September 27, 2016

92816fallforum640Community members attending the recent Forum Luncheon on September 21 got to meet the top surgical leaders at Texas Children’s Hospital and learn about the incredible ways they are making history in pediatric surgery and about their vision for the future of the hospital’s surgical enterprise.

Following lunch and remarks from President and CEO Mark A. Wallace about the steady and rapid growth of Texas Children’s – including the Department of Surgery – Senior Vice President Mallory Caldwell moderated a panel discussion between: Surgeon-in-Chief Dr. Charles D. Fraser, Jr., Chief of Otolaryngology Dr. Ellis Arjmand, Chief of Plastic Surgery Dr. Larry Hollier and Chief of Neurosurgery Dr. Howard Weiner.

Caldwell focused on questions that highlighted why Texas Children’s Department of Surgery is bigger, better, faster and stronger than any in the nation and how the core mission of the department is to have the depth and breadth of expertise to deliver a surgical solution for every child in need of one.

Topics discussed include: the importance of outcomes measurement and how we have approached this work at Texas Children’s; the fact that Texas Children’s expertise is in treating common illnesses as well as complex, rare conditions; the strength and unique value in the department’s many multi-disciplinary teams; and our ability to recruit the best and brightest as we continue to grow and strengthen our team.

“When I came down here and learned about what is going on at Texas Children’s and the future trajectory of the organization, I knew I had to be here,” said Weiner, who recently joined Texas Children’s from New York University where he led a world-renowned neurosurgery program. “The leadership, the can-do attitude and the drive to grow as a world class institution providing high quality, attentive care to all children is very exciting.”

When Texas Children’s Hospital opened its doors in 1954, it did so with the one and only pediatric surgeon in the city of Houston. Today, Texas Children’s Hospital, now more than 90 surgeons strong, is one of the first two hospitals in the U.S. to be verified as a Level I Children’s Surgery Center by the American College of Surgeons.

Our surgeons have performed more than 350 heart transplants, making the heart transplant program one of the most experienced and active programs in the nation. We launched the first of its kind MRI-guided laser ablation surgery for epilepsy treatment, and we recently separated one of the most complicated cases of conjoined twins.

“Every time we have expanded it has been successful because we’ve done it for the right reasons,” Fraser said. “We are filling a specific need.”

The need for quality pediatric surgical care continues to grow and is a factor that convinced hospital leadership and its board of directors to add 19 floors to Pediatric Tower E near the Pavilion for Women. Much of the added space will house our expanded intensive care units and surgical facilities.

When Pediatric Tower E is complete, it will have 640,000 additional square feet of space, 130 beds for pediatric and cardiovascular intensive care, new operating rooms with the latest technology and a new and expanded Heart Center, including the outpatient clinic, cardiovascular operating rooms and catheterization labs.

Ultimately, Wallace said, the expansion will allow Texas Children’s Hospital to continue to provide the best possible family-centered care and best outcomes for the nation’s sickest children who come to us for help.

September 20, 2016

Before Dr. Howard Weiner accepted his new position as chief of neurosurgery, he knew that Texas Children’s Hospital was the place he wanted to be.

“When I visited Texas Children’s, I was literally blown away by this place,” said Weiner, who also serves as professor of neurosurgery at Baylor College of Medicine. “Speaking with the people here, hearing about the vision, the leadership, the direction, it was very infectious. This was where I needed to be for the next 15, 20 years of my career to do the things that I wanted to accomplish in pediatric neurosurgery for our patients.”

Prior to joining Texas Children’s neurosurgery team, Weiner received his undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania and his medical degree from Cornell University Medical College. During his residency, he was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute research fellow in the Department of Biochemistry at New York University. Following residency, Weiner was awarded the Van Wagenen Fellowship by the American Association of Neurological Surgeons to study brain development in Paris. He also completed a fellowship in pediatric neurosurgery at New York University Langone Medical Center, where his career continued for a total of nearly 27 years altogether.

