July 10, 2018

Texas Children’s Transplant Services has hit another milestone – the completion of 200 lung transplants and 400 heart transplants, making the program one of the highest volume pediatric heart and lung transplant centers in the nation.

The milestone continues to solidify Texas Children’s position as one of the most active pediatric transplant programs in the country, per the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network.

“This type of volume has only been accomplished in a handful of pediatric programs across the United States,” Surgeon-in-Chief Dr. Larry Hollier said. “We are proud to add Texas Children’s Hospital to this distinguished list.”

Transplantation began at Texas Children’s in 1984 with a pediatric heart transplant. Since that time, liver, kidney and lung have been added and countless lives have been saved. Just last year, Texas Children’s Transplant teams performed 112 solid organ transplants, the most in the history of Texas Children’s Transplant Services.

“I’m proud to be working with a team so dedicated to providing the best possible outcomes for our patients,” said Dr. John Goss, medical director of Transplant Services. “This milestone demonstrates that Texas Children’s continues to earn its reputation as one of the best pediatric transplant programs in the country, and is a testament to the skill and commitment of our multidisciplinary team.”

Texas Children’s Transplant Services draws on numerous medical, surgical and support specialties, including transplant coordinators who play an essential role in connecting recipients with prospective donors, who ultimately made the transplant process possible.

“Without our donor families, our patients would not be given the gift that provides them a second chance at life,” said Dr. Jeff Heinle, surgical director of the Heart and Lung Transplant Program. “We can never forget to acknowledge the selfless decisions they make during the most difficult times of their lives.”

The recipients of Texas Children’s 200th lung transplant and 400th heart transplant are both doing well. Read more about their stories below as well as information about Texas Children’s Transplant Program and how to become an organ donor.

Brandon Cliff
Twelve-year-old Brandon Cliff has Cystic Fibrosis, a progressive genetic disease that causes lung infections, makes breathing difficult, and affects the pancreas, liver and other organs. The disease eventually leads to lung failure. Due to such complications, Brandon had been under consideration for a transplant for more than a year before receiving a double lung transplant on June 21. Performed by Dr. Iki Adachi, the transplant went well. Brandon was discharged from the hospital on July 3 and is ready to play with his brothers, cousins and friends as well as golf and basketball. Watch Fox 26’s news story about Brandon here.

Anacecilia Ortiz
Anacecilia Ortiz turned 14 at the beginning of July, just days after receiving her second heart transplant. The teenager got her first transplant at a children’s hospital in Colorado when she was 7 months old. Doctors there told her a transplant was necessary after finding a tumor inside her heart that was growing and could not be operated on. Over the years, Anacecilia’s body began to reject her new heart, causing it to develop scar tissue and not beat as hard as it should. A few serious dizzy spells earlier this year led Anacecilia’s physician in Brownsville to send her to Texas Children’s, where she was placed on the transplant list after trying medication. A month and a half later in mid-June, Anaceclila received her second heart transplant. Since then, she’s been doing extremely well and is currently recovering at her Pearland home.

Texas Children’s Hospital was back on Capitol Hill in June in support of the Children’s Hospital Association Speak Now For Kids Family Advocacy Day, which brings patient families from around the United States to Washington, D.C. to share their experiences with lawmakers and staff, as well as to advocate for policies that will ensure the highest levels of medical care for children and their families.

We had a strong team from Texas Children’s participate this year. Anthony DeLuca, Chairman of the Board of Director’s Policy Committee, joined the Texas Children’s Government Relations and Public Relations teams in accompanying Tenley Kennedy, a heart transplant patient, and her family on visits to Capitol Hill.

Tenley is a perfect example of the type of child who needs fierce advocates and the specialized care very few hospitals can provide. Tenley was diagnosed with a severe heart condition prenatally, so her mother, Kelly, had to travel from her home state of Louisiana to Texas Children’s in order to access the care her baby would need. Tenley was a patient of Texas Children’s before she was ever born and touched nearly every aspect of our hospital’s top ranked Heart Center. Kelly shared that without Texas Children’s her daughter would not be alive today and that without Medicaid coverage they don’t know what they would do.

“Thank you Texas Children’s for choosing us to be your family advocates for Family Advocacy Day,” Kelly said. “We are truly blessed and feel so honored to represent such a wonderful hospital.”

Kelly, Tenley and the Texas Children’s team were able to meet with Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA), who sits on the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee; and Congressman Gene Green, who serves as the Ranking Member on the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Health Subcommittee, as well as staff from other House and Senate offices.

“In many ways, this visit was a culmination of our efforts this spring to expand Texas Children’s visibility on Capitol Hill,” said Rosie Valadez McStay, assistant vice president of Texas Children’s Government Relations. “In the past two months, members of Congress and their staffs have heard testimony from physician leadership, received insight into important programs from hospital administrators, seen the commitment and hands-on involvement of the Board of Directors, and now been exposed to some of the realities facing patient families. As a testament to this ‘all in’ engagement, Rep. Pete Olson (R-TX) cosponsored the ACE Kids Act within 24 hours of our most recent meeting.”

The ACE Kids Act is a congressional proposal to improve how care is delivered to America’s children who have complex medical conditions and are on Medicaid. Once enacted into law, the act will improve coordination of care, address problems with fragmented care across state lines, gather national data on complex conditions to help researchers improve treatments for rare diseases, and potentially save billions of dollars over the duration of 10 years.

“We will continue to look for opportunities to broaden our relationships and put Texas Children’s leadership and experience at the forefront of future policy discussions, McStay said. “We believe our involvement can make a difference.”

