June 2, 2015

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Stephen Davis, a pharmacy operations manager at Texas Children’s, recently received the 2015 Pharmacy Leadership Award from the Texas Society of Health-System Pharmacists (TSHP).

This prestigious award recognizes a pharmacist who demonstrates leadership and vision in advancing the practice and profession of pharmacy and improving patient care.

During his nearly five years of service at Texas Children’s, Davis collaborated with colleagues to improve processes and modify pharmacy workflows by successfully implementing the DoseEdge Pharmacy Workflow Manager for the Main Campus Central Pharmacy and pharmacy areas at Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women.

The DoseEdge system is a pharmacy workflow solution that interfaces with Texas Children’s EPIC system to automate the process of routing, preparing, inspecting, tracking and reporting IV and oral liquid doses. Since its implementation, Texas Children’s pharmacists have improved dose preparation safety, reduced medication waste and enhanced pharmacy productivity to ensure quality patient care.

In collaboration with the University of Houston College of Pharmacy, where he serves as an adjunct clinical professor, Davis is a program director for the concurrent Master of Science and Health System Pharmacy Administration residency at Texas Children’s.

June 1, 2015

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Bench and Bedside is a digest of the previous month’s stories about the clinical and academic activities of our physicians and scientists. We welcome your submissions and feedback.

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New machine helps opthalmologists detect early signs of vision loss or problems

Texas Children’s has a new machine, called Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT), which allows pediatric opthalmologists to evaluate for retinal diseases, uvetis and optic nerve disorders. The OCT is an imaging tool that is similar to ultrasound but uses light waves instead of sound waves to create high resolution images of the retina and optic nerve. The Ophthalmology Division at Texas Children’s Hospital is one of the premier pediatric opthalmology surgery programs in the nation with exceptional expertise depth and quality of services and patient volumes. Read more

 

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Texas Children’s hosts 25th Annual ECMO Conference

More than 125 people recently attended the 25th Annual Specialist Education in Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Conference organized, in part, by Texas Children’s Hospital. Neonatologists, critical care physicians, surgeons, nurse and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) specialists gathered for three days in the Texas Medical Center to exchange information and ideas about the technique that can provide both cardiac and respiratory support to patients whose hearts and lungs are unable to provide an adequate amount of blood flow and oxygen to sustain life. Read more

May 21

Society of Pediatric Radiology honors imaging researchers with prestigious award

Imaging Researchers at Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine won the prestigious Pilot Award at the national meeting of the Society of Pediatric Radiology in Seattle where the Texas Children’s team presented 10 posters and 24 scientific abstracts. The team’s abstracts represented almost 20 percent of all those podium presentations accepted from departments around the globe. It is the largest number of scientific abstracts accepted for oral presentations from a single institution at the national meeting. Read more

 

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Texas Children’s Surgical Team honored at the Texas Capitol

The Texas Children’s surgical team that facilitated the separation surgery of the conjoined Mata twins was honored at the Texas Capitol in Austin. Dr. Darrell Cass, Dr. Larry Hollier and Head OR Nurse Audra Rushing were all recognized on the floor of the State House and the State Senate for their outstanding leadership in preparing for, and successfully executing, the historic separation surgery that occurred for the first time in the Houston area in nearly 20 years. Read more

 

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Sixth annual Edmond T. Gonzales Surgical Research Day highlights advancements in field of pediatiric surgery

Almost 300 clinicians in the Department of Surgery attended the sixth annual Edmond T. Gonzales Jr. Surgical Research Day at Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women on May 8. The event provided a forum for researchers to unveil their work highlighting remarkable advancements in the field of pediatric surgery. The program featured seven oral presentations and 96 poster presentations spotlighting the academic efforts of the surgical faculty, post graduate fellows, nurses and advanced practice providers. Read more

 

May 14

Professional organization names award after Texas Children’s otolaryngologist

The American Broncho-Esophagological Association (ABEA) recently honored Dr. Ellen Friedman by renaming its Presidential Citation for Excellence in Foreign Body Management to the Ellen M. Friedman Award for Excellence in Foreign Body Management. Read more

May 14

Dr. Shaine Morris awarded prestigious K23 grant from the National Institutes of Health

Pediatric Cardiologist Dr. Shaine Morris was recently honored with a K23 Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development award from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The goal of the award is to bring recipients to the point where they are able to conduct their research independently and are competitive for major grant support through career development. Read more

