July 17, 2017

Dr. Huda Zoghbi, director of the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Institute at Texas Children’s and professor in the departments of pediatrics, molecular and human genetics, neurology, and neuroscience at Baylor College of Medicine, received the 2017 Switzer Prize from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA for excellence in biological and biomedical sciences research.

The Switzer Prize recognizes discoveries in basic research in the biological and biomedical sciences that have the potential to inspire transformative breakthroughs in medicine. It is awarded annually to an individual investigator whose recent work has revealed new paradigms, illuminated biological processes or pathways, or explained the origins of pathologies or diseases.

The David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA established the prize to promote the importance of basic sciences research, which advances the understanding of biological systems and human physiology. Such research – a priority at UCLA – is essential to continued improvements in the diagnosis and treatment of a wide variety of illnesses.

The Switzer Prize is named in recognition of the generosity of Irma and Norman Switzer, who made a major gift to the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

Zoghbi’s research includes identifying a gene mutation that causes Rett syndrome, a severe genetic disorder that mostly affects girls. She will deliver the Switzer Prize lecture at UCLA in February 2018.

Texas Children’s Radiology-in-Chief Dr. George Bisset was recently awarded the Radiological Society of North America’s (RSNA) Gold Medal for 2017.

The Gold Medal is RSNA’s highest honor. It is awarded annually by the Board of Directors to those persons who, in the judgment of the Board, have rendered unusual service to the science of radiology. Typically, three medals are awarded each year in accordance with the RSNA’s Bylaws as revised November 1977. A unanimous vote of the Board of Directors is required.

Bisset is the second Texas Children’s Hospital recipient of this prestigious award. The first recipient was (late) Dr. Edward Singleton, who received the award in 1995.

July 11, 2017

When a patient is transferred to or from Texas Children’s Hospital, several wheels are set into motion to make the process run smoothly for our patients and their families.

People from various areas of the organization jump into action to make the best decision on where the patient needs to go and how they should get there.

For decades, the transfer process has prevailed using little to no technology to transfer an average of about 1,300 patients a year to and from Texas Children’s Hospital in the Medical Center, West Houston and The Woodlands. On April 19, all that changed with the opening of Texas Children’s Nerve Center, a communications hub for everyone involved in the transfer process and beyond.

“This is another great day at Texas Children’s Hospital,” said Texas Children’s President and CEO Mark A. Wallace at the center’s grand opening ceremony. “This Nerve Center is distinctive, innovative, forward thinking and a great example of the amazing leadership we have here at Texas Children’s.”

Equipped with state-of-the-art technology, the Nerve Center is located in a large, high-tech room on the third floor of Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women. Half of the room is occupied by representatives from the hospital’s security and facilities departments. The other half houses representatives from the departments of Room Management, Transport Services and Critical Care.

View photos of the Nerve Center below.

When a call about a transfer comes into the center, representatives from all teams work together to assure an efficient, rapid and accountable, transfer occurs that provides the highest quality and safest care possible for Texas Children’s high risk maternal, neonatal and pediatric population.

“We have all the people in the room we need,” said Assistant Director for Transport Services Deborah D’Ambrosio. “It’s so much easier to coordinate, be efficient and supportive to families in referring hospitals.”

One notable change made with the opening of the Nerve Center was the splitting of responsibilities for transfers and transports. Transfers deal with patients who are either coming or going to acute care and transports handle patients who are much sicker and either need a physician or a higher level of care while being moved to where they need to be. At the Nerve Center, transfer calls go to one team and transport calls go to another. The team that handles the transport cases includes a transport charge nurse and a critical care physician.

“At the Nerve Center, you have one directive and no distractions by competing interests,” said Dr. Mona McPherson, the Nerve Center’s medical director. “Your sole focus is on the transport team and getting the patient where they need to be safely and quickly.”

In addition to getting everyone in the same room and a few organizational tweaks, the biggest change to Texas Children’s transport process was the implementation of technology that enables everyone in the Never Center to do their job better.