With nearly three decades of experience in the field, Weiner shares his enthusiasm for the future of Texas Children’s neurosurgery program and the opportunity to work alongside a neurosurgery team that he describes as an “incredible team of innovators.”

“If you take every one on the faculty in neurosurgery here at Texas Children’s, everyone is driving their individual sub-specialty area,” Weiner said. “We are using minimally invasive approaches, like laser ablation, to treat epileptic brain lesions and brain tumors. Our teams are developing new techniques in fetal surgery to treat hydrocephalus and we are leading the way in defining neurosurgical clinical outcomes and best practices that are essential to growing a successful craniofacial surgery program to serve our patients and their families at Texas Children’s for many years to come.”

Weiner’s plan is to continue transforming Texas Children’s into the premier pediatric neurosurgical program in the country by providing innovative, high-quality patient care and focusing on multidisciplinary collaboration and teamwork. While overseeing the growth of Texas Children’s neurosurgery program, he is cultivating a rich environment for faculty members to develop their subspecialty interest and propel their clinical and scientific discoveries to the next level.

“We are well on our way as a division of neurosurgery and as an institution to be the destination for high-quality, world-class innovative and especially attentive care for children,” Weiner said. “That is really my vision for neurosurgery. We will be the leaders in training the next generation of leaders in our field.”

Ranked No. 2 nationally in neurology and neurosurgery by U.S. News & World Report, Texas Children’s neurosurgery program is among the largest and most experienced pediatric neurosurgery units in the U.S., performing more than 950 surgeries annually for a broad range of pediatric neurosurgical disorders.

For more information about Texas Children’s neurosurgery program, click here.

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Dr. Carol Baker, executive director of Texas Children’s Center for Vaccine Awareness and Research and Baylor College of Medicine professor of pediatrics, molecular virology & microbiology, presented the 2016 Jeryl Lynn Hilleman Endowed Lecture “Vaccines for Pregnant Women: A Long Time Coming” at the National Immunization Conference in Atlanta, GA on September 13.

This endowed lectureship, the first permanent endowment established at the CDC Foundation, was given by The Merck Company Foundation in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the 25th anniversary of the first combination vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella, M-M-R and its successor M-M-R II, licensed by Merck. The lecture has become an important and popular component of the CDC’s annual National Immunization Conference.

92116laceup4life640On September 9, Texas Children’s Hospital hosted the fourth annual Lace Up 4 Life inpatient walk in honor of National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.

Patients and staff on the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit participated in the walk on the inpatient and outpatient floor to raise awareness for Be The Match®, the largest and most diverse bone marrow registry in the world.

Patients on the unit are immunocompromised and were able to participate in the walk in a way that is safe as they undergo treatment. Each year, thousands of children are diagnosed with blood cancers like leukemia or lymphoma, sickle cell anemia or other life-threatening diseases. Seventy percent of people do not have a donor in their family and depend on Be The Match® Registry to find a match to save their life.

With a rotating disco ball projecting an array of bright colors on the walls of the unit, the Bone Marrow Transplant staff pumped up the crowd with high energy music while patient families and staff waved flags and cheered on our courageous patients as they crossed the finish line.

The inpatient walk preceded the first annual Lace Up 4 Life Walk/Run in Sugar Land on September 10 where Bone Marrow Transplant staff, patients and their families teamed up to represent Texas Children’s Hospital.

Texas Children’s Bone Marrow Transplant team dubbed “Team Transplantors” raised funds to support the Gulf Coast Marrow Donor Program and to raise awareness about childhood cancer. The donations will support patients who need a marrow or umbilical cord blood transplant to find a donor and receive treatment.

One of the most touching moments at the event was when a patient who underwent a bone marrow transplant at Texas Children’s met her bone marrow donor for the first time. Click here to watch the ABC-13 video. (It is the second video in the link.)