May 13

Two NRI researchers among 2015 Debakey Research Award honorees

Two researchers from the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children’s, Dr. Benjamin Doneen and Dr. Olivier Lichtarge, were among the five Baylor College of Medicine faculty members honored with the 2015 Michael E. Debakey, M.D. Excellence in Research Award. Read more

May 13

Texas Children’s Hospital honors Distinguished Surgeon Award recipients

Three surgeons from the Department of Surgery recently received the Distinguished Surgeon Award. This year’s recipients are Dr. O.H. “Bud” Frazier, Dr. Edmond T. Gonzales, Jr. and Dr. David E. Wesson. Read more

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Formerly conjoined twin discharged from hospital

Less than three months after being separated from her twin sister in a 26-hour operation at Texas Children’s Hospital Knatalye Hope Mata was released to the care of her family, just in time for Mother’s Day. Read more

 

May 8

Dr. John Dormans joins Texas Children’s as chief of Orthopedics

Dr. John Dormans is the new chief of Orthopedics. He also will serve as a professor of orthopedic surgery at Baylor College of Medicine. He has been a clinician and leader at CHOP, serving as the hospital’s chief of orthopedic surgery from 1996 to 2014 and as president of the medical staff and president of Children’s Surgical Associates for four three-year terms. He focused his clinical work on pediatric spinal deformity and musculoskeletal tumors. Read more

May 19, 2015

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The Texas Children’s surgical team that facilitated the separation surgery of the conjoined Mata twins was honored at the Texas Capitol in Austin. Dr. Darrell Cass, Dr. Larry Hollier and Head OR Nurse, Audra Rushing, were all recognized on the floor of the State House and the State Senate for their outstanding leadership in preparing for, and successfully executing, the historic separation surgery that occurred for the first time in the Houston area in nearly 20 years. They were also joined by Elysse Mata, the mother of the twins, and members of her family. Houston area State Representative Armando Walle introduced the resolution in the House and recognized the team and family on the House floor while Houston area State Senator Joan Huffman introduced the resolution in the Senate where they were lauded with applause from the Senate gallery.

Click here to see the video of the house presentation of the resolution. (Texas Children’s honored at 26:30)

The Texas Children’s Government Relations team utilized this opportunity to highlight the excellent care provided at Texas Children’s Hospital and the need for increased state funding for children’s hospitals. After the ceremonies, the team met with key State legislators who will be instrumental in crafting the State’s budget for the next two years including State Representative Four Price, State Representative Sarah Davis, State Senator Charles Schwertner, and State Senator Paul Bettencourt.

A link to the House resolution can be found here and a link to the Senate Resolution can be found here.

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Texas Children’s Hospital is proud to announce its second annual Distinguished Surgeon Award recipients. With this award, we honor leaders who forged a path of innovation in surgical excellence, research and education at Texas Children’s Hospital. Leadership in the Department of Surgery chose the recipients and announced this year’s winners May 8 at the department’s annual faculty dinner. A permanent installation honoring all Distinguished Surgeon Award recipients will soon be near the main OR on the third floor of Abercrombie.

This year’s Distinguished Surgeon Award winners are:

Dr. O.H. “Bud” Frazier
O. H. “Bud” Frazier is a pioneer in developing mechanical assist circulatory devices to treat severe heart failure, and a leader in the fields of heart transplantation and circulatory support. He has performed more than 1,200 heart transplants and implanted more than 700 left ventricular assist devices (LVADs), more than any other surgeon in the world. He is currently Chief, Center for Cardiac Support; Director, Cardiovascular Surgery Research; and Co-director, Cullen Cardiovascular Research Laboratories at Texas Heart Institute. Dr. Frazier was instrumental in helping Texas Children’s Hospital to develop a pediatric heart transplant service. When a six-month-old infant girl was dying of heart failure in 1984, Dr. Frazier proposed a procedure that had never before been done in an infant: a heart transplant. Dr. Frazier engineered obtaining a donor heart, and with lead surgeon, Dr. Denton Cooley, the two made history at Texas Children’s Hospital on November 11 of that year when they implanted a new heart into the infant’s chest. This surgery opened the way for heart transplants to be performed in small children.

