Mary Kelly – Page 387 – Texas Children's News

January 5, 2016

Dr. Huda Zoghbi, professor of molecular and human genetics at Baylor College of Medicine, and director of the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children’s, will be honored with the 2015 Vanderbilt Prize in Biomedical Science.

She is the 10th recipient of the award given by the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine to recognize women scientists with a stellar record of research accomplishment who have also mentored other women in science.

Prize winners receive an honorarium, deliver a Flexner Discovery Lecture, meet with Vanderbilt faculty and mentor Vanderbilt Prize Scholars – women who are pursuing graduate studies in the biomedical sciences at the medical school.

Zoghbi will receive the prize on April 21, 2016, when she is scheduled to give the Flexner Discovery Lecture at Vanderbilt.

“Huda Zoghbi’s progression from a young woman interested in science to one of the world’s foremost physician-scientists working on the genetic bases of neurological diseases is fascinating and inspiring,” said Dr. Lawrence Marnett, associate vice chancellor for research and senior associate dean for biomedical science, at Vanderbilt.

Zoghbi has been instrumental in finding the genes for Rett Syndrome, spinal cerebellar ataxia 1 and IMath1, which is essential for generation of inner ear hair cell.

She is a member of the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences and has received numerous awards throughout the years. She is committed to mentoring young scientists, and one-fourth of her former trainees are women.

Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus received a special gift this holiday season from a former patient whose family wanted to thank caregivers for helping their son recover from cancer.

David Lauritzen, now a healthy 5-year-old, came to Texas Children’s a very sick toddler. After being diagnosed with cancer, David was put on an aggressive treatment plan of radiation and chemotherapy, much of which he received at West Campus.

The treatment and the tender loving care he received from Texas Children’s medical staff paid off, sending him into remission about a year after being diagnosed. In appreciation for the staff’s hard work and expertise, the Lauritzen family recently donated a handmade toddler play yard to West Campus.

The red and white play yard was made by David’s great-grandfather, Ronald McKee, who dedicated the toy to his grandson and traveled from Missouri to install the piece of equipment in the Surgery Waiting Room at West Campus.

David’s mother, Samantha Lauritzen, said the play yard is a small token of her family’s appreciation to all Texas Children’s employees who came into contact with her family during her son’s 14-month treatment period.

“They made an extremely difficult situation easier on all of us,” she said of the staff “To me, they are amazing.”

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.

December 1

Texas Children’s Fetal Center celebrates 400 miracles at patient reunion

Hundreds of families from around the country traveled to Houston to attend Texas Children’s Fetal Center family reunion. Since its inaugural event in 2007, the reunion provided an opportunity for physicians and staff to reunite with patient families who received life-saving medical and surgical care at our fetal center.

December 1

Texas Children’s awards pediatric pilot grants to 10 promising researchers

Ten promising researchers received the 2015 Pediatric Pilot Awards Research grants worth up to $50,000. The grants will provide initial start-up funding for research projects that have the ultimate goal of enhancing patient outcomes.

December 8

Dr. Mary Brandt elected to ACS Medical Student Education Committee

Dr. Mary Brandt, pediatric surgeon and director of the Adolescent Bariatric Surgery Program and the Anorectal Malformation Clinic at Texas Children’s, has been elected to the Medical Student Education Committee of the American College of Surgeons, which addresses the educational needs in surgery for medical students during all four years of medical school.

December 15

Texas Children’s Special Isolation Unit earns award from Texas Department of Health Services

Texas Children’s Special Isolation Unit, the only pediatric-focused unit of its kind in Texas and the Southwest, was recently awarded the Texas Department of Health Services 2015 Texas Preparedness Leadership Award. The annual award recognizes exceptionally meritorious achievements in local, regional or state Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Healthcare Systems Preparedness Programs.

December 15

Texas Children’s Main Campus Urgent Care opens

Texas Children’s recently opened a 4,100-square-foot urgent care clinic on the second floor of the Abercrombie Building, creating a system-wide solution to effectively manage the Emergency Center’s (EC) low acuity patient population. The clinic has a dedicated staff of physicians, advanced practice providers, nurses and clinical support staff. The new urgent care has already helped lighten the load of the EC, seeing about 30 patients a day, or 25 percent of the EC’s daily patient volume. Wait times for patients with low-acuity illnesses also have decreased significantly.

