’s and Baylor. His clinical interests include the management of vascular problems in the upper extremity, nerve injury and repair including brachial plexus, Volkmann’s ischemic contracture, facial paralysis and microsurgical reconstruction of complex extremity defects.

A leader in his field, Pederson served as president of the American Association for Hand Surgery and the American Society for Reconstructive Microsurgery and sat on the executive council of the American Society for Surgery of the Hand. He also serves as a member-at-large on the executive council of the World Society for Reconstructive Microsurgery.

Pederson has authored more than 100 papers in peer-reviewed literature and 40 textbook chapters. He is an editor of the textbook “Green’s Operative Hand Surgery,” and serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Hand Surgery and the Journal of Reconstructive Microsurgery.

The Samuel Stal, MD Endowed Chair in Plastic Surgery was created through the contributions of Texas Children’s Hospital to honor the legacy of Dr. Samuel Stal, who served as chief of Plastic Surgery at both Texas Children’s and Baylor College of Medicine. For more than 30 years, Dr. Stal focused his Texas Children’s practice on helping children with craniofacial, cleft lip and palate deformities. He also created the Texas Children’s Center for Facial Surgery, which accepted all children with facial deformities regardless of their family’s ability to pay.

Dr. Richard Hopper is the medical director for Plastic Surgery at our North Austin Campus and a professor of Surgery in the Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine. He specializes in craniofacial surgery, specifically the surgical treatment of growth differences of the jaws and skull. This includes conditions such complex craniosynostosis, cleft lip and palate, and Treacher Collins, Crouzon and Apert syndromes. Dr. Hopper is the former president of both the American Society of Craniofacial Surgery and the International Society of Craniofacial Surgery.

His research has resulted in more than 100 publications focused on image-based outcome studies for craniosynostosis and complex craniofacial procedures as well as device design for cleft and craniofacial care. He has trained 38 craniofacial fellows who practice nationally and internationally. Dr. Hopper serves on the SmileTrain Global Medical Advisory Board to advise safety and quality treatment guidelines for patients born with cleft lip and palate around the world.

Dr. Hopper recently came to Texas Children’s after serving as chief of Plastic Surgery at Seattle Children’s Hospital and surgical director of Seattle Children’s Craniofacial Center.

Please join us in congratulating Drs. Pederson and Hopper on their endowed positions!

To celebrate Earth Day (April 22) this year, the Green Team announces Texas Children’s commitment to reduce organizational emissions by 50% by 2030 and achieve net-zero by 2050.

“This is a bold commitment Texas Children’s is making to our patients, team members and community,” said Dr. Daniel Mahoney, Green Team co-chair. “This is the right thing to do and aligns with our mission. We’re not only creating a healthier future for children and women, but a healthier planet too.”

Climate change is the biggest threat to public health in the 21st century. It is bringing more deadly extreme weather events, increasing non-communicable diseases, and is facilitating the emergence and spread of infectious diseases. Twenty-eight percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions come from the United States with the health care sector contributing 8.5% of the total.

The White House with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services launched the Health Sector Climate Pledge last year inviting organizations to lower greenhouse gas emissions and build a more climate resilient infrastructure.

Texas Children’s initial focus areas to achieve net zero include:

  1. Direct Emissions
  2. Indirect Electricity Emissions
  3. Value Chain Emissions
  4. EV charging stations
  5. Renewable energy
  6. Anesthesia gases
  7. Shuttle conversion to electric
  8. Food waste composting
  9. Recycling

Our goal is to reach these landmarks with our sustainability efforts:

  • 196,020 tons of waste recycled instead of landfilled
  • 28,089 garbage trucks of waste recycled instead of landfilled
  • 158 wind turbines running for a year
  • 21,536,530 incandescent lamps switch to LEDs
  • 24,596,241 trash bags of waste recycled instead of landfilled

These efforts will result in the following:

  • 9,395,748 tree seedlings grown for 10 years
  • 3,768 acres of U.S. forests preserved in one year
  • 677,626 acres of U.S. forests in one year
Earth Day event

To learn more, please join the Green Team on Monday, April 22 on The Auxiliary Bridge in the Medical Center from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. to hear from our internal partners and vendors. You also can learn how to reduce your own carbon footprint at work and at home.

If you’re unable to attend, please visit the new Sustainability SharePoint site to learn more.