Dr. Edmond T. Gonzales, Jr.
Dr. Edmond T. Gonzales, Jr. has been an integral part of the leadership and development in the Texas Children’s Hospital Department of Surgery, as well as a distinguished surgeon in the field of Pediatric Urology. Dr. Gonzales was the chief of Urology at Texas Children’s from 1974 to 2012. He was named Chief of Surgery serving from 1988 to 2010 and was the hospital’s first Surgeon-in-Chief, guiding surgical efforts from 2008 to 2010. He was then named the first Director of Surgery at Texas Children’s West Campus from 2010 to 2014. In his nearly 40 years at Texas Children’s, Dr. Gonzales has established a legacy of excellence for which the hospital and Baylor College of Medicine honored him by creating The Edmond T. Gonzales, Jr., MD, Chair in Pediatric Urology which he held from 2004 to 2012. A strong belief in advanced training for young surgeons led Dr. Gonzales to become a leader in the establishment and expansion of pediatric urology fellowship programs across the country. Together with a group of colleagues, he created an organized approach to selecting fellows and increasing the number of fellowships available. The American Urological Association manages fellowships today based on this work. As a result, pediatric urology fellowship positions have more than quadrupled since the early 1980s.

Dr. David E. Wesson
Dr. David E. Wesson is Associate Surgeon-in-Chief at Texas Children’s Hospital and Professor of Surgery and Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Wesson is well known internationally for participating in some of the earliest definitive studies on the non-operative treatment of solid organ injuries in children. His research brought about a new method of treating splenic trauma nonoperatively, and resulted in this protocol becoming the standard of care not only for children but also for all age groups.

In 1997, Dr. Wesson was appointed chief of Pediatric Surgery at Texas Children’s, a position he held until 2012. After arriving at Texas Children’s, building a superior trauma program became a goal. He recruited pediatric surgical subspecialists with the ability to care for children with a broad spectrum of traumatic injuries and continues to serve as a mentor to trauma residents and fellows. He led the effort to attain Level I accreditation for the Texas Children’s Hospital Trauma Center, and he served as its director from 2007 to 2014. He was also instrumental in building other programs such as the Texas Children’s Fetal Center, bariatric surgery and surgical oncology.

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The American Broncho-Esophagological Association (ABEA) recently honored Dr. Ellen Friedman by renaming its Presidential Citation for Excellence in Foreign Body Management to the Ellen M. Friedman Award for Excellence in Foreign Body Management. The honor was announced at the organization’s 95th annual meeting.

Friedman has been an otolaryngologist with Texas Children’s for more than 20 years. She also is director of the Center for Professionalism in Medicine and is a professor of Otolaryngology at Baylor College of Medicine.

The Ellen M. Friedman Award for Excellence in Foreign Body Management award was named after Friedman to acknowledge her leadership within the ABEA and her expertise in foreign body management. The award is intended to encourage continued leadership in endoscopic foreign body management and it is given annually to a person who submits a winning paper that describes excellence in innovation, skill and education in the management of aero-digestive foreign bodies.

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Amonica Robinson recently received the Best of the West award for her work as a patient access representative in the Emergency Center at West Campus.

The award recognizes an employee each quarter who has exceled at demonstrating Texas Children’s values – leading tirelessly, living compassionately, amplifying unity and embracing freedom.

Robinson joined Texas Children’s in 2000 and will soon be celebrating her 15th year with the hospital. Most recently, she has provided exceptional customer service to our patients and families at West Campus. She also has been an integral part of the hospital’s Emergency Center admission team.
Some of her colleagues and patient families have said the following about Robinson:

  • “Amonica was so caring.”
  • “It was so nice to have someone who truly felt concerned about my child.”
  • “She reacts to the needs of the patients, doing her best to provide excellent customer service while they are waiting for care in the EC.”

Please join West Campus in congratulating and thanking Robinson for showing us what it takes to be the best of the west.

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The Department of Surgery recently presented Judy Swanson, assistant vice president of Perioperative Services, with a Distinguished Service Award for her 14 years of work with Texas Children’s.

Swanson has helped the Department of Surgery to develop its surgical community through her true understanding of the department’s clinical needs and goals combined with her ability to provide the resources required to advance the program. She also has been the nursing voice and conscience within the Department of Surgery and across the hospital.

Swanson is providing a foundation upon which the next phase of surgery at Texas Children’s will be built. She is active in the department’s CareFirst project, is working with the Heart Center, and is involved with the building of the new operating rooms and procedure suites.