August 20, 2018

Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers, Baylor College of Medicine International Pediatric AIDS Initiative at Texas Children’s Hospital (BIPAI) and several global partners recently celebrated the graduation of the first class of the East African Pediatric Hematology and Oncology Fellowship Program at Makerere University College of Health Sciences.

The East Africa Pediatric Hematology and Oncology Fellowship Training Program is the result of cooperation and commitment between some of the most eminent institutions in Africa and on the world-stage in cancer care, medical education, health policy, and pediatric hematology and oncology. As part of the comprehensive Global HOPE (Hematology-Oncology Pediatric Excellence) initiative, which launched in February 2017, the two-year fellowship program is building a critical mass of pediatric hematology-oncology specialists to independently provide effective, evidence-based pediatric cancer and hematology care in the African setting.

In the United States, 80 percent of children with cancer survive. In sub-Saharan Africa, the overwhelming majority of pediatric patients do not. The mortality rate is estimated to be as high as 90 percent, meaning that thousands of children die from cancer across Africa each year, with the most common types of childhood cancers being blood cancers, including leukemia and lymphoma.

Most childhood cancers are treatable. However, up until this point, the main reason for the staggering death rate across Africa has been due to an inadequate health care infrastructure and a significant lack of expert physicians and other health care workers trained to treat children with cancer and blood disorders. With the ambitious efforts of Global HOPE to build medical capacity to diagnose and treat pediatric blood disorders and cancer in Africa, the impact is already evident in the higher numbers of children receiving care in Uganda, Botswana and Malawi.

“Traditionally, physicians in Africa have gone abroad to obtain higher specialist clinical training, and often do not return,” said Dr. David Poplack, director of Global HOPE and associate director of Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers. “By training physicians through the fellowship program, we are increasing the number of pediatric hematology-oncology specialists who will be practicing in East Africa. This will improve the overall survival for children with cancer and blood diseases in the region.”

At the graduation ceremony, Poplack was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science from Makerere University for his academic contribution in the field of science. Under his leadership for the last 25 years, Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers established itself as an internationally-recognized leader in the treatment and research of pediatric cancer and blood disorders. With a desire to expand care to areas of the world with limited resources, Poplack and his team have worked over the past decade to provide care to children in sub-Saharan Africa. With the inception of Global HOPE, access to care will only continue to increase with this training of pediatric hematology-oncology physicians through the fellowship program.

“This first class of graduates of the fellowship program represents an exponential increase in the number of pediatric oncologists in east Africa – and by extension – a huge increase in the number of children diagnosed with cancer who may now receive high quality treatment and the chance of recovery,” said John Damonti, president of the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation. “We congratulate the graduating physicians and are proud to support the creation of a sustainable, highly qualified team of oncology and hematology healthcare providers in southern and east Africa, to help change the health outcomes for children.”

Partners involved in the Global HOPE initiative include: The Ministry of Health of the Republic of Uganda, Makerere University College of Health Sciences, East African Community, Uganda Cancer Institute, Baylor College of Medicine Children’s Foundation- Uganda, Mulago National Referral Hospital and the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation.

August 13, 2018

Creating viable, long-term health care solutions for children and mothers worldwide has always been a part of Texas Children’s mission. To further that charge, a new division has been created within the Department of Surgery – the Division of Global Surgery. The division will be led by Dr. Jed Nuchtern, who has been Texas Children’s chief of Pediatric Surgery since 2012.

“This is a wonderful new opportunity for Texas Children’s Hospital, the Department of Surgery and Dr. Nuchtern, said Surgeon-in-Chief Dr. Larry Hollier. “Providing surgical expertise in underserved areas has been a great passion for Dr. Nuchtern, and he has traveled extensively bringing surgical care to children around the world. I would like to thank him for his continued commitment to patient care and surgical excellence.”