For more information on the Green Team or how to get involved, please contact committee co-chairs Dr. Daniel Mahoney or Gary Brown.

April 11, 2024

On Mark Wallace’s blog, he reflects on Texas Children’s incredible history and his personal commitment to telling our story and keeping our history alive for generations. Read more

April 8, 2024

On a beautiful Saturday in February, Texas Children’s Fetal Center brought current and former patients and their families together for a special occasion at the Houston Zoo. The Fetal Center Family Reunion has been a cherished experience for both families and staff alike since 2007, serving as a celebration of life and chance for attendees to reconnect, share progress and spend time together.

“It is incredibly fulfilling to see the children that our former fetal surgery patients have grown to become,” said clinical nurse coordinator Annie Southworth. “We see these children before they are even born, and being able to talk to them years later leaves us encouraged about our work continuing to make a difference for these families.

“The family reunion is an essential event celebrating our inspiring families and their outcomes,” added advanced quality specialist Angel Krueger. “It’s a small way we can give back to our patients and families for placing their trust in our care.”

Over 75 families, including 250+ people from nine different states and Mexico, registered for this year’s reunion event, the first one held since COVID-19. Many Texas Children’s team members, including physicians and surgeons from different departments, attended and volunteered to make the reunion a success. In addition to experiencing the zoo’s animals and exhibits, the event featured fun games and activities like face painting and cornhole.

“The care we received was top-notch” and nothing short of a miracle, said the mother of twins treated for twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS). “Texas Children’s really saved their lives, they wouldn’t be here had it not been for our care team.”

“I’m really happy to see kids like me,” said one former spina bifida repair patient at the event. His mother added that they still see the same Texas Children’s providers today, ten years later.

Click through the gallery below to see more photos from the family reunion.

Amazing week as the title sponsor of this celebrated PGA TOUR event. Read More

 

Hear how Cynda leads her team with an encouraging heart.

Cynda Conrad has been manager of Patient Family Services and Child Life at Texas Children’s Hospital – The Woodlands for eight of the almost 18 years she has been a Texas Children’s employee. She knows providing guidance and ensuring each team member feels heard are essential to maintaining a positive and supportive environment.

“Advice I took to heart early in my career was, ‘Don’t overthink everything. Don’t try to do everything perfectly. Do the best you can to meet that family’s or patient’s needs in that moment.’”

Similarly, Cynda wants members of her team to feel calm and stress-free during moments of difficulty or uncertainty, knowing they have the support of her and their fellow teammates. She encourages self-care, helping her team reinforce important boundaries and ensuring they have the physical and emotional resources they need. Her motto is “Let’s talk about it and figure it out together.”

A career comes full circle

Working at Texas Children’s was a dream rooted in Cynda’s childhood. Between the ages of eight and nine, Cynda came regularly from her home in Conroe to Texas Children’s to receive laser treatments on her port wine stain birthmark.

“I remember as a child seeing the big buildings and feeling nervous for my appointment.”

One of the first people she met upon arrival was a child life specialist who used a doll to demonstrate the procedure for Cynda to help her understand what to expect on her visits and ease her fears. Cynda carried the doll, which she keeps in her office, to every appointment and looked forward to seeing “her special nurse.”

As she grew older, Cynda wanted to work with children and becoming a child life specialist seemed like a perfect fit. Knowing she wanted to work where she had received such excellent care as a child, Cynda completed her clinical internship at Texas Children’s and joined our One Amazing Team. She began her career as a child life specialist in a float position, quickly moved to radiology, and later our Cancer Center, before assuming her current role at The Woodlands Campus.

Connecting with patients

While discussing the unique opportunities she has had to serve our patients, Cynda tells of once meeting a very shy little girl who, like Cynda, had a port wine birthmark. “She had a tough time looking people in the eye and the mom was very nervous but when I walked in to talk to them about their appointment, mom lit up.”

Cynda says they did not talk about having a birthmark that day because the family was there for other reasons, but she knew that being in that space with someone who looked like the little girl made a difference for them in that moment.

As she recalls the story, it is easy to see why Cynda’s ability to help people feel at ease is The Difference for her team and our patients. We are grateful her career brought her full circle to Texas Children’s, where she listens and leads our Child Life and Patient Family Services teams with grace and encouragement.