December 15

Texas Children’s oncologists contribute to leading textbook in field

Dr. David Poplack, director of Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers, and numerous members of his medical staff helped write the recently published, 7th edition of Principles and Practice in Pediatric Oncology. This leading textbook provides the most comprehensive resource on the biology and genetics of childhood cancers.

December 15

Spotlight on Adult Congenital Heart Disease Program

About 40,000 babies are born each year with a congenital heart disease, the most common birth defect. These children grow up with their conditions and are part of a growing population of adults with congenital heart disease. Texas Children’s Adult Congenital Heart Disease Program allows patients to continue their care at their childhood medical home as adults.

December 22

Heart Center experts present at Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Society 11th International Meeting

Intensivists, cardiologists, cardiovascular surgeons, nurses, and outcomes and quality experts from Texas Children’s Heart Center and Baylor College of Medicine served as presenters and moderators during the Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Society (PCICS) 11th International Meeting held December 9 through 11 in Houston.

December 22

Surgical Research Day 2016 to feature new poster session

Plans are underway for the sixth annual Edmond T. Gonzales, Jr., Surgical Research Day which will be held on May 6, 2016. At this session, poster authors will have an opportunity to present their research to reviewers as scoring takes place.

December 22

L. E. Simmons Chair in Orthopedics awarded to Dr. John Dormans

Chief of Orthopedics Dr. John Dormans was recently awarded the L.E. Simmons Chair in Orthopedics. Provided by the Houston Endowment in recognition of Simmons, who served as chairman of Texas Children’s Board of Trustees from 2003-2004, the purpose of this chair is to support orthopedic research, education, clinic program development and advocacy at Texas Children’s.

December 22, 2015

On New Year’s Day, 13-year old Peyton Richardson and her family will ride on a float at the 127th Rose Parade for Northwestern Mutual, the presenting sponsor for the 2016 Rose Bowl game in Pasadena, CA. The theme of this year’s parade is Find your Adventure.

Peyton, who was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia in January 2015, is an aspiring ballerina who dreams of traveling around the world to visit the greatest ballet companies and to take a class with each of their principal dancers.

When Dr. Zoann Dreyer, her doctor at Texas Children’s Cancer Center, introduced her to Northwestern Mutual’s video contest, Peyton jumped at the opportunity to share her greatest adventure. Using her mother’s cell phone, she and her mom produced a video at home in their backyard.

After receiving numerous submissions from across the country, Northwestern Mutual selected Peyton’s video. Her greatest adventure and powerful message about not letting leukemia stop her from dreaming big are the inspiration for Northwestern Mutual’s float design aimed at raising awareness about childhood cancer.

“Cancer can take my hair. Cancer can take my school. Cancer can take some friends, but cancer is not going to take ballet,” said Carrie Richardson, as she recalled her daughter’s video message. “It was so powerful that Northwestern Mutual’s contest selection team fell in love with her.”

With the help of the Richardson family, Northwestern Mutual unveiled its float design that Peyton inspired for the 2016 Rose Parade during a special event at Texas Children’s Cancer Center on December 3, which also included a $25,000 check presentation from Northwestern Mutual to the Cancer Center.

“The name of the float is Dancing into Adventure,” Peyton said. “The swans have gold cancer ribbons around their necks because gold is childhood cancer awareness. On the music box with the ballerina, there’s the Australian ballet, the New York City ballet and the Royal Ballet. Those are the landmarks where I want to visit.”

The float will also be decorated with red roses that will be placed in green vials and affixed to the float. The vials contain signatures from Texas Children’s patients and their families. Everyone who signed the vials can “ride” on the float with Peyton.

“It’s really this link together through Peyton and Northwestern Mutual to bring awareness to childhood cancer and the need for research funds, and really to show that children with cancer can live and survive and have wonderful and meaningful lives,” Dreyer said. “There is a huge message in that float.”

Besides helping to design the float, Peyton will wear a beautiful Tiffany blue costume at the Rose Parade assembled by the Houston Ballet’s lead costume designer.

With just days away until her greatest adventure comes alive on national television, Peyton’s excitement is building.

“Once we are on the plane and we land, I think I am going to be like, “Wow, this is really happening. I’m going to be in the Rose Parade,” Peyton said. “I can’t wait.”

Neither can her mom.

“For us to be there, it’s like the end of a very long and hard year for her and our family,” Carrie said. “We’re very excited.”

Watch Peyton and her family ride on the Northwestern Mutual float in the Rose Parade on New Year’s Day. The parade will be broadcast on NBC at 10 a.m.

At a December 18 celebration, Texas Children’s Hospital announced a $5 million commitment from Direct Energy to the hospital’s Promise Campaign. The gift will be used to help expand Texas Children’s Heart Center in order to serve more children in the Houston community, Texas and the nation.

Direct Energy’s commitment is the largest corporate gift ever made to a Texas Children’s campaign priority. Nearly 200 employees from both institutions gathered at Texas Children’s to celebrate and hear remarks from Mark A. Wallace, president and CEO of Texas Children’s; Michael C. Linn, a member of Texas Children’s Board of Trustees and chair, along with his wife Carol, of the Promise Campaign; and Badar Khan, president and CEO of Direct Energy.

“Direct Energy’s generous support will help ensure Texas Children’s is able to continue to provide highly specialized care to each and every child who comes to us for help – and particularly to those who are the most critically ill and have the most complex needs,” Wallace said.

One of the highest priorities within the Promise Campaign is the expansion of the critical, surgical and emergency care services and facilities at the Texas Medical Center campus, including Texas Children’s Heart Center.

“Texas Children’s is a world-class provider of pediatric care and Direct Energy is proud to join forces with this extraordinary institution and make this meaningful gift,” Khan said. “We know our partnership with Texas Children’s will make a difference in the health and well-being of countless children and families.”

Texas Children’s recently began construction on a new 640,000-square-foot, 19-story pediatric tower. Texas Children’s Heart Center will be expanded and relocated to this pediatric tower to provide complex care more efficiently and serve even more patients. The new facility will also house pediatric intensive care units, cardiovascular intensive care units and operating rooms.

Texas Children’s Heart Center is ranked No. 2 nationally in cardiology and heart surgery by U.S. News & World Report. Each year, Texas Children’s Heart Center specialists see 20,000 patients in outpatient clinics. In 2014, Texas Children’s surgeons performed 900 congenital heart surgeries and 32 heart transplants – more than any other pediatric hospital in the nation. Texas Children’s has also pioneered many of the now-standard cardiac procedures used around the world.

Promise: The Campaign for Texas Children’s Hospital is a comprehensive, $475 million fundraising effort launched in 2014 to help ensure the hospital meets the increasing need for specialized care for Houston’s rapidly growing pediatric community. For more information about the Promise campaign, visit www.texaschildrens.org/promise.

Texas Children’s Hand Hygiene Committee recently organized a hand hygiene contest to underscore the importance of cleaning our hands before patient contact and to improve unit-based compliance rates which will help staff achieve their house-wide goal of 95 percent compliance or higher. This awareness campaign was primarily a nurse-led initiative to ensure hand hygiene continues to remain top priority for our health care providers while effectively preventing the transmission of germs.

“We must to do everything in our power to prevent patients from getting a hospital-acquired infection,” said Texas Children’s Infection Preventionist Darleen Yepes. “Hand hygiene is simple and effective but we need to be compliant 100 percent of the time. The purpose of the contest was to engage the staff in creating a hand hygiene campaign to raise awareness at the unit level through posters and a slogan.”

Participants included frontline staff from 22 inpatient units at Texas Children’s Main Campus, the Pavilion for Women and Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus. Each unit displayed their hand hygiene campaign flyer and poster at the entrance to their unit where it could be visible to doctors, nurses, therapists, patients and families.

Each unit’s hand hygiene compliance is measured by “secret” shoppers to determine how many opportunities to perform hand hygiene are met and how many opportunities are missed. Weekly and monthly compliance rates are measured and reported to the leadership team on each unit.

Our Hand Hygiene Committee members and executive leaders – Mary Jo Andre, John Nickens, Jackie Ward, Trudy Leidich, Dr. Judith Campbell and Dr. Lucy Marquez – judged the posters based on the following criteria: creativity of the hand hygiene slogan and theme, visual appeal of the images used and effectiveness of messaging content.