September 13, 2016

Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers is the largest cancer and blood disorder center in the country. Patients from all over the world come here to receive their care because they know this is the best possible place they could be.

When Carrie Richardson’s daughter, Peyton, was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia in January 2015, she knew from the moment she arrived at Texas Children’s, her daughter would be cared for by an incredible team of amazing nurses and oncologists that any parent of a sick child could ever hope for.

“Peyton has been cared for in the most empathetic, loving and encouraging way possible,” Richardson said. “The oncologists and their team of nurse practitioners work together so seamlessly because they are working together with the best intentions for each child undergoing treatment. The comfort that Dr. Dreyer gives Peyton reassures her that every treatment she receives is one step closer to ringing the golden bell on the 14th floor of the Cancer Center.”

Ranked no. 2 in the nation by U.S. News & World Report, Texas Children’s Cancer Center comprises a multidisciplinary team of dedicated and compassionate physicians, nurses, child life specialists, social workers and other subspecialists who care for the physical, emotional and psychosocial needs of young patients.

“A diagnosis of a child with a pediatric cancer affects the entire family,” said Aisha Jones, a social worker at the Cancer Center. “It’s our job to help families to cope, to provide resources, to be there to help them problem solve and just to be a support system throughout the course of treatment and thereafter.”

Besides providing world-class, comprehensive patient care, our oncologists are leading the way in advancing pediatric cancer research. The Cancer Center has 42 laboratories and nearly 400 people who are engaged in research to help revolutionize cutting-edge therapies for treating and ultimately curing all childhood cancers.

“We’re looking at different ways to develop therapies through nanotechnologies, cellular therapies, immune-based therapies that are really cutting edge and helping us to move the field forward,” said Dr. Susan Blaney, deputy director of Texas Children’s Cancer Center. “We are looking for the best cures with the least toxicities.”

Dr. David Poplack, director of Texas Children’s Cancer Center, applauds the remarkable progress that has been made in the cure of childhood cancers.

“More than 30 years ago, we were curing 20 percent of kids with cancer and losing 80 percent,” Poplack said. “Now, we are curing over 80 percent of cancer and losing less than 20 percent, which is an incredible statistic and a reflection of the remarkable success we’ve achieved.”

Poplack says the majority of children with cancer in this world aren’t in the United States or North America. They are in the developing countries throughout the world like in sub-Saharan Africa where Texas Children’s is growing a global oncology program in Botswana, Malawi and Uganda and a hematology program in Angola to treat children with sickle cell anemia, an inherited blood disorder.

“We are building a unique program in sub-Saharan Africa so that we can bring knowledgeable physicians there to teach their physicians how to properly treat children with cancer,” said Dr. Parth Mehta, director of Texas Children’s Cancer Center’s Global Oncology Program. “Today in Botswana, we have an overall survival rate from pediatric cancer approaching 60 percent, which is unheard of in that region of the world.”

While major milestones have been reached in the field of pediatric oncology, Poplack says he and his team will continue to strive to reach their ultimate goal.

“We want to cure every child with cancer,” Poplack said. “Our job is not done until we cure 100 percent of kids and until we’re able to prevent these diseases.”

For Peyton’s mom, she knows that with each treatment, her daughter will be one step closer to ringing that golden bell. Peyton is in active treatment of her leukemia until 2017 but is doing exceptionally well and recently returned to school full time as a ninth grader. Her parents are grateful for her team of doctors at Texas Children’s.

“It takes a special person to care for children with cancer and the halls of the Cancer Center are filled with the most special people in this world,” Richardson said. “To know each nurse and each doctor is to love each of them like they are family.”

91316chroniclephilanthropy250Texas Children’s is the honored sponsor for every Tuesday’s “Houston Legends” series. For more than 20 weeks, 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.

Click here to visit the Promise website.

September 7, 2016

9716ChronicleCancerAd250Texas 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.