March 18, 2019

On March 9, twelve finalist startup companies vied for awards and valuable grant funding at the fifth annual Impact Pediatric Health, a one-of-a-kind pitch competition held at SXSW that showcases the best in pediatric health care innovations. Out of 50 national and international startup applicants, the judges selected four companies to receive $25,000 grants in the Medical Devices category, provided by Southwest National Pediatric Device Consortium (SWPDC).

The four grant recipients were:

  • Bardy Diagnostics (Seattle, Washington): Develops digital health and cardiac monitoring technology
  • Prapela (Boston, Massachusetts): Uses random vibration stimulation to help newborns breathe, relax and sleep
  • PolyVascular (Houston, Texas): Designs and develops polymer-based heart valves for children that accommodate growth and reduce need for repeat surgeries
  • Smileyscope (Cambridge, Massachusetts): Transforms pediatric care delivery using virtual reality

“We were blown away by the level of talent and incredible innovation showcased at this year’s Impact Pediatric Health pitch competition,” said Dr. Chester Koh, Executive Director of SWPDC and pediatric urologist at Texas Children’s Hospital. “At Impact Pediatric Health and SWPDC, we are always looking for the next cutting-edge breakthrough in the world of medical devices, and we are excited to stand beside these four companies, and to help accelerate the next generation of medical device companies impacting our youngest of patients.”

In addition to the Medical Devices category, tech startup applicants also competed in the pediatric Digital Health and Health Disparities and Equity categories. Sound Scouts of Sydney, Australia, won top honors in Digital Health for its work developing app-based hearing assessments for school-aged children. And PolyVascular – co-founded by Dr. Henri Justino, interventional cardiologist and director of the Charles E. Mullins Cardiac Catheterization Laboratories at Texas Children’s Hospital – also received the Health Disparities and Equity award.

Winners across each category and all participants benefited from valuable feedback from a host of industry experts serving as judges at the event, including representatives from the sponsoring children’s hospitals. The panel included:

  • Molly McCarthy MBA, RN-BC, National Director of US Provider Industry and Chief Nursing Officer at Microsoft
  • Bonnie Clipper, VP, Practice and Innovation at the American Nurses Association
  • Peggy Maguire, President of Cambia Health Foundation
  • Andrew El Bardissi, Principal of Deerfield Management
  • Stacy Feld, Vice President, Consumer Venture Investments & External Innovation at Johnson & Johnson.

This year’s event was hosted by emcee, Lisa Suennen, Managing Director of Manatt Health

The Impact Pediatric Health Startup Pitch Competition was created as an opportunity for up-and-coming digital health and medical device startups to pitch their innovations to a panel of children’s hospital executives and investors during SXSW in Austin, Texas. The event is co-sponsored by Texas Children’s Hospital and six other leading U.S. children’s hospitals – Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Boston Children’s Hospital, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Seattle Children’s Hospital and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital of Stanford Children’s Health.

About SWPDC

The Southwest National Pediatric Device Consortium (SWPDC) – anchored at Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine – is a multi-institutional consortium that includes clinical, scientific, business, financial, regulatory, reimbursement, engineering, intellectual property and academic partners in the Houston / Southwest U.S. region. The consortium received a five-year, $6.75 million FDA P50 Pediatric Device Consortia (PDC) grant to support innovation, mentoring and collaborations amongst pediatric clinicians and surgeons, engineers, industry, and other partners for pediatric device development.

March 11, 2019

 

Transplant Services at Texas Children’s once again led the way as the nations’ largest pediatric transplant program, performing a remarkable 107 solid organ transplants in 2018. That figure includes the highest volume of pediatric liver, lung and kidney transplants in the United States.

For the year, we performed:

  • 44 pediatric liver transplants
  • 12 lung transplants
  • 31 kidney transplants
  • 20 heart transplants

“I want to congratulate everyone on our outstanding Transplant Services team, which continues to provide excellent care and support for our transplant patients and families,” said Texas Children’s Surgeon-in-Chief Dr. Larry Hollier. “I would also like to thank the leaders of our transplant programs – Dr. John Goss, Dr. Jeffrey Heinle, Dr. Jeff Dreyer, Dr. Tina Melicoff, Dr. Daniel Leung, Dr. Christine O’Mahony, Dr. Eileen Brewer and Dr. Ryan Himes – who go above and beyond to uphold high standards.”

Transplant Services provides a comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach to care through all aspects of the transplant process, from initial referral to hospitalization and outpatient management. Our team of experts includes physicians and surgical advanced practice providers, transplant coordinators, pediatric ventricular assist device coordinators, perfusionists, child life specialists, dieticians, social workers, financial counselors, pharmacists, inpatient and outpatient nursing and support staff, Perioperative Services, physical and occupational therapists, Radiology, Pathology, our LifeGift partners, and many others.

Our depth of skill and service enables us to offer world-class care for patients, from newborns to young adults, in need of heart, kidney, liver and lung transplants. That expertise has allowed us to successfully treat some cases that other national and international programs might consider untreatable.

“This is another tremendous milestone for our program,” said Dr. John Goss, medical director of Transplant Services. “I couldn’t be prouder of our team for their commitment toward achieving positive outcomes and for the dedication they show our patients every day.”

One of those patients is Jameson Finney.

For the first 12 years of his life, Jameson was an active little boy that always moved at 100 miles an hour, his parents said. There was never the slightest indication that he might have a heart condition. On Christmas Day 2017, while opening presents with his family, Jameson suddenly became ill. Two days later, he was admitted to Texas Children’s heart failure intensive care unit and diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy, a condition in which the heart muscle – typically starting in the left ventricle – begins to stretch and become thin. The dilation makes the muscle unable to contract properly, which weakens the heart and can lead to heart failure.

Jameson was experiencing severe heart failure and needed life-saving surgery as soon as possible. Texas Children’s congenital heart surgeon Dr. Iki Adachi implanted a ventricular assist device on December 31, which improved Jameson’s condition so much that we was able to go home after less than a month. But his journey wasn’t over. Jameson’s best chance at survival now was a heart transplant, and he was placed on the list on March 30, 2018 – Good Friday. Less than two months later, Jameson received the miraculous gift of a new heart. Adachi, who also performed the transplant, said Jameson has been doing very well since his surgery.

Jameson’s story is just one example of the amazing work done by Transplant Services in 2018. But none of the work we do would be possible without the selfless decisions that our donor families make during the most difficult time of their lives.

“Our donor families are heroes, said Goss. “They truly give our patients a second chance at life.”

Learn more about Transplant Services at Texas Children’s.

February 25, 2019

Texas Children’s promise to provide the highest quality care to all those who come to us hasn’t changed. But Houston and the surrounding area, and the complex medical needs of our patients, are ever-changing.

To meet those needs, Promise: The Campaign for Texas Children’s Hospital was launched, with a goal of raising $475 million by 2020. The monumental fundraising effort focused on several crucial initiatives that would allow us to expand our reach in Greater Houston and beyond and to offer our world-class care to even more children who need it.

The response from the philanthropic community has defied all belief. Not only did we meet our goal, we shattered it. More than 183,000 donors raised $578.4 million – $103.4 million over the original goal – and two years ahead of schedule.

“Our plan for the largest expansion in Texas Children’s history was ambitious, but the response was extraordinary, far exceeding our wildest dreams,” said Texas Children’s President and CEO Mark Wallace. “From the very beginning, we had the support of generous philanthropists in the community, and that support remained constant – and is still absolutely vital to our success.”

Keeping our promises
  • To ensure that children who require complex care always have a place to go for treatment

Every year, more and more families come to Texas Children’s for life-saving care – care they can’t receive elsewhere. At one point, in November 2013, Texas Children’s was full and on drive-by status. Other hospitals were calling, wanting to transport their most critically ill patients, but we couldn’t accept the transports. We had to say “no.”