Through Global Health programs, Texas Children’s collaborates with international governments and health organizations to share its expertise and best practices, with a strong focus on sustainability. This collaboration includes providing surgical training and direct care and treatment in many underserved nations, such as Argentina, Haiti, Malawi, Mexico, Pakistan, Tanzania and Uganda. Due to lack of resources, facilities, education and support, surgical interventions thought of as routine here in the United States, such as repairing a broken bone or simply suturing a wound, are difficult to perform and thus much less common in these countries. A more complicated procedure like a C-section becomes altogether life-threatening.

The creation of the new Division of Global Surgery will help Texas Children’s forge new partnerships, offer providers opportunities for exposure, and facilitate care and capacity building to improve the lives of children and women across the globe, beginning in sub-Saharan Africa.

Leveraging resources, infrastructure and successful global medical programs already in place in the region – including Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative (BIPAI) Network, Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers’ Global HOPE (Hematology Oncology Pediatric Excellence), and existing efforts by the Department of OB/GYN – Nuchtern and his team will first focus on surgical care for pediatric cancer patients, 50 percent of which require some form of surgical intervention, to increase surgical capacity. Ultimately, the approach will have the combined effect of improving care of children with cancer as well as those suffering from other pediatric surgical diseases.

“While the initial focus is on cancer surgery, our approach is to help build capacity in children’s surgery overall,” Nuchtern said. “Our goal is to marshal all of the talent and energy of Texas Children’s department of surgery toward the goal of serving children throughout the world.”

Preliminary objectives include identifying individuals interested in participating, working with partners to develop the infrastructure necessary to provide quality care, and organizing a special group tasked with developing training opportunities, a central focus of this initiative. Building on successes and lessons learned, and through continued collaboration with Global HOPE, the long-term vision includes a surgical facility for women and children in Lilongwe, Malawi, expansion of care capacity in Central America, and, ultimately, recognition for Texas Children’s as a leader in global surgical outreach.

“We’re one family, and this is a team effort that requires substantial perioperative support from nursing, anesthesia, pediatrics, radiology and pathology,” Hollier said. “Dr. Nuchtern and the new Division of Global Surgery will coordinate with all hospital services to ensure that Texas Children’s is well-represented when going abroad and that these children and women receive the best possible care.”

Nuchtern will retain his duties as chief of Pediatric Surgery until a successor is found. A national search is currently underway. Pediatric Surgery at Texas Children’s has grown to include outstanding programs in surgical oncology, surgical critical care, colorectal and pelvic health, and basic science research. The GI Surgery program has consistently been recognized as one of the top five children’s hospital programs for GI & GI Surgery in U.S. News & World Report. Under Nuchtern’s leadership, the division also has received national and international acclaim for the separation of conjoined twins’ cases and many cutting-edge fetal surgeries. Additionally, the Trauma program was re-designated as a Level I trauma center and has expanded educational offerings to the state and region.

April 24, 2018

Just 12 short months ago, Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers, Baylor College of Medicine International Pediatric AIDS Initiative at Texas Children’s Hospital, the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation, and leaders in Botswana, Uganda and Malawi, announced a $100 million initiative to create an innovative pediatric hematology-oncology treatment network in sub-Saharan Africa.

Called Global HOPE (Hematology-Oncology Pediatric Excellence), the aim of the initiative is to build long-term capacity to treat and dramatically improve the prognosis of children with cancer and blood disorders in sub-Saharan Africa where the overwhelming majority of pediatric cancer and hematology patients do not survive. The mortality rate is estimated to be as high as 90 percent, in large part due to an inadequate health care infrastructure and a significant lack of expert physicians and other health care workers trained to treat children with cancer.

Global HOPE already is making great strides to change these outcomes and the reasons behind them. Since its creation in February 2017, more than 1,000 patients have been treated, 369 health care professionals have been trained, eight physician fellows have enrolled in the first Pediatric Hematology Oncology Fellowship Program in East Africa and seven cancer awareness and survivor events in Botswana, Uganda and Malawi have been organized.

“We’re very excited by the progress in a relatively short amount of time,” said Dr. David Poplack, director of Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers. “Capacity building takes time. This may mean we exceed our original expectations.”

Initially, Global HOPE leaders envisioned treating 5,000 patients in the first five years, but the expectation assumed the numbers would ramp up as the program did. A similar situation occurred in 2003 after the largest pediatric HIV treatment network in the world was created by the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation, Baylor College of Medicine International Pediatric AIDS Initiative and the Governments of Botswana, Uganda and Malawi. The network has leveraged existing experience, infrastructure, and public/private partnerships to train 52,000 health care professionals and provide care for nearly 300,000 children with HIV and their families in sub-Saharan Africa, lowering the mortality rate for these children to 1.2 percent.

“The success we’ve had in radically changing the course of pediatric HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa is due in large part to the tremendous support provided by the country governments, health care providers on the ground and donors who have made our work possible,” said Dr. Mark W. Kline, president and founder of BIPAI, physician-in-chief of Texas Children’s Hospital and chair of the Department of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine. “We are very pleased by the progress Global HOPE already has made in building a self-sustaining infrastructure that changes the tide of these childhood diseases in sub-Saharan Africa.”

Global HOPE is building on the work Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers and its partners have been providing children with cancer and blood disorders in Africa for a decade. Through the partnership, Global HOPE is active in three countries and has 51 faculty and staff working in Texas Children’s global sites.

These sites, called Centers of Excellence, are being expanded in Botswana, Malawi and Uganda, and aim to serve as regional hubs for pediatric hematology/oncology programs. Progress also is being made on implementing standard treatment protocols and clinical practice guidelines to ensure quality pediatric hematology/oncology care and services are provided across the cancer care continuum, and positively impact overall pediatric health services.

To develop local leaders in Africa in the pediatric hematology/oncology field, Global HOPE has established the first Hematology/Oncology Fellowship in East Africa in Uganda. This two-year fellowship is accredited by the Uganda Medical and Dental Practitioners Council and incorporates online training, live lectures, rotations from sub-specialists to provide training on-site, and professional development opportunities, including attending scientific conferences and participating in leadership seminars.

“This fellowship is one of the most important things we are doing in Africa,” Poplack said. “It is the formal educational program that enables us to build medical capacity to diagnose and treat pediatric blood disorders and cancer.”

The Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation is committing $50 million over five years to fund the training of health care providers as well as clinical infrastructure and operations. Global HOPE will raise an additional $50 million for the initiative.

Read these blogs to learn more about Global HOPE:

Global HOPE supports parent-led advocacy group in Uganda

How a blueprint for treating HIV/AIDS is helping address childhood cancer in Africa

All kids with cancer deserve a fighting chance

May 4, 2017

With the help of physicians in interventional radiology, anesthesiology and pathology at Texas Children’s Hospital, children in Vietnam suffering from severe and debilitating vascular anomalies are getting the help they desperately need.

At the beginning of the year, a medical team from Texas Children’s traveled to the University of Medicine and Pharmacy Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam to examine and treat patients with vascular anomalies as well as to train medical staff at the University Hospital to perform certain life-altering procedures on their own.

The effort is an extension of the active collaboration between the Vietnam Vascular Anomalies Center (VAC) based in Ho Chi Minh City and the Global Pathology program at Texas Children’s Hospital, launched in 2013 by Dr. Thuy Phung, a pathologist and associate director of Texas Children’s Global Pathology. Global Pathology is based in the Department of Pathology, under the leadership of Texas Children’s Pathologist-in-Chief Dr. James Versalovic.

The Vietnam VAC was established in 2009 by Phung and a team of physicians at Harvard Medical School and Ho Chi Minh City. Its mission is to provide safe and effective humanitarian medical care for underserved Vietnamese children with vascular and pigmented birthmarks, and to promote active collaboration between Vietnamese and U.S. physicians to improve the health of these children.

“We have been thinking about and working on the formation of an interventional radiology team that can work with the Vietnam VAC for some time and feel that our initial efforts have been extremely successful,” Phung said. “The techniques that we are teaching physicians in Vietnam can make a huge difference in the lives of children with vascular anomalies.”

During the team’s week-long visit to Ho Chi Minh City in January, members worked with and trained a local clinical team led by Dr. Tran Quoc Tuan, an interventional neuroradiologist at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy Hospital. Together, they evaluated and consulted on 38 adult and pediatric patients, providing recommendations on how to best manage their vascular anomalies. Of those patients, the clinical team selected 13 to treat using techniques such as embolization, which involves the injection of special medications into abnormal blood vessels under ultrasound and X-ray.

These treatments are common across the globe but can only be appropriately performed by highly trained medical professionals and require an experienced support team, such as a pediatric anesthesiologist, interventional radiologist, interventional radiology nurse practitioner and interventional radiology technologist proficient in the procedures. Texas Children’s brought all of the above to the Vietnam VAC, enabling several children, including a young boy whose vascular lesion was impeding his ability to breathe, to get the appropriate treatment and go home with a chance at a drastically improved life.

“This partnership has enabled us to train our clinical colleagues in Ho Chi Minh City to independently handle vascular anomaly patients and act as a referral center for the country,” said Texas Children’s interventional radiologist Dr. Sheena Pimpalwar. “Due to a large population of children in Vietnam who are affected by vascular anomalies and our ability to treat them in a multi-disciplinary fashion, this program has huge potential for growth.”

Texas Children’s pediatric anesthesiologist Dr. Helena Karlberg emphasized the importance of having a multi-disciplinary approach available to patients at the Vietnam VAC and described the role of the anesthesiologist as one that includes early planning of airway management in patients undergoing procedures of the head and neck regions, and monitoring for, and treatment of any adverse effects by agents used during vascular anomaly care.

“These rather specialized procedures require a great deal of expertise,” Karlberg said. “I am grateful for the opportunity to share my knowledge and experience assisting and instructing others to develop their own skills in caring for this group of patients.”

To ensure that patients receive the highest quality treatment, the Texas Children’s Hospital medical team plans on traveling to Vietnam each year to treat patients and to continue training the medical staff at the Vietnam VAC. In the meantime, the Texas Children’s team will consult with physicians in Vietnam on patient management via email, telephone and video conference.

Members of the Texas Children’s Hospital medical team that recently traveled to Vietnam include:

  • Dr. Alex Chau, interventional radiologist
  • Heather Cleveland, advanced clinical specialist and interventional radiology technologist
  • Dr. Helena Karlberg, pediatric anesthesiologist
  • Dr. Thuy Phung, associate director of Texas Children’s Global Pathology
  • Dr. Sheena Pimpalwar, interventional radiologist
  • Holly Phan Tran, vascular anomalies nurse practitioner
February 21, 2017

Earlier today, Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers, Baylor College of Medicine International Pediatric AIDS Initiative at Texas Children’s Hospital, the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation, His Excellency the President Lieutenant General Dr. Seretse Khama Ian Khama of the Republic of Botswana and the Honorable Minister Dorcas Makgato of the Ministry of Health and Wellness through public-private partnerships with the governments of Botswana, Uganda and Malawi, announced a $100 million initiative to create an innovative pediatric hematology-oncology treatment network in southern and east Africa. The comprehensive initiative called Global HOPE (Hematology-Oncology Pediatric Excellence) will build long-term capacity to treat and dramatically improve the prognosis of thousands of children with cancer and blood disorders in southern and eastern Africa.

In the United States, 80 percent of children with cancer survive. In sub-Saharan Africa, the overwhelming majority of pediatric patients do not survive. The mortality rate is estimated to be as high as 90 percent, meaning thousands of children die from cancer across Africa each year. This is in large part due to an inadequate healthcare infrastructure and a significant lack of expert physicians and other healthcare workers trained to treat children with cancer. The most common types of childhood cancers are blood cancers, including leukemia and lymphoma.

Global HOPE will partner with local Governments and Ministries of Health to build medical capacity to diagnose and treat pediatric blood disorders and cancer in Botswana, Malawi and Uganda. The initiative will also create significant clinical, educational and research capabilities. Doctors, nurses and ancillary professionals will be recruited from around the world to provide training to local healthcare professionals and to begin treating children with blood disorders and cancer immediately.

“This project is building on a solid foundation for pediatric cancer treatment in Botswana that began with pediatric oncologists from Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers,” said His Excellency the President Lieutenant General Dr. Seretse Khama Ian Khama of the Republic of Botswana. “The Global HOPE program will bring to Botswana the latest bio-medical technologies and the potential to work with local institutions such as the Botswana Innovation Hub and University of Botswana to quickly increase the survival of children with cancer and life-threatening blood disorders in Botswana and the region.”

The Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation is committing $50 million over five years to fund the training of healthcare providers as well as clinical infrastructure and operations. BIPAI will raise an additional $50 million for the initiative.

“We are eager to get started on this critical initiative to help children with blood disorders and cancer. Working with our partners and drawing on our expertise of building sustainable health systems in underserved countries, we will help make a significant difference in the outcomes for children while creating a blueprint for other countries to follow,” said Dr. Giovanni Caforio, chairman of the board of the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation and chief executive officer of Bristol-Myers Squibb Company. “This initiative builds on 18 years of success of the Foundation’s SECURE THE FUTURE program and will offer new hope to families impacted by pediatric blood disorders and cancer.”

As public-private partnerships, the various governments will each play an important role in developing the pediatric hematology-oncology network, assisting with the training, technical assistance, logistics and resources to support Global HOPE.

The Global HOPE initiative will train an estimated 4,800 healthcare professionals from Botswana, Uganda, Malawi and other African countries, including doctors and nurses specializing in pediatric hematology-oncology and social workers. The program estimates that over 5,000 children will receive care in the first five years.

“With only five pediatric oncologists currently in the countries of Botswana, Malawi and Uganda combined, there are simply not enough expert doctors to treat all the children diagnosed with blood disorders and cancer. We believe in these countries there are more than 11,000 new cases annually of pediatric cancer and 40,000 new cases of serious, life-threatening blood disorders such as sickle cell disease and hemophilia. Because of these staggering numbers, more healthcare providers with special expertise are urgently needed,” said Dr. David Poplack, director of Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers and Professor of Pediatric Oncology at Baylor College of Medicine. “Global HOPE will help build capacity in the region to diagnose and care for children with blood disorders and cancer, offering the potential for transformational change in survivorship for these children.”

The Global HOPE initiative will be modeled on the work of the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation, BIPAI and the Governments of Botswana, Uganda and Malawi, which created the largest pediatric HIV treatment network in the world, leveraging existing experience, infrastructure, and public/private partnerships created through the initiative. Since 2003, the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation and BIPAI have trained 52,000 healthcare professionals and currently provide care for nearly 300,000 children with HIV and their families in sub-Saharan Africa, lowering the mortality rate for these children to 1.2 percent.

“The success we’ve had in radically changing the course of pediatric HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa is due in large part to the tremendous support provided by the country governments, healthcare providers on the ground and donors who have made our work possible,” said Dr. Mark W. Kline, president and founder of BIPAI, physician-in-chief of Texas Children’s Hospital and chair of the Department of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine. “We look forward to helping patients and their families by embarking on this unchartered area of cancer care in Africa. Working with our partners, we aim to build a self-sustaining infrastructure that changes the tide of these childhood diseases in sub-Saharan Africa.”

About the Republic of Botswana and the Ministry of Health and Wellness

Botswana is a country with two million inhabitants in southern Africa with abundant and diverse natural resources. The official languages are English and Setswana. Since independence in 1966, Botswana has been a parliamentary republic; the chief of state and head of government is the president. Botswana’s economy is a success story in southern Africa due to the investment of the government in the education, health, clean water and telecommunications sectors to create a better standard of living for its citizens and to foster a conducive environment for free enterprise to prosper. The Ministry of Health and Wellness aims to improve the physical, mental, and social well-being of every citizen of Botswana to fully contribute to the development of Botswana through a healthy nation.