When you step into the Nerve Center, there are many different pieces and types of technology. Each workstation has four monitors displaying information vital to the transport process. There is a huge LED display at the front of the room showing a list of patients coming and going from Texas Children’s, the location of all Texas Children’s ambulances, each of the organization’s two, soon to be three helipads, and census data. And, there are several systems operating behind the scenes that connect everyone in the room with the most up-to-date information needed to make the best decision possible about a patient coming to or leaving Texas Children’s.

“We’ve taken a department that was using very little technology to one that uses a lot in various ways, all of which are able to improve their outcome,” said Melissa Witt, a registered nurse and a senior system analyst for Texas Children’s Information Services. “We’re already seeing good results.”

During the first month the Nerve Center was launched, the Transfer Team reduced their time from dispatch to pick up by 20 minutes. It used to take the team 50 minutes to get out the door. Now it takes them 29 minutes. In addition, the number of transfers has gone up, breaking a record in May with 151.

“We’ve had more than one community ER doc say, ‘Wow, this is the easiest I’ve ever been able to get a child into Texas Children’s,” McPherson said. “And that really is our mission central here. We want to make people want to call us, not because we’re just good and give excellent care, but because it’s really easy to get a patient in here.”

On June 28, Texas Children’s Transplant Services held a celebration in honor of reaching an important milestone – the completion of 1,500 transplants.

The milestone further solidifies Texas Children’s position as one of the most active pediatric transplant programs in the nation, per the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network.

“Texas Children’s transplant program is key to our medical and academic success,” said Executive Vice President Mark Mullarkey. “This really differentiates us and I can’t thank you enough for that.”

Transplantation began at Texas Children’s in 1984 with a pediatric heart transplant that was performed by Dr. O.H. “Bud” Frazier. Since that time, liver, kidney and lung have been added and countless lives have been saved. Just last year, 86 organ transplants were performed at Texas Children’s – 32 kidney transplants, 25 heart transplants, 21 liver transplants and 8 lung transplants.

The Transplant Team’s 1,500th transplant occurred on May 21 when 17-year-old Joseph McCullough received a new liver, giving him a chance at a new life after battling primary sclerosing cholangitis, a life-threatening disease that causes end-stage liver disease. McCullough was at last month’s celebration and thanked everyone in the crowd.

“When I was little, I loved Super Heroes. Today, I know who the real Super Heroes are and that’s you,” McCullough said. “I am honored to be up here to say thank you and that transplantation is a beautiful process.”

Other transplant recipients in the audience were Amelia Hicks and Carson Kainer. Amelia received a heart transplant when she was an infant. She is now a thriving kindergartener. Kainer received a kidney transplant at Texas Children’s as a young adult and became the first professional baseball player to play after an organ transplant.

“I got to live out my dream after my transplant because of you here today,” Kainer said. “Thank you so much for what you’ve done, what you do today and the lives you will impact in the future.”

When Dr. John Goss, medical director of Transplant Services and surgical director of the Liver Transplant Program at Texas Children’s, took the podium, he thanked all of the donors who make the transplant process possible and his team for making stupendous strides in a complex field.

“I want you to understand how special you are,” Goss said. “We do a lot of very complex procedures here and we’ve gone from doing about 20 a year to around 100 and I foresee us doing even more in the future.”

For more information about Texas Children’s Transplant Services, click here. To register to become an organ donor, click here.

Texas Children’s Hospital’s Kidney Stone Clinic has expanded to Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus.

In addition to once monthly clinics at Main Campus in the Medical Center, patients can now access multi-disciplinary stone treatment at West Campus on the first Wednesday of each month.

During each visit, patients and families will meet with a urologist, a nephrologist, and a dietitian to better understand what’s causing the stones and how to manage or prevent them.

To make an appointment, simply place a referral order in Epic or contact Central Scheduling at ext. 2-2778.