Texas Children’s Board of Trustees quickly approved a measure to build a new facility that would enable us to care for more children with complex conditions who require treatment that only Texas Children’s can provide.

The result – the Lester and Sue Smith Legacy Tower. The cutting-edge, 640-square-foot expansion is Texas Children’s new home for heart, intensive care and surgery, and was named for Lester and Sue Smith in honor of their transformational gift.

Before the Lester and Sue Smith Legacy Tower opened, our ICU was almost always at or over 100 percent capacity. Now the average is in the low 90 percent levels, giving us room to accept transfers of critically ill patients and to move our own patients into critical care if they need it.

  • To bring a dedicated pediatric hospital to a growing community

Just a short time ago, families from north of Houston were regularly traveling 40 miles or more to our Texas Medical Center campus with children who had chronic conditions and required ongoing treatment and management. It was too far. These families deserved the highest-quality, dedicated pediatric care close to home.

Through the overwhelming generosity of donations to the Promise Campaign, we were able to build Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands, which opened in May 2017. Now families living north of Houston have access to the area’s first dedicated pediatric emergency center, state-of-the-art operating rooms, world-class critical care services and an accredited motion analysis lab.

The effect in the community was felt immediately. Our first-year numbers for admissions, outpatient visits, emergency center visits, surgeries and special procedures doubled projected estimates. Moreover, expanded access in The Woodlands has freed up services at our Texas Medical Center campus for children with even more complex conditions.

  • To advance the practice and science of pediatric medicine

From its world-class neurology and cardiology departments to a comprehensive Fetal Center that is one of only a few in the world, Texas Children’s offers specialty services for children who require complex care. Philanthropic support for these programs helps bring comfort and healing to children from this community and from across the world.

The Promise Campaign raised vital funds for several of our world-class divisions and centers of excellence, such as the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute (NRI) and Texas Children’s Trauma and Grief Center (TAG).

Promise Campaign support for the NRI has already led to some remarkable advances, such as the identification of a likely culprit gene responsible for mild-to-severe regression of previously acquired motor and language skills. A potential link between a group of genes responsible for cellular waste-disposal disorders in children and Parkinson’s disease has also been discovered.

Texas Children’s TAG is committed to raising the standard of care and increasing access to best-practice care for traumatized and bereaved children, adolescents and their families. Generous funding through the Promise Campaign has enabled the TAG Center to expand care beyond our main campus clinic into the community to help children and families in schools, community clinics, mobile clinics and primary care pediatric offices.

  • To recruit and retain world-class physicians and scientists

Not a day goes by when one of Texas Children’s most notable experts isn’t being recruited by another leading children’s hospital. To recruit and retain world-class physicians and scientists, endowed chairs are our most powerful too.

Through the Promise Campaign, generous donors have helped Texas Children’s bring the best and brightest from across the country, including our Surgeon-in-Chief Dr. Larry Hollier, the S. Baron Hardy Chair in Plastic Surgery, and Dr. Michael Belfort, our Gynecologist-in-Chief and F.B. McGuyer Family Endowed Chair in Fetal Surgery.

Once an endowed chair is in place, the chair holder has access to significant funds that may be used to provide support for innovative research projects or to launch new programs.

  • To offer quality care to children in our community regardless of their family’s ability to pay

When Texas Children’s Hospital began in 1954, its founders made a promise that it would be a place where all children would receive the very best care, regardless of their families’ ability to pay.

That’s a promise we’re still keeping today. More than half of our patients are on Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Plan. It is Texas Children’s responsibility to serve our community. Every child deserves the very best health care.

During the Promise Campaign, Texas Children’s Hospital provided an average of $13 million in charity care each year.

February 11, 2019

 

It’s Heart Month, which is always a special time at Texas Children’s as we celebrate our patients and families, the care we provide at our No. 1-ranked Heart Center and our many milestones. This year, we’re kicking off Heart Month celebrating yet another momentous first.

A team of experts at Texas Children’s Heart Center®, led by congenital heart surgeon Dr. Iki Adachi, became the first in the United States – and only the second in the world – to implant the Jarvik 2015 ventricular assist device (VAD), a groundbreaking new technology Adachi helped develop.

“Dr. Adachi is truly a pioneer and a world-renowned authority on mechanical heart support,” said Dr. Christopher Caldarone, Texas Children’s chief of Congenital Heart Surgery. “His work in the development of the Jarvik 2015 VAD has been tremendous and is a great example of the power of Texas Children’s in bringing new technologies to benefit our patients.”

Bridge to transplant

For patients with heart failure, a VAD can buy valuable time until they match an organ. In some rare cases, a VAD can be used as a permanent therapy for heart failure or can even improve heart function to such a degree that it makes a transplant unnecessary. VADs can either simulate heart function with pulsing action or allow a continuous stream of blood to flow through the heart. Continuous-flow VADs tend to be smaller and quieter but also more durable, and in recent years have yielded improved results in adult heart failure patients.

The Jarvik 2015 is the first and only implantable continuous-flow VAD designed specifically for small children. Development took more than a decade and was not without setbacks. After the previous prototype failed to gain FDA approval, the team of engineers enlisted Adachi to assist with crucial design modifications to the VAD’s pump while keeping the size of the device small – about the size of a AA battery. Following extensive testing in the Texas Medical Center, the FDA approved the Jarvik 2015 for clinical trial.

A chance at life

One of the most significant benefits of this new technology is that it allows the patient to become stronger, making them a better candidate for transplant. Such was the case with Katlyen Hickman.

You would never know by looking at Katlyen today that the smiling, energetic four-year-old needed multiple surgeries to save her life only a few months ago. She was born with complex congenital heart disease, including ventricular septal defects and small left heart structures, and despite numerous procedures and surgeries during her first years of life, her condition was rapidly deteriorating this past fall.

“It was clear she was moving in the direction of needing heart transplantation,” Adachi said. “She was admitted to the ICU and her heart was just getting worse and worse.”

Though the Jarvik 2015 had been cleared for clinical trials, it hadn’t been approved for commercialization. But because Katlyen’s case was so dire, and because she was too small to receive an adult-size VAD, Adachi and Texas Children’s were able to obtain expanded access from the FDA to implant the device. The fact that the team was already very familiar with the Jarvik 2015, following their extensive laboratory testing, helped facilitate the process with the FDA.

The results couldn’t have been better. Not only did the device keep Katlyen alive, but it also improved her blood flow, which helped her organs recover. This success paved the way for the next critical step in her journey – a heart transplant, which she received on November 23, 2018. It was the day after Thanksgiving. Only a month later she was discharged and spent Christmas at home with her family.

Adachi anticipates the Jarvik 2015 will do well in the upcoming multi-institutional clinical trial and hopes its availability may further accelerate the trend toward the use continuous-flow devices in children.

“Pediatric VAD support will continue to evolve as the pediatric mechanical circulatory support area matures,” he said. “The popularization of continuous-flow devices could be a landmark event that represents a paradigm shift in the field. And Texas Children continues to lead that shift.”

Learn more about Texas Children’s Heart Center and the Jarvik 2015 VAD clinical trial.

December 18, 2018

Experts from across the country recently convened for the fourth Symposium on Coronary Artery Anomalies, hosted by Texas Children’s Heart Center®.

The event was founded by leaders of Texas Children’s groundbreaking Coronary Anomalies Program – the first of its kind in the nation – as a way for caregivers, researchers and others to gather and discuss the diagnosis and management of patients with coronary artery anomalies, such as anomalous aortic origin of coronary artery (AAOCA), which can lead to the phenomenon known as sudden cardiac death (SCD), which usually occurs in young athletes.

“Before we began to really focus on these conditions, there was very little data about the potential risks or causes, which in turn led to controversy surrounding the proper ways to evaluate, treat and monitor children with these conditions,” said Texas Children’s cardiologist Dr. Silvana Molossi. “This event provides an open, dedicated forum for discussion and information sharing, and has become a valuable resource for experts nationwide who are involved in the diagnosis and care of patients with these rare conditions.”

The event featured comprehensive presentations by members of Texas Children’s Coronary Anomalies Program, as well as 11 visiting faculty from some of the country’s preeminent pediatric health care institutions, including Boston Children’s, CHOP, Stanford University, Columbia University, UT Southwestern, and the Heart & Vascular Institute at Hartford Hospital in Connecticut. Major topics included AAOCA, Kawasaki disease and myocardial bridges.

An addition to this year’s conference was a special Patients & Families Symposium.

“We were astounded by the response to the family symposium before it even started,” said Molossi. “We expected between 25 and 30 people to register – we ended up having nearly 80 in attendance.”

During this day-long event, parents and children attended talks that addressed topics such as the impact of coronary anomalies on families and the importance of counseling and shared decision-making when determining a plan of care. And in a session titled, “This is My Story: Patients and Families Living with AAOCA,” visitors had an opportunity to hear from Texas Children’s patients and families who have had similar experiences of unknowingly living with these life-threatening conditions, receiving crucial diagnoses and making the tough decisions that follow, undergoing open-heart surgery, and living a normal life in the aftermath. This emotional and powerful session was followed by discussions about the importance of networking and building a sense of community and collective support for people affected by coronary anomalies.

About the Coronary Anomalies Program at Texas Children’s

Seeing the need for more complete data and a more specialized approach to care, experts at Texas Children’s formed the Coronary Anomalies Program. The multidisciplinary core team of cardiologists, congenital heart surgeons, radiologists and researchers works together to provide the best treatment for patients with congenital coronary anomalies, study outcomes, and educate health care providers and the public about these conditions.

A cornerstone of this team’s approach is the development and use of a clinical algorithm to facilitate the diagnosis and management of these patients. The team presents cases in monthly multidisciplinary meetings to determine the best course of action for each patient, and then tracks the patients’ outcomes over time.

For Lauren Meredith and her family, this holiday season has been a time of joy and gratefulness after the care and expertise they received from the experts in Texas Children’s Colorectal and Pelvic Health Program. It stands in sharp contrast to the nightmare she and husband, Ryan, experienced a year ago when their third child, Ava, was born with a rare congenital disorder of the colon that doctors thought would make her unable to pass stool. With sparse information and little time to weigh their options, the anxious parents had to make the quick decision to have Ava transported to a hospital in the Texas Medical Center for surgery – a colostomy – which she underwent at just 12 hours old.

Unfortunately, their long, hard journey was only beginning.

“We were sent home with relatively little information on how to properly care for her,” Meredith said. “I was making 10 to 15 calls a day to the doctor’s office, the insurance company and the medical supply company, but no one was helping. We felt completely alone and unprepared to tackle this complex medical issue.”

At a breaking point, Lauren began a search for help and answers online, where she first read about Texas Children’s Colorectal and Pelvic Health Program. On Christmas Eve 2017, she sent an email to Dr. Timothy Lee, pediatric surgeon and program director, explaining their ordeal.

The next day, the Merediths got their own holiday miracle.

“Dr. Lee emailed me back – on Christmas Day – and three days later we had our first appointment,” Meredith said. “The care, from the minute we walked in, was like stepping into a different world. The communication was incredible. I really felt like I was being heard for the first time.”

In August 2018, the colorectal and pelvic health team performed an operation to repair Ava’s initial defect and assess her gynecologic anatomy. And this past November, Ava had her colostomy reversal. Her prognosis is excellent.

Today, Ava – who turned one year old on December 13 – is a happy, healthy little girl who loves when her older brothers, Jackson and Greyson, sing to her and build forts for her to play in. She loves to snack, especially tacos. And she loves cuddles with her dad when he gets home from work.

“The team at Texas Children’s has given us so much to be thankful for,” Meredith said. “They took the burden off us and made us feel like they were on our side. We could tell from the very beginning that the entire Colorectal and Pelvic Health Program cared about Ava and wanted the best outcome.”

