November 29, 2017

Information Services, the Cancer and Hematology Centers and Pharmacy recently partnered to successfully launch Epic Beacon, a new medical oncology module that gives physicians and other providers a better tool with which they can create personalized treatment plans and support care regimens based on standardized protocols. The outcome of such treatment plans and support care is a more efficient and effective way to follow each patient through outpatient doctor’s visits and inpatient hospital stays, easing the patient’s transition to lifetime, post-cancer care.

“This initiative has changed how we deliver care to some of our sickest patients,” said Cancer Center Director Dr. David Poplack. “With Beacon, we are able to provide more tailored treatment, more efficiently and at a decreased risk to our patients who receive some of the strongest medications.”

During the 18-month implementation process, about 600 treatment protocols were made electronic via Epic Beacon, which is fully integrated with Epic’s pharmacy and electronic Medication Administration Records (MAR) products, allowing oncologists to better track medications that have been dispensed and administered, including medications ordered outside of an oncology treatment plan.

In addition, Beacon, which is being used system wide where oncology patients receive chemotherapy, features decision support that can suggest protocols as well as dose-specific medication modifications based on chart data. It also tailors plans at the patient level, so medication orders can be created and queued up in advance of patient visits for cancer treatment.

“Using Beacon has been a culture change for the Cancer Center but well worth it,” said Julie McGuire, director of Enterprise Systems for Information Services. “It has taken real dedication from all teams involved as well as a tremendous amount of physician and nurse engagement.”

Dr. ZoAnn Dreyer, an oncologist with the Cancer Center, said Epic Beacon’s buildout and go-live process was smooth and seamless.

“Even Epic’s own representative was impressed, saying it was the best he has ever seen,” Dryer said. “And it’s worked well in clinic so far for sure!”

Other first impressions of Epic Beacon have been positive as well:

“I’ve never seen a project with as much dedicated physician support and I think that was a HUGE part of this project’s success!”
– Drew Willert, Information Services

“The success of the go-live and Beacon’s functionality is a direct result of a multidisciplinary team that demonstrated resilience, excellence and commitment to the overall success of the project.”
– Denise Tanner-Brown, Cancer and Hematology Centers

“I am so proud of what WE have done. I am so humbled by all of the outpouring of support from operational, Epic and IS leaders, as well as end users on the front lines.”
– Dr. Marla Daves, Cancer and Hematology Centers

When Peggy Kellum called the Texas Children’s Office Move and Relocations Team (OMART), all she wanted was three filing cabinets moved from one side of a room to another.

“I thought they were going to tell me no, but they did it,” said Kellum, an administrative assistant with the Department of Pathology. “I was so impressed by their willingness to go above and beyond.”

OMART was created less than a year ago to handle small jobs like the one Kellum requested as well as larger office moves and relocations. In the past, Texas Children’s has outsourced such jobs, but as the organization has grown, so have the requests and in turn the cost of such services. In addition, efficiencies initially seen by outsourcing have been replaced with extended turnaround periods for surveying, quoting, scheduling and completing the requested task.

“We were given the opportunity to improve the cost and delivery of this service and I believe we have found a solution that works for everyone involved,” said Dan Samora, director of Facilities, Planning & Development. “We’ve received positive feedback from many of our clients and we are providing a cost savings to the organization.”

Since launching the three-person OMART team in April, OMART has fulfilled more than 200 requests, with an average turnaround time of five and a half days from when the initial request was made. The team’s work has saved Texas Children’s an estimated $100,000 and has the potential of saving more if the team grows and expands to areas of the system outside of the Medical Center.

Currently, OMART has the capacity to fill requests from the Abercrombie Building, Feigin Tower, the NRI, Pavilion for Women, Meyer Building, Wallace Tower and West Tower. The team will cover Legacy Tower when it opens and will look at the possibility of expanding to West Campus, The Woodlands and beyond in the future.

OMART also would like to take on larger jobs when capable. Such jobs, as well as capital projects, are still supported by outside vendors.

“We have hit the ground running and are off to a really good start,” said Patrick Hatcher, manager of the Facilities Logistics Program. “We are getting things done more efficiently and effectively, and are looking forward to growing and serving even more of the Texas Children’s system.”

To request move and relocation services submit a Request for Service via the Connect site.

November 21, 2017

Six-year-old Molly Malinsky and her parents have a lot to be grateful for this holiday season. After their daughter was diagnosed with a seizure disorder at four months old, Molly is now seizure free, a miraculous outcome that her family credits to Texas Children’s world-class neuroscience team.

When the Malinskys learned that their daughter’s physician Dr. James Riviello – who had treated Molly since she was four months old – joined Texas Children’s as the associate section head for Epilepsy, Neurophysiology and Neocritical Care, it was a no brainer for the New Jersey family to travel to Houston to reunite with Riviello.

“Dr. Riviello is one of those amazing doctors who is not only knowledgeable, well respected and professional, but above all, cares deeply about his patients and their families,” Rebecca Malinsky said. “We followed Dr. Riviello from NYU to Columbia and now to Texas Children’s so our daughter would continue to receive the best care.”

