December 13, 2016

121416drluersson175Dr. Thomas Luerssen has been given the 2016 Franc D. Ingraham Award for Distinguished Service and Achievement by the American Association of Neurological Surgeons/CNS Section of Pediatric Neurological Surgery. The award is the highest honor given by the organization and recognizes individuals whose achievements have advanced the field of pediatric neurosurgery. This is only the ninth time the award has been given since its inception in 1988.

Dr. Luerssen is chief quality officer for surgery and a neurosurgeon at Texas Children’s Hospital and a professor of neurosurgery at the Baylor College of Medicine. He is also the former chief of neurosurgery at Texas Children’s.

“It is a true honor for me to follow the great legacy of Dr. Tom Luerssen who has built an incredibly strong neurosurgery service at Texas Children’s,” said Dr. Howard Weiner, chief of Neurosurgery at Texas Children’s.

After graduating many outstanding pediatric neurosurgery fellows over the last decade, as well as recruiting a truly excellent core team of pediatric neurosurgeons here, Luerssen has been recognized for his many leadership roles in pediatric neurosurgery over the course of his career. Among those roles are chairman of the AANS/CNS Section on Pediatric Neurological Surgery and president of the American Society of Pediatric Neurosurgeons. He also spent 18 years on practicing at Indiana University and 11 years at Texas Children’s. These accomplishments are in addition to his many contributions to the fields of neurotrauma, quality improvement and patient safety in pediatric neurosurgery.

Dr. Charles D. Fraser, Jr., surgeon-in-chief at Texas Children’s said, “We are very proud of Dr. Luerssen’s accomplishments and are extremely fortunate to have him as part of the legacy of Texas Children’s Department of Surgery.”

December 6, 2016

12716mechanicalleechpg640Have you ever swam in a lake or trudged through swampy waters? If so, you probably have encountered leeches during your outdoor adventures. These worms have been used in human medicine for centuries because of their anesthetic, anti-inflammatory and tissue healing properties.

Primarily used in plastic surgery to restore blood flow to reattached body parts, leeches are considered natural healers. While removing deoxygenated blood from damaged tissue, their saliva contains hirudin, an anti-blood clotting protein, that allows oxygenated blood to flow to the injured tissue until normal circulation can be restored.

While leech therapy has never been used in gynecology and is rarely used in pediatrics due to the psychological impact it may have on patients and parents, what if there was a way to develop a mechanical device that could perform the same functions as a traditional leech?

Dr. Julie Hakim, a pediatric and adolescent gynecology fellow at Texas Children’s and Baylor College of Medicine, proposed this idea to a group of biomedical engineering students at Texas A&M University (TAMU) who then developed a mechanical leech prototype for potential use in pediatric gynecological surgeries.

“In pediatric gynecology, we often perform vaginal reconstructive surgery for girls who are born with congenital abnormalities,” Hakim said. “A graft of tissue is taken from somewhere else on the patient’s body to line the new vaginal tract. However, there are times when the grafts fail or do not take because of poor blood circulation to that area. Developing a novel mechanism to promote graft and tissue flap survival by increasing neovascularization of the tissue would help in these type of surgeries.”

With support from the Denton Cooley Innovation Award, the mechanical leech project and design requirements were presented to TAMU students on their first day of Senior Design Course. Two teams totaling eight students met every week with Hakim via Skype to provide updates on their progress. They also met with Dr. Jennifer Dietrich, Texas Children’s chief of Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology, to present their updates once per semester.

The head of the mechanical leech was created with a small, flat circular unit measuring 1×1 cm fitted with an array of microneedles underneath for leech saliva egress and blood extraction that interfaces with the tissue. The head contains an outer reservoir for leech saliva and an inner reservoir that collects the extracted blood.

The leech body contains pumps that control and monitor the outflow of leech saliva and the inflow of blood, saliva and blood reservoirs. A blue tooth chip inside the pumps’ electronic assembly communicates through an iPhone app that runs the mechanical leech. The motor’s speed and the flow rate of the fluids can be recorded in real time and adjusted remotely via the iPhone app. The outer shell of the leech body and the gear mechanisms are connected by standard medical tubing.