The full spectrum of care

A child’s diagnosis with a congenital disorder of the colorectal and urogenital system can be a heartbreaking and trying ordeal for families. Since these conditions are rare and often complex – and because no two cases are exactly alike – some institutions may lack the expertise necessary to provide effective treatment.

Fortunately, a highly skilled, multidisciplinary team of specialists at Texas Children’s Hospital offers patients and families the full spectrum of care for these disorders in our Colorectal and Pelvic Health Program.

Watch the video to learn more.

The Colorectal and Pelvic Health Program comprises four different specialties – pediatric surgery, pediatric urology, pediatric and adolescent gynecology, and gastroenterology – and provides treatment for several disorders and developmental anomalies, including imperforate anus, hirschsprung’s disease, cloacal malformation, cloacal exstrophy, and severe idiopathic constipation.

Regardless of the disorder, the team works together to develop a customized approach to care for these complex, and often sensitive, medical issues.

“Many of these conditions can have an extreme negative impact on the self-esteem of a child,” said Dr. Paul Austin, director of Texas Children’s Complex Urologic Reconstruction Program. “Knowing that we can make a positive difference through the care that we provide is extremely rewarding.”

Specialists collaborate to identify the patient’s specific issues and determine the best path to a positive outcome and improved quality of life, whether through surgery, medication or some combination of treatments. Additionally, the team has focused on improving patient care through clinical research and development of best practice pathways to standardize and streamline clinical care for this complex patient population.

“This hallmark of the program is providing multi-disciplinary collaborative care,” said Lee, pediatric surgeon and program director. “Even though these conditions aren’t common, we’ve seen more and more of them at Texas Children’s as our patient volume has grown. Parents can be confident when they come to us that they will be receiving truly comprehensive, collaborative care delivered by experts who have been treating these kinds of patients for years.”

Learn more about the Colorectal and Pelvic Health Program.

Texas Children’s Division of Otolaryngology recently hosted the 45th Annual Meeting of SENTAC (Society of Ear, Nose and Throat Advances in Children), one of the nation’s oldest and most respected ENT societies. It was the largest SENTAC conference ever, with nearly 300 national and international otolaryngology experts in attendance, including the largest ever turnout of allied health professionals.

“Multidisciplinary collaboration is one of the hallmarks of SENTAC,” said Dr. Deepak Mehta, Director of Texas Children’s Pediatric Aerodigestive Center and 2018 SENTAC president. “This event is not only for physicians, but also for audiologists, speech and language pathologists and therapists, advance practice providers, pediatricians, nurses and students. This experience is unique in that it brings us all together for a common purpose.”

The four-day event covered the entire spectrum of pediatric ENT topics, including sleep disorders, swallowing disorders, tracheostomy care and hearing loss. During the conference, over 60 presentations were given, including eight by experts from Texas Children’s – two of which won awards. Jessie Marcet-Gonzalez, CPNP, won first place for best podium presentation for her paper, “Effect of Inpatient Multidisciplinary Tracheostomy Team Rounds on Timely Outpatient Follow.” Texas Children’s audiologist Dr. Barbara Novak won second place for her paper, “Improving Loss to Follow-up: A Collaborative Citywide Initiation,” a project on newborn hearing screening in collaboration with Texas Children’s audiology clinical and cochlear implant specialist Dr. Samantha Lemelle, AuD.

Other event highlights included a banquet with live music and holiday lights at the Houston Zoo, and the first annual SENTAC Pediatric Otolaryngology Academic Bowl, presented by the Young Providers Committee. Texas Children’s took home the trophy, defeating teams from Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego and Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin. Throughout the weekend, many said this was one of the best SENTAC conferences yet, both in terms of content and host venue.

“I feel pride in being part of Texas Children’s and all of us working together to put together such a fantastic meeting,” Mehta said. “The amazing support from Texas Children’s leadership and all the staff involved truly made it a success.”