When Molly was first diagnosed with epilepsy, she was prescribed seizure medication which seemed to work. Molly had no seizures for over a year, but when she was weaned off of her medication, Molly’s seizures returned. “The seizures were getting worse and more frequent,” Malinsky said. “My daughter would have 15 seizures in an hour and three to five seizures at school even when she was back on her medication, which was very scary.”

After five failed medication trials, the only option remaining for Molly was brain surgery. After her parents met with Riviello, Chief of Neurosurgery Dr. Howard Weiner, and neurosurgeon Dr. Daniel Curry to discuss Molly’s treatment plan, the team determined Molly would be a good candidate for brain surgery.

On October 26, 2017, Molly underwent laser ablation surgery, a minimally invasive procedure pioneered by neurosurgeons at Texas Children’s that uses an MRI-guided laser probe to identify and destroy lesions deep in the brain that cause seizures. As the first hospital to perform laser ablation surgery in 2010, Texas Children’s has performed more than 150 of these surgeries, making it possible to treat some of the toughest cases of epilepsy, and put the brakes on damaging seizures.

“The results are very diagnosis and patient specific,” said Curry, director of Pediatric Surgical Epilepsy and Functional Neurosurgery, who pioneered and performed the laser ablation surgery on Molly. “But for something like hypothalamic hamartoma, a particularly difficult disease to treat, it has taken success rates in curing the child’s seizures from under 50 percent to about 80 to 90 percent, so it’s been a significant change.”

MRI-guided laser ablation has not only increased the safety of epilepsy surgery, especially in cases where the targets are far from the surface of the brain, but has drastically improved recovery time. Many children go home the next day after surgery, seizure free. For Molly’s parents, their daughter’s outcome is truly remarkable.

“Since Molly’s surgery almost a month ago, she has not had a single seizure,” Malinsky said. “Her behavior has improved, her ability to learn and retain information at school has returned. Our daughter was able to go trick or treating for Halloween just four days after her brain surgery, which was pretty amazing.”

The Malinskys will return to Texas Children’s in February for Molly’s three-month followup. Meanwhile, they are grateful to Drs. Riviello, Curry and Weiner, and the hospital’s entire neurology and neurosurgery teams for the exceptional level of care, compassion, professionalism and teamwork they delivered to their daughter.

“Between our first visit to Texas Children’s in August and Molly’s surgery, everyone treated our daughter with compassion and offered ways to be helpful in the immediate and distant future as Molly’s treatment plan began to unfold,” Malinksy said. “I could not imagine this journey without the shared and genuine support of Texas Children’s amazing Neurology and Neurosurgery teams. Clearly, you have recruited the best doctors in the country.”

Click here to learn more about Texas Children’s Comprehensive Epilepsy Program and laser ablation surgery.

Hundreds of Texas Children’s supporters attended The Forum Luncheon in Houston on November 13. Hosted by The Development Department, the event focused on the success of the Texas Children’s Cancer Center and featured stories from two cancer survivors as well as an in-depth conversation between Cancer Center Director Dr. David Poplack and Fox 26 Morning News Co-Anchor Melissa Wilson.

Poplack’s conversation with Wilson illustrated how far the Cancer Center has come in helping children with cancer, growing from six faculty, 42 employees, one laboratory and less than $300,000 in grant funding when Poplack joined the center in 1993 to a center that now has 190 faculty, more than 900 employees, 46 laboratories and about $40 million a year in peer reviewed grant funding.

“We have become the largest and we believe the finest children’s cancer program in the country,” Poplack said. “Through our many research advances, our development of exciting, effective, new therapies and most recently through our burgeoning global program, we are having a far-reaching impact on the field.”

Poplack emphasized the need for children to be treated in children’s hospitals like Texas Children’s, which has expert multi-disciplinary teams equipped to tend to all aspects of a child’s care. As the largest pediatric cancer center in the U.S., we provide individualized, state-of-the-art medical treatment for patients with childhood cancer, he said.

“Treating children from more than 35 states and 26 countries, we aim to provide the most family-centered, advanced care available,” Poplack added. “In addition to continued excellence and leadership in treating all forms of pediatric cancer, we continue to expand and grow to better serve our patients.”

Poplack stressed that even with dramatic improvements in treating children with cancer – increasing the survival rate from 20 percent to 80 percent – the disease still is the leading cause of death from disease in children in the nation.

That’s why Texas Children’s Cancer Center is vigilant in its research efforts, especially in the areas of developmental therapeutics, precision oncology and cell therapy and immunotherapy.

“We are dedicated to developing effective treatments for the 20 percent of childhood cancers that are most difficult to treat,” he said. “We won’t quit until we find a cure, and even then, we will move forward to find better ways to help fulfill the long-term needs of childhood cancer survivors.”

November 14, 2017

For more than a decade, the Purple Songs Can Fly recording studio at Main Campus has offered a place for cancer patients and patients with blood disorders to express how they feel about their disease and the treatments they are undergoing to battle it. Siblings of such patients also are able to use the studio.

Thousands of songs have been written and produced in the colorful space sandwiched between clinic rooms on the 14th floor of the Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers. Now, a similar space is available to cancer and hematology patients cared for at Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus.

“Today, we’ve cut the ribbon on our second Purple Songs Can Fly recording studio,” said Purple Songs Can Fly Founder and Executive Director Anita Kruse. “We’ve had a studio at Main Campus since 2006 and now we’ve opened one at West Campus.”

Thanks to support from the Texas Commission on the Arts and the Children’s Fund, Kruse has been coming out to West Campus for two years with a portable recording studio, working with patients at their bedside, in clinic rooms or conference rooms to write and produce nearly 100 songs.

“This pilot project proved that a permanent recording studio would be a viable investment at West Campus, Kruse said. “The children were really excited about writing songs here. I feel that the studio and the songs that will be written at West Campus will bring a lot of joy to the families and the children who are here undergoing treatment.”

West Campus Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers Nurse Manager Judy Holloway said the transformation and the impact that Purple Songs Can Fly has on patients, families and staff is remarkable.

“We see miracles happen in the Cancer and Hematology Centers here at West Campus and this studio is a miracle in itself,” Holloway said. “A lot of our children are very sick. Having this available to them here at West Campus is a true blessing.”

Annalisa Cuano, a singer, songwriter and highly trained sound engineer, will manage the recording studio at West Campus. She has been working with Purple Songs Can Fly for two years at Main Campus and has recently spent a lot of her time at West Campus getting the studio ready for its official opening.

“The goal is to get these children out of their heads and able to share who they are and what they are going through in the purple space,” Cuano said. “It’s really incredible to watch. There’s some kind of self-fulfillment or self-validation when you give them their CD.”

Kruse said she is grateful to everyone at Texas Children’s who has helped make the West Campus studio become a reality and is thankful for the funds she received to build and staff the studio. Texas Children’s West Campus Child Life Department supported the build out of the space to prepare it for construction and grants from the Children’s Fund provided funding for the construction of the studio, paid for all of the equipment inside the studio and helped staff the studio for a year.

Carol Herron, coordinator of the Periwinkle Arts In Medicine Program, said she looks forward to hearing the music and seeing the smiles on the faces of the composers at the West Campus Purple Songs Can Fly studio.

“What you do makes a difference in the day of a child undergoing treatment of a serious disease,” Herron said to those involved in Purple Songs Can Fly. “Thank you for the gift you give to these families.”

November 7, 2017

Texas Children’s has a new website that recognizes the outstanding accomplishments and successes of our team of more than 3,000 nurses across the organization.

In collaboration with Nursing, Texas Children’s Creative Services team member Bilal Tawil designed the website that includes a welcome video with Chief Nursing Officer Mary Jo Andre and features compelling articles, pictures, videos and animated graphics that spotlight how our nurses have gone above and beyond to spearhead system-wide initiatives to improve patient care, safety and outcomes.

Prior to the website’s launch, Texas Children’s Nursing Outcomes Book was a printed publication that was distributed internally and mailed out to thousands of our health care peers including chief nursing officers of pediatric hospitals across the country and deans from U.S. News’ top 10 nursing schools.

Through this new digital communications platform, website page views can be measured easily and nursing stories and data can be updated more frequently. The site also provides another tool for nursing engagement that complements the Voice of Nursing blog, which was launched in 2014.

Each section of the site – our stories, milestones and awards – demonstrates our nursing team’s continued dedication and hard work, their leadership, and the compassion that goes into the work they do for our patients and families at Texas Children’s each and every day.

Read all about our nursing team’s achievements at www.texaschildrens.org/nursing. Share the link with friends and colleagues, and encourage them to do the same.

Physicians, administrators, former patients and community partners came together at Third Coast restaurant on October 5 for the 5th Annual Transition Medicine Reception.

The event served as an opportunity to discuss the long-term care of Texas Children’s patients and welcome a number of attendees of the 18th annual Chronic Illness and Disability Conference: Transition from Pediatric to Adult Based Care, led by Dr. Albert Hergenroeder, Chief of Adolescent & Sports Medicine. Additionally, the 2017 Benjamin B. Ligums Scholar Award was presented to Dr. Mark W. Stephenson and his Conroe dental practice for his success in following special needs patients through the continuum of care.

The “Transition Medicine Road Trip” took attendees on a journey to the various components of the transition medicine process, with Texas Children’s employees, physicians and former patients at stations talking to attendees about: parent/guardian engagement, patient engagement, partnerships with adult providers, patient education, and technology.

A number of former patients, along with their families were also present to share their personal accounts and experience transitioning from Texas Children’s to adult providers. Stories reflected a wide range of challenges and opportunities that serve as a resource for improving the transition process.

Attendees also participated in a silent auction to score items ranging from Houston Texans items to work from local artists. All funds raised will be used to allot grants for future transition medicine pilots to grow and develop programs and help usher patients into the world of adult care.