“The mechanical leech has the potential to reduce complications associated with the use of live leeches,” Hakim said. “Since uncontrolled amounts of leech saliva can cause prolonged bleeding, controlling how much leech saliva is placed into the tissue can reduce the risk of transfusion. This mechanical novel device can also help reduce infection since live leeches are known to harbor bacteria.”

The mechanical leech head and the outer shell of the leech body and the gear mechanisms were 3-D printed. The project’s next step is to refine and test the feasibility of the prototype.

“I think this innovation could be of tremendous importance to the field of pediatric gynecology as well as pediatric surgery in general,” Dietrich said. “I’m excited to see where the next phase of this project takes us as we explore new avenues for improving the care we provide to our patients.”

November 29, 2016

112916nursingtownhallflyer350The countdown clock is ticking! In less than one week, Texas Children’s Nursing will host its second virtual town hall on Wednesday, December 7, from 1 to 2 p.m. at the Pavilion for Women Conference Center.

Nursing has partnered with the Corporate Communication team to organize this event to engage our team of more than 3,000 dedicated nurses that make up Texas Children’s largest employee population.

During the first virtual town hall in June, approximately 600+ nurses participated via live attendance, group viewing of the livestream or watching the livestream via their smartphone, tablet or personal computer. Building on the tremendous success and impressive turnout of the first town hall, the goal this time around is to increase nursing participation significantly through a series of strategic marketing efforts.

“To help our nurses register early for the town hall, we created an electronic flyer with a registration link that was disseminated to nursing leadership via Nursing Congress and which is now available on our Voice of Nursing website,” said Jody Childs, senior project manager and co-organizer of the town hall event. “We helped nurses register as they arrived to their council meetings on Shared Governance Day which resulted in 65 nurses being registered for the town hall, all of whom received registration stickers to remind their peers to sign up as well.”

As a result of feedback from our first town hall, seating capacity has been expanded at the Pavilion for Women Conference Center and nurses are encouraged to attend the face-to-face town hall. For nurses who cannot attend the live event, there will be several gathering locations to view the live stream:

  • Clinical Care Center (for Ambulatory Services) – D.0900.30, ninth floor
  • West Campus – WC.150.10 (first floor)
  • The Woodlands Outpatient Facility (board room, fourth floor)
  • Health Centers – Sugar Land, Cy-Fair, The Woodlands, Kingwood, Clear Lake)
  • The Center for Children and Women (Greenspoint and Southwest)
  • Forming your own huddles? Please submit sign-in sheet to jcchilds@texaschildrens.org.

As always, patient care is our first priority and we know that not all nurses will be able to attend the live event or live-stream. However, those nurses will still be able to participate by viewing the event on-demand at their convenience.

Hosted by Chief Nursing Officer Mary Jo André, the town hall will include a discussion of FY16 nursing accomplishments, FY17 nursing priorities and system updates. Two videos will be presented – a sneak peek of Texas Children’s The Woodlands Hospital which will open spring of 2017 and a time lapse video spotlighting the progress on the pediatric tower which will open in August 2018. Also, the town hall will include extra Q & A time for nurses to submit their questions. Nurses watching the livestream remotely will be able to participate in this session thanks to our use of virtual technology.

“By leveraging new technology at our first town hall, we were able to engage more nurses in a town hall than we ever had before,” André said. “As our team continues to grow, it will be increasingly important for us to see opportunities to make communication easier and more effective. I encourage our nurses to pre-register so they can attend my town hall on December 7.”

Click here to pre-register for the Nursing Town Hall.

November 22, 2016

Simulations test readiness of new Outpatient Facility in The Woodlands

Ready, set, go!

“Are you OK?” a nurse asks a patient who stumbled to the ground after an unsteady walk to an exam room at the new Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands Outpatient Facility. “Help!”

A slew of medical staff come rushing to the girl’s aid, some comforting the patient’s mother and others tending to the girl’s lethargic condition. During what looked like controlled chaos, medical staff rolled equipment into the exam room, ran up and down hallways to gather more help and within what was just a few minutes stabilized the patient.