June 28, 2017

Texas Children’s leaders and members of the Heart Center team gathered early Tuesday to celebrate U.S. News & World Report’s recent announcement that Texas Children’s is now ranked No. 1 in cardiology and heart surgery. Ranked second in the nation for the past two years, Texas Children’s Heart Center has surpassed Boston Children’s Heart Center, which had held the top ranking for the past 19 years.

“This ranking is a culmination of the many years our Heart Center team has dedicated to providing high-quality care to our patients,” said Chief of Cardiology Dr. Daniel J. Penny to a packed conference room at Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women. “By being ranked No. 1 means we have an even greater role in shaping the field of pediatric cardiology and heart surgery.”

Surgeon-in-Chief and Chief of Congenital Heart Surgery Dr. Charles D. Fraser Jr. agreed and said the ranking is an incredible legacy that began long ago with Drs. Denton Cooley and Dan McNamara, both of whom were pioneers in their field and among the first to demonstrate that small children could safely undergo heart surgery.

“Every single one of you is responsible for this,” Fraser said to the crowd, which included Heart Center leaders Chief of Cardiovascular Anesthesia Dr. Emad Mossad, Chief of Critical Care Dr. Lara Shekerdemian and Anesthesiologist-In-Chief Dr. Dean Andropoulos. “There is no greater or lesser here.”

In addition to the entire Heart Center team, Fraser thanked Texas Children’s President and CEO Mark A. Wallace for “standing by us every single step of the way.”

Fraser said he remembers meeting with Wallace and the late Dr. Ralph D. Feigin when he first was being recruited to Texas Children’s Hospital back in 1994. The trio discussed creating a true Heart Center where each and every patient would be surrounded by medical professionals of the highest quality.

That goal has been achieved and so much more with the Heart Center’s surgical team performing more than 1,000 open-heart surgeries annually and 25 heart transplants in 2016, the most of any pediatric program in the nation.

The Heart Center’s cardiologists annually perform roughly 1,200 cardiac catheterizations, a less invasive treatment made possible by the threading of a long, flexible tube from a blood vessel in the leg to the heart. Most such cases would have required open-heart surgery 20 years ago.

The cardiology team also performs about 250 catheter-enabled ablation treatments in children with irregular heartbeats, a treatment that cauterizes the abnormal pathway to correct the problems. Such patients previously required lifelong medication.

Fraser and Penny said the Heart Center will continue to grow and that they are excited about its next step, which will be to move into Legacy Tower once it’s complete. The 19-floor vertical expansion will house new operating rooms, a new Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, neuro ICU rooms, surgical ICU rooms, a progressive care unit and eight floors dedicated to just the Heart Center.

“This No. 1 ranking will give us a greater role shaping the field, making the things that are impossible now possible in 2027,” Penny said. ”Although we’re No. 1 this year, we need to be better next year and the year after and the year after that.”

Read Mark Wallace’s blog, On The Mark, to learn more about the Heart Center’s No. 1 ranking.

June 27, 2017

Texas Children’s radiologist Dr. Victor Seghers was recently elected vice president of the Pediatric Imaging Council within the Society for Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI). This is a six-year term and Seghers will become president of the council in 2019.

In this leadership position, Seghers’ responsibilities will include recruitment of speakers and moderators for the annual mid-Winter meeting in January and annual convention in June. NMMI is a multidisciplinary medical association of more than 18,000 physicians, technologists, scientists, students and other health care providers. Established more than 50 years ago, their goal is to be the leader in unifying, advancing and optimizing molecular imaging with the ultimate goal of improving human health.

Seghers is double-board certified in Nuclear Radiology and Pediatric Radiology by the American Board of Radiology. He has published in numerous peer reviewed journals and his clinical and research interests include pediatric oncology and epilepsy with a focus on Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging.

Originally director of Body CT and MRI at Texas Children’s Hospital, he later served as division chief of Nuclear Radiology. He created the PET/MRI program, the first of its kind in a free-standing children’s hospital here at Texas Children’s.

Seghers is currently chief of Community Radiology and is the service chief for Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus and Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands.