June 26, 2018

Texas Children’s Hospital has once again been named as a national leader among pediatric institutions by U.S. News & World Report in their recently published 2018-19 edition of Best Children’s Hospitals.

Ranked fourth among all children’s hospitals nationally and one of only 10 hospitals to achieve the Honor Roll designation for the tenth straight year, Texas Children’s is the only hospital in Texas – and the entire Southern region of the U.S. – awarded this coveted distinction.

“Each year, our Texas Children’s team exhibits incredible strength and kindness, as well as passion, caring for the inspirational children and families we serve,” said Texas Children’s President and CEO Mark Wallace. “I believe this is one reason why we continue to maintain the respect and reputation as one of the best hospitals in the nation, and the destination for pediatric care in Texas.”

In addition to ranking children’s hospitals overall, U.S. News & World Report also ranks the top 50 pediatric hospitals in 10 major sub-specialty areas. To be considered for the honor roll distinction, a hospital must have high rankings in at least three sub-specialties. For the second straight year, Texas Children’s Heart Center ranks No. 1 in the nation for pediatric cardiology and heart surgery. Texas Children’s Pulmonology ranks as the best program in the country for children with lung diseases.

Texas Children’s has 8 subspecialties ranked in the top 10, and the hospital improved outcomes across all sub-specialties. There are approximately 190 children’s hospitals in the U.S. and this year, 86 of the 189 surveyed hospitals were ranked among the top 50 in at least one sub-specialty. The 2018-19 Best Children’s Hospitals Honor Roll recognizes the 10 hospitals with the highest rankings across all sub-specialties. Here are a few highlights of this year’s rankings for Texas Children’s:

  • Cardiology and Congenital Heart Surgery is again no. 1 in the nation and received the top score in externally reported risk-adjusted operative mortality for congenital heart surgery.
  • Pulmonology, which first debuted in the top spot in the 2016 rankings, is now again ranked no. 1 in the nation. We received the top score in several asthma outcomes and structure metrics, such as mean LOS for asthma patients.
  • Neurology and Neurosurgery moved from no. 4 to no. 3, receiving the top score in several outcomes metrics, such as 30-day readmissions for craniotomy and Chiari decompression and complication rate for epilepsy surgical procedures.
  • Nephrology also moved from no. 4 to no. 3, with the top score in one-year kidney transplant graft survival and hemodialysis catheter-associated bloodstream infections.
  • Urology moved from no. 6 to no. 4, propelled by the top score in unplanned hospital admission for urologic issues within 30 days of surgery, as well as significant improvements in hypospadias and revision surgeries.

Texas Children’s, working closely with our academic partner Baylor College of Medicine, continues to pioneer advancements in pediatric health care and earns the U.S. News honor roll distinction by being ranked among America’s best in:

  • #1 Cardiology and Congenital Heart Surgery
  • #1 Pulmonology
  • #3 Neurology and Neurosurgery
  • #3 Nephrology
  • #4 Gastroenterology and GI surgery
  • #4 Urology
  • #6 Cancer
  • #6 Diabetes and Endocrinology
  • #15 Orthopedics
  • #21 Neonatology

This year’s rankings are the results of a methodology that weighs a combination of outcome and care-related measures such as nursing care, advanced technology, credentialing, outcomes, best practices, infection prevention and reputation, among others.

“From a measurement perspective, our survey results demonstrate how hard we’re working as an organization to deliver high quality care to our patients,” Wallace said. “The more consistently we deliver high quality care and the safer we deliver that care to our patients, the better their outcomes are, and the better our overall numbers are.”

Our results continue to reflect the diligent efforts of a solid structure focused on the U.S. News survey. The process of compiling and refining our data is an ongoing challenge, which will continue to improve under the excellent leadership of Trudy Leidich, Elizabeth Pham and the entire USNWR team.

The 2018-19 edition of Best Children’s Hospitals is available online at www.usnews.com/childrenshospitals.

August 22, 2017

Texas Children’s work to develop a novel non-invasive device for pediatric ureteral stent removal after a urinary tract procedure, with Baylor College of Medicine, Rice University’s Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen (OEDK) and Department of Bioengineering, as well as local life sciences commercialization firm Fannin Innovation Studio, was recently funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The $225,000 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant will be used to conduct further development of an electromagnetic device for removal of ureteral stents in pediatric patients.

Through the Rice undergraduate design program, a group of Rice University engineering students collaborated with Dr. Chester Koh, a pediatric urologist and surgeon at Texas Children’s and Baylor College of Medicine, to create the device in 2015, after Koh challenged the students to develop an innovative tool that would simplify ureteral stent removals, a fairly common procedure that is performed on more than 2,000 pediatric patients nationwide each year.

After extensively collaborating with Texas Children’s surgeons to better understand the challenges of the current procedure and the need for refinement, the collaborative team developed a non-invasive device to remove ureteral stents from children using a small magnetic bead and a powerful custom-built electromagnet that was designed with the assistance of 3-D printing at Rice’s OEDK labs. The electromagnet safely pulls on the tiny metallic bead that is attached to the ureteral stent to allow passage through the urethra without the need for an invasive procedure or general anesthesia.

This new innovation in pediatric ureteral stent removal is less painful and costs two-thirds less than the standard procedure because it avoids general anesthesia and the time and equipment necessary for a surgical procedure. The team’s invention has won two significant awards: the top prize at Rice University’s 2016 annual Engineering Design Showcase and the Grand Prize for Student Design at the 2016 annual Design of Medical Devices conference in Minneapolis.

“The development of pediatric medical devices lags adult device development by more than 10 years,” said Koh, who has a mechanical engineering degree from the University of California, Berkeley. “This is an important example of why academic partnerships are needed to advance pediatric medical device projects, since the pediatric medical device pipeline is currently limited. I applaud the Rice and Fannin Innovation Studio team members for showing their dedication and passion to the kids under our care at Texas Children’s.”

Prior to coming to Texas Children’s to establish the robotic surgery program in 2013, Koh co-founded a U.S. Food and Drug Administration-supported pediatric device consortium based in Southern California. He is creating a similar initiative at Texas Children’s, drawing on the top engineering and device development talent in the region.

The early work for this project was supported by the Denton A. Cooley Fellowship for Surgical Innovation of the Texas Children’s Auxiliary and by the Texas Children’s Department of Surgery, which continues to support the pursuit of innovation solutions to the unmet surgical needs of children.

The SBIR Phase I grant from the NIDDK will allow the team to implement design modifications to further refine the device as well as perform benchtop and pre-clinical studies with a target goal of larger SBIR Phase II grants.

July 11, 2017

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.

January 24, 2017

12517urology640Texas Children’s Urology Division and the innovative work they are doing in the operating room will be highlighted beginning Saturday, January 28, at a nine-day fan festival at Discovery Green in celebration of this year’s professional football championship game.

The festival will feature live music and performances, a 90-foot tall virtual reality trip to Mars and interactive exhibits, including one hosted by the Texas Medical Center that will offer fans an unforgettable experience and tell the story of innovation in Houston, specifically among the medical community.

Four virtual reality videos will take fans behind the scenes at TMC and showcase innovation at work. The video highlighting Texas Children’s will take viewers into the operating room as Dr. Chester Koh performs a robotic pyeloplasty on a one-year-old patient.

“This is such an exciting way to talk about the innovative work we are doing here in the Urology Division in the Department of Surgery at Texas Children’s,” Koh said. “It will allow us to reach a vast national audience about the services we offer to children and their families.”

Texas Children’s pediatric robotic surgery program ranks among the highest in annual pediatric robotic surgery volumes in the U.S. In 2013, Texas Children’s adopted a cutting-edge robot assisted surgical system designed to decrease post-operative pain, reduce hospital stay length and minimize scarring thanks to smaller incisions.

To learn more about the program click here. For more information on the festival click here.

12517Austin175Texas Children’s Hospital is excited to welcome Dr. Paul Austin to the Division of Urology.

Beginning July 1, Austin will lead the Division’s Complex Urological Reconstruction Program as well as serve as Urologic Director for the Spina Bifida, ARM, and Gender Medicine multidisciplinary clinics. He also will establish a new Pediatric Urologic Basic Science Research Lab. Austin’s research interests include bladder pathology, kidney repair, renal fibrosis, stone disease, and kidney development.

Austin comes to Texas Children’s Hospital from Washington University in St. Louis, where he is currently Professor of Surgery, Director of the Multidisciplinary Spina Bifida Program, and leader of a robust basic science research lab with substantial NIH funding.

For his many contributions to the field of Pediatric Urology, Austin was recognized with the John W. Duckett Pediatric Research Excellence Award from the American Urology Association’s Urology Care Foundation in 2016.

August 9, 2016

81016ChronicleAdUrology250.pgTexas Children’s is the honored sponsor for every Tuesday’s “Houston Legends” series. We will showcase the legendary care Texas Children’s has provided since 1954, and focus on milestone moments in our unique history. Also, a complementary website offers a more detailed look at our past, our story and our breakthroughs.

On the right is the Texas Children’s ad that is featured in this week’s Chronicle. Click the ad to visit our companion website at texaschildrens.org/legendarycare. The website will change weekly to complement the newspaper ad, which will be published in section A of the Chronicle on Tuesdays for the next several weeks. We also will spotlight this special feature weekly on Connect, so stay tuned to learn and share our rich history.

May 10, 2016

51116texaschildrensrice640What happens when Texas Children’s surgeons and Rice University engineering students collaborate to develop innovative solutions to reduce the pain of stent removal after a urinary tract procedure? An award-winning device that could potentially revolutionize the field of pediatric urologic surgery.

Last fall, Dr. Chester Koh, a pediatric urologist and surgeon at Texas Children’s and Baylor College of Medicine, challenged a group of Rice students to come up with an innovative tool to simplify ureteral stent removals, a fairly common procedure that is performed on more than 2,000 pediatric patients nationwide each year.

After a stent is inserted into a patient’s ureter to improve urine flow from the kidneys to the bladder, the stent is removed after four weeks of healing. The current procedure involves inserting an endoscope into the urethra and bladder to locate the stent and pull it out, which requires children to be placed under anesthesia.

After extensively collaborating with Texas Children’s surgeons to better understand the challenges of the current procedure and the need for refinement, the Rice team developed a simple, less invasive device to remove ureteral stents from children using a small magnetic bead and a powerful custom-built electromagnet the team designed and 3-D printed at Rice’s Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen. The tiny metallic bead can pass safely through the urethra as the magnet pulls the bead out of the body followed by the stent that the bead is attached to.

Rice students briefly considered designing a stent that would dissolve over time, but decided the magnetic attachment would be far simpler and less prone to complications. This new innovation in ureteral stent removal in children is less painful and costs two-thirds less than the standard procedure because it does not require anesthesia and it can be completed in minutes rather than hours.

The team’s invention, the Ureteral Stent Electromagnetic Removable Bead, won two significant awards this month: the top $5,000 prize at Rice University’s annual Engineering Design Showcase and the Grand Prize for student design at the annual Design of Medical Devices Conference in Minneapolis.

“We hope this device will transform the field of pediatric urologic surgery,” said Rice bioengineering student Eric Yin, who is considering applying his engineering expertise to a career in pediatric medicine. “A lot of devices are designed for adults and Dr. Koh is one of the movers trying to develop more devices that are designed for children.”

Koh says the Rice team’s new device – and others designed in partnership with Texas Children’s surgeons – address the severe shortage of medical devices designed for infants and children.

“The development of pediatric medical devices lag adult device development by more than 10 years,” said Koh, who has a mechanical engineering degree from the University of California, Berkeley. “This is an important example of why academic partnerships are needed to advance pediatric medical device projects, since the pediatric medical device pipeline is currently limited. I applaud the Rice team for showing its dedication and passion to the kids under our care at Texas Children’s.”

Prior to coming to Texas Children’s to establish the robotic surgery program in 2013, Koh co-founded a U.S. Food and Drug Administration-supported pediatric device consortium based in Southern California. He is creating a similar initiative at Texas Children’s, drawing on the top engineering talent in the region.

This year, three engineering teams from Rice University and six teams from Texas A&M University are collaborating with Texas Children’s surgeons to develop new pediatric medical devices. with support from the Texas Children’s Auxiliary Denton Cooley Innovation Award. Koh plans to collaborate with other institutions in the future.