About the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation

The Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation is committed to improving the health outcomes of populations disproportionately affected by serious diseases by strengthening healthcare worker capacity, integrating medical care and community-based supportive services, and addressing unmet medical need. The Foundation engages partners to develop, execute, evaluate and promote innovative programs to help patients with lung cancer and removing barriers to accessing care in the United States, HIV and comorbid diseases such as cervical and breast cancers and tuberculosis in sub-Saharan Africa, hepatitis B and C in China and India and veterans’ mental health and well-being in the U.S. Since 1999, the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation’s SECURE THE FUTURE® initiative has been working with partners in Africa to provide care and support for communities affected by HIV, tuberculosis, women’s cancer and most recently, lung cancer. Global HOPE will apply this same transformational model to pediatric oncology and hematology in a number of the same geographic areas.

About Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers at Texas Children’s Hospital

Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers is the largest pediatric hematology-oncology program in the U.S., treating patients from 35 states and 26 countries. The centers perform advanced patient care, cutting edge clinical and laboratory research and has largest training program for pediatric hematology-oncology in the U.S. With a staff of renowned experts, the centers have developed a wide array of programs aimed at curing children with diagnoses ranging from the most common to the very rare. The team of 186 faculty and nearly 1,000 staff have pioneered many of the now standard treatments for pediatric cancer and blood disorders. TXCH has a long-standing commitment to improving global health.

About Baylor College of Medicine International Pediatric AIDS Initiative at Texas Children’s Hospital

Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative (BIPAI) is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing pediatric and maternal health care in resource limited settings. BIPAI medical teams offer free medical care and medical education for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, malnutrition, obstetrics/gynecology, hematology/oncology and more. Partnering with Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine, BIPAI operates in 11 countries, caring for nearly 300,000 children and their families.

Click here to read a story about the Global HOPE announcement in the Houston Chronicle.

December 20, 2016

122116pathologyvietnaminsideSince 2005, the Department of Pathology & Immunology at Baylor and the Department of Pathology at Texas Children’s Hospital have played an important role in global health initiatives, first in Africa and later extending their outreach to Southeast Asia.

The Global Pathology Program at Texas Children’s launched a collaboration with the Vietnam Vascular Anomalies Center in Ho Chi Minh City in 2013, focusing on improving medical care for people in Vietnam through diagnostic pathology.

“One of our major goals is to improve medical care for the people in Vietnam by raising the standard of practice of pathologists who provide diagnostic workup for patients,” said Dr. Thuy Phung, associate director of Global Pathology at Texas Children’s and assistant professor of pathology & immunology at Baylor College of Medicine. “This includes improving physician training and pathology laboratory practice.”

Participants of the Global Pathology Program and the Vietnam Vascular Anomalies Center returned to Vietnam earlier this year for their sixth annual trip, accompanied by a team of more than 30 physicians, medical residents and students from the United States, South Korea and Thailand. Together they held a three-day CME conference in dermatology and skin and gynecologic pathology to train more than 90 pathologists on developing more accurate diagnosis.

Using the new technology of telepathology, participants were able to view digitalized images of stained tissue sections on their own computer monitor as if they were viewing through a microscope. Telepathology gives pathologists from anywhere in the world the opportunity to connect with one another through the internet to show and share pathology cases for diagnostic consultation, teaching and training. The consultation can take the form of a live videoconference, webcast or one-on-one discussion.

“Logistically, how this works is when pathologists in Vietnam have difficult skin biopsies, and they want my input as an experienced skin pathologist, they scan the tissue glass slides and send me the digital files,” Phung said. “With the digital files, I am able to view the slide image and move the virtual slide around to see different areas of the tissue. This imaging technology allows me to digitally view tissue in any way I want so that I can make the correct histologic diagnosis for the patient.”

Through telepathology, Phung has been able to provide expert consultation to pathologists in Vietnam in real time with high accuracy. She holds weekly live videoconferencing with Vietnamese pathologists to view the cases together.

“We view the digital images together and discuss the cases, and I share my opinion of each case,” she said. “Each week, we do this for about one hour, and usually look at 10 to 12 tissue biopsies that pose diagnostic dilemmas for the Vietnamese pathologists.”

Phung and her team have been holding weekly video meetings for a year and have broadened their training with pathologists in Ho Chi Minh City to include pathologists in other major cities in Vietnam such as Hanoi, Hue and Danang. “By conducting live telepathology, we not only provide correct tissue diagnosis in real time for patients in Vietnam, but equally important, we can use this approach to enhance the training of Vietnamese pathologists in diagnostic skin pathology,” she said.

“My hope is that they will become experts themselves in the future and be able to help even more patients than I can do myself here in the U.S.” said Phung.

There are now six Vietnamese pathologists who regularly participate in telepathology with Phung, and she believes their efforts will provide them the knowledge base to be experts in skin pathology in their own right.

“I like to think of this as innovation in global medical education involving virtual and interactive learning that has been enabled by today’s state-of-the-art technology in telemedicine and digital pathology,” she said. “This is a way to practically apply advanced technology and medical expertise that we have here at Baylor and Texas Children’s to help improve medical diagnosis and medical education in other countries, no matter where in the world.”

Currently, the Global Pathology team and the Vietnam Vascular Anomalies Center are working on expanding their work to Can Tho and Da Nang, two major provinces in Vietnam.

October 18, 2016

101916bipai640Chevron, the YPF Foundation, Baylor College of Medicine International Pediatric AIDS Initiative (BIPAI) at Texas Children’s Hospital, and the Health Ministry of Neuquén province are pleased to announce a new program to support maternal-child health care, focusing on the public health center in the town of Añelo.

Neuquén’s public health system is nationally recognized for its high quality and efficiency. The public-private partnership proposed in this program seeks to create mutual collaboration, with the support of various institutions in the Neuquén health system, including Castro Rendón Hospital, Añelo Health Center, Sanitary Zone V, Health Under-Secretariat, Health Ministry and the Municipal Government of Añelo.

“At Texas Children’s Hospital, we have a long history of public-private partnerships,” said BIPAI Chief Operating Officer Michael Mizwa. “We are very excited about starting up a new project in Latin America, and about working together with the Neuquén health system to improve health and welfare conditions for children and their families.”

The program is funded by Chevron over a three-year period and will leverage additional contributions from the YPF Foundation and YPF to support housing and logistics for physicians and to further development of the program. The initiative also creates a non-government organization for BIPAI in Argentina, which will employ Argentinian physicians to reinforce the program, create alternatives for training, and facilitate professional exchanges among health care specialists in the province.

“We believe this joint maternal-child health program could be very important to improve the quality of life for families in Añelo,” said Silvina Oberti, YPF Foundation executive director. “Health is one of the main pillars in the sustainable development plan we have been working on with the municipal and provincial government for the city.”

The signing ceremony was attended by Neuquén Health Minister, Ricardo Corradi Diez; Neuquén Minister of Energy and Public Utilities, Alejandro Nicola; Mayor of Añelo, Darío Díaz; Chief Operating Officer, BIPAI, Michael Mizwa; Chevron Argentina General Manager, Chris Stevens; YPF Foundation Director, Silvina Oberti; and other dignitaries.

“This agreement will allow for the improvement and extension of maternal and child health care in a zone where we are expecting a high family migration,” said Corradi Diez.

This initiative will be implemented mainly in Añelo, the closest municipality to the Loma Campana development area, currently the second largest oil field in Argentina and the largest unconventional oil field in the world outside of the United States.

“For Chevron, community support, particularly involving health care, is one of the values behind everything we do. We are delighted to be part of this project and to help benefit the community of Añelo,” said Stevens.