The first place winning unit from Main Campus/Abercrombie was the Hematology/Oncology unit from 9 West Tower. The slogan from Hematology was Germ Busters. Staff members played music and sang a catchy jingle for the judges. They also engaged patients and families. One of the mothers who wanted to reinforce hand hygiene among her family visitors came up with a cute rhyme about “cooties” and handwashing which she posted on the door and inside the patient’s room. Her sign is now posted outside every patient door on the unit as a reminder to perform hand hygiene.

The first place winning unit from Pavilion for Women/West Campus was the PFW NICU. The PFW NICU slogan was “Ask Me” if I have cleaned my hands and I’ll ask you the same.” The judges thought it was a very simple but highly effective poster because the ultimate goal is to change the culture where everyone will speak up and gently remind each other if we forget to perform hand hygiene.

“We thank all of the units for their participation,” Yepes said. “It truly reflects their commitment to helping us create a safe environment for our patients free from hospital-acquired infections by adhering to hand hygiene practices.”

Click on the photo gallery below from the hand hygiene competition.

Nearly 300 cardiovascular experts from 13 countries met during the two-day multidisciplinary, interactive conference, which includes cutting-edge research presentations and panel discussions. PCICS is an international professional forum for promoting excellence in pediatric cardiac critical care medicine. Through programs, meetings and educational curriculums, the society has a large role in vital research and training that will improve the level of care of pediatric patients with congenital heart disease and acquired cardiovascular disease.

“I’m thrilled so many of our leading Heart Center experts presented and moderated at this year’s conference in front of an international audience,” said Dr. Paul Checchia, medical director of the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit (CVICU) at Texas Children’s and president of the PCICS.

Checchia, who also serves as a professor of pediatrics-critical care and cardiology at Baylor, and Dr. Lara Shekerdemian, chief of critical care medicine at Texas Children’s and professor of pediatrics-critical care and cardiology at Baylor, were program directors of the meeting. The 11 Texas Children’s Heart Center experts who presented or moderated throughout the meeting include:

Dr. Patricia Bastero, pediatric intensive care physician at Texas Children’s and associate professor of pediatrics-critical care at Baylor, presented: Lessons Learned from Simulation: How to Keep a Safe Environment for Real Life Event Debriefings.
Kathleen Carberry, director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Outcomes and Impact Service, moderated: Wave the Magic Wand: What do Bedside Nurses Need to Create a Safer Culture?
Dr. Charles D. Fraser Jr., surgeon-in-chief and chief of congenital heart surgery at Texas Children’s and professor of surgery and chief of the division of congenital heart surgery at Baylor, moderated: The Risks We Used to Take: Panel of Innovators.
Trudy Leidich, director of quality and safety at Texas Children’s, presented: Reassurance vs. Criminal Charges, How Do We Handle/Talk About Errors?
Dr. Carlos Mery, congenital heart surgeon at Texas Children’s and assistant professor of surgery-congenital heart surgery at Baylor, presented: Congenital Heart Disease in Mexico: Building Programs and Changing Paradigms.
Dr. Jack Price, pediatric cardiologist at Texas Children’s and associate professor of pediatrics-cardiology at Baylor, presented: Candidate Selection: Different Views from Across the Spectrum – Medical.
Dr. Craig Rusin, cardiology research core, physiological signal processing and algorithm development at Texas Children’s and assistant professor of pediatrics-cardiology at Baylor, presented: Capturing Data in CVICU: When is Enough, Enough?
Kerry Sembera, CVICU nurse at Texas Children’s, served on the panel: Wave the Magic Wand: What do Bedside Nurses Need to Create a Safer Culture? and presented: Improving Patient Outcomes: Just in Time!
Shekerdemian moderated: The Future is Now: Updates on Trials and Research and present: PHN/NIH Update.
Dr. James Thomas, pediatric intensive care physician at Texas Children’s and professor of pediatrics-critical care at Baylor, presented: Ethics in ECMO: How to Handle Difficult Cases.
Dr. Eric Williams, medical director of quality at Texas Children’s and associate professor of pediatrics-critical care at Baylor, presented: Being Resilient: The Cardiac ICU as a Complex Socio-Technical System.

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