This was one of 11 scenarios played out during a three-day simulation at the Outpatient Facility before its doors opened for business on October 4. The purpose of the simulation was for medical staff to test their new environment, not their clinical abilities. Were there enough supplies? Is medical equipment in the right place? Is the room set up properly?

“Architects are great at creating these beautiful environments but are they friendly to the providers who are actually seeing patients,” said Julie Barrett, director of outpatient and clinical services in The Woodlands. “Testing those environments to see if we’re able to provide high quality patient care is what we hope to learn from simulation.”

Jeanette McMullin, a nurse in the surgery clinic at the Outpatient Facility, participated in the exercise and said it gave her a good feel for her new clinical space.

“It really took me through the process of what we would do for a patient given the situation and the supplies on hand,” McMullin said. “For me, the outcome was clear and that is we are able to function very well in this new environment.”

Barrett said a robust simulation is planned prior to the hospital opening in April. These efforts will be tailored to inpatient providers and will be led by many of the same simulation team leaders, all of whom are based in The Woodlands and have been trained at the Texas Children’s Simulation Center at Main Campus.

“The staff, providers and leaders have done a wonderful job,” she said. “I am amazed at how vitally important this simulation has been. It’s been a great learning opportunity.”

For more information about the Outpatient Facility, click here.

112316drmarybrandt175Pediatric Surgeon Dr. Mary Brandt has been reappointed to the Board of Governors of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) as the Governor-at-Large representing ACS fellows in the ACS South Texas Chapter. This is the second three-year term for Brandt.

In her position as a Governor-at-Large, she will facilitate communications between ACS Fellows and members of the Board of Governors. Brandt’s duties include attending local meetings, participating in the Surgical Training Workgroup and attending national leadership meetings.

Brandt is director of the Adolescent Bariatric Surgery Program and director of the Anorectal Malformation Clinic at Texas Children’s Hospital. She is also a professor of Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine.

November 15, 2016

On November 2, Texas Children’s Cancer Center hosted the inaugural Pediatric Cancer Disparities Symposium, presented by Northwestern Mutual Foundation and Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation. Experts from around the world attended in an effort to increase awareness of the disparities that exist for pediatric cancers, to stimulate the development of new research and to begin establishing a research strategy for addressing key disparities. The event included numerous panel discussions focusing on ways to improve outcomes for all children with cancer, regardless of their background.

November 1, 2016

11216nribrain640A new study published in the journal Neuron found that taking a pill that prevents the accumulation of toxic molecules in the brain might someday help prevent or delay Alzheimer’s disease.

According to researchers at Texas Children’s Hospital, Baylor College of Medicine and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, the study took a three-pronged approach to help subdue early events that occur in the brain long before symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease are evident.

“Common diseases like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and dementia are caused in part by abnormal accumulation of certain proteins in the brain,” said senior author Dr. Huda Zoghbi, director of the Jan and Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children’s. “Some proteins become toxic when they accumulate and they make the brain vulnerable to degeneration.”

Tau is one of those proteins involved in Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. When tau accumulates as the person ages, it increases the vulnerability of the brain to developing Alzheimer’s.

“Scientists in the field have been focusing mostly on the final stages of Alzheimer’s disease,” said first author Dr. Cristian Lasagna-Reeves, postdoctoral fellow in the Zoghbi lab. “Here we tried to find clues about what is happening at the very early stages of the illness, before clinical irreversible symptoms appear, with the intention of preventing or reducing those early events that lead to devastating changes in the brain decades later.”

To find out which enzymes affected tau accumulation, the scientists inhibited about 600 enzymes called kinases one by one and found one, called Nuak1, whose inhibition resulted in reduced levels of tau.

By confirming this discovery in three different experiments – in fruit flies, mice and human cells – the researchers said the next step is to develop drugs that will block the production of Nuak1.

“If we can find drugs that can keep tau at levels that are not toxic for the brain, we would be able to prevent or delay the development of Alzheimer’s and other diseases caused in part by toxic tau accumulation,” Zoghbi said.

Click here to read the joint Baylor and Texas Children’s news release for more details on this study.