July 3, 2018

“Thanks to online scheduling, it’s super easy to make appointments through MyChart now,” wrote a Texas Children’s family. “The past several times we’ve been here, we have been in and out in less than 45 minutes with the same level of quality and care. It seems like they heard our concerns loud and clear, and it shows that they care.”

This touching comment from a patient family in our Texas Children’s Pediatrics Cinco Ranch location is one of several inspiring patient testimonials that demonstrate our continued commitment to improving patient access.

Several months ago, Texas Children’s Access and Patient Scheduling Task Force conducted a baseline assessment of the hospital’s current landscape which revealed several opportunities to improve access for our patients. The Task Force proposed more than 30 recommendations and prioritized which ones would be implemented first.

Since implementing these solutions in four waves across different specialties throughout the system – the first wave went live on March 1 and the fourth wave went live on June 1 – patient families have noticed a positive difference.

Below are several impressive results during the implementation of Waves 1 to 4:

Increase appointment capacity: After evaluating 944 provider templates, we found extra slots where physicians could see patients for a duration of four hours. By standardizing clinic sessions for all specialties, over 53,000 new appointments were added to the system annually, 44 percent of those offering availability for new patients.

MyChart activation: Since launching MyChart Madness in March, Texas Children’s has seen a significant increase in MyChart activation rates. In October 2017, we had less than 8,000 monthly activations compared to over 18,000 in March. To date, Texas Children’s has a total of 72,006 same-day MyChart activations. A similar competition will be launched in July to ensure we’re getting as many patients to sign up on MyChart as possible by the end of FY18.

Online scheduling: More than 100 patients have already used this online feature to schedule their appointments. Six specialties have gone live with online scheduling for MyChart users. Nine more specialties will go live on July 23 and by September all specialties will offer online scheduling. Texas Children’s has partnered with a vendor to set up an online scheduling infrastructure for new patients who do not have a MyChart account.

Fast Pass Waitlist: Since implementing an electronic waitlist in MyChart that automatically offers up available appointments to patients desiring a sooner appointment, over 200 patients have accepted. On average, patients are getting into earlier appointments 60 days faster. So far, 16 specialties have gone live with this new feature.

One of these patients who benefitted from the electronic waitlist feature on MyChart was 10-year-old Aiden Blancas whose mother was able to get him into a dermatology appointment a lot sooner than expected.

“My son’s original appointment date was scheduled for September 4, but when I got an electronic notice via MyChart asking me if I wanted to accept an appointment in June, I accepted it,” said Monica Blancas. “While we usually go to the medical center for appointments, I didn’t mind driving a little further for my son’s appointment in Katy if it meant that I could get him in to see a doctor a lot sooner than originally scheduled.”

While improving patient access at Texas Children’s continues to remain a priority, more system-wide solutions are being considered that will further enhance patient access across the hospital system.

“Since implementing our patient access initiative, we have made significant progress to ensure our patients get into our system according to their urgency and timeline,” said Texas Children’s Assistant Vice President Carrie Rys. “We plan to continue these efforts into the next fiscal year with additional goals aimed at improving patient access.”

June 27, 2018

Scientists at Texas Children’s Hospital, Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine have won a prestigious National Institutes of Health grant to study the dynamic processes and cellular players linked to discrete subaortic stenosis (DSS), a congenital heart disease.

The $2.2 million, four-year R01 grant administered by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute will allow a team led by Dr. Sundeep Keswani and Jane Grande-Allen to develop computer and tissue-engineered models to predict the recurrence of DSS lesions of the left ventricular outflow tract (LVOT).

Keswani is a surgeon and director of surgical research at Texas Children’s and an associate professor in the Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery at Baylor. Grande-Allen is Rice’s Isabel C. Cameron Professor of Bioengineering and chair of the university’s Department of Bioengineering.

In normal hearts, blood passes through the tract from the left ventricle to the aorta. In patients with DSS, a fibrous tissue membrane forms and prevents blood flow from leaving the heart. Heart surgery is the only current option to manage the disease, but up to 30 percent of patients have an aggressive form of DSS in which the membrane recurs, and these patients may have to undergo further cardiothoracic surgery. The researchers believe a better understanding of how the fibrous membranes form will help doctors manage the disease.

“We have found some striking differences between patients who have the aggressive form of the disease and those who do not,” Keswani said. “These findings will give insight into the mechanism of how this membrane forms and perhaps why some humans have a more pro-fibrotic phenotype.

“This project is the just the beginning of understanding how different kinds of biomechanical forces interact with cells in the LVOT to produce fibrosis,” he said.

Working with co-investigator Philippe Sucosky of Wright State University, the research team has developed preliminary computational fluid dynamic models that mimic the complex shear forces and the altered geometry of the tract observed in DSS. The models will help the researchers develop a physical bioreactor to investigate interactions between the major cellular players in DSS: the endocardial endothelial cells that are exposed to shear forces, the cardiac fibroblasts that facilitate fibrosis and the circulating immune cells.

“Understanding the mechanisms of how altered shear forces induce fibrosis in the LVOT is a major gap in our knowledge,” Grande-Allen said. “If we can predict recurrence of DSS lesions of this outflow tract, we can change the way the disease is managed and really improve the quality of life for these children.”

Preliminary computer model data suggested that altered internal geometries in children’s hearts generate turbulence in the flow of blood. That affects the shear forces in the LVOT that in turn trigger an inflammatory response by endothelial cells and encourage the formation of fibrous tissue.

In the future, Grande-Allen and Keswani expect their work will help prevent fibrotic lesions by identifying targets in advance. That ability could also help treat other fibrotic cardiovascular diseases associated with altered flow.

Keswani said Texas Children’s, which U.S. News & World Report ranked No. 1 in the nation this week for pediatric cardiology and heart surgery, is uniquely suited to take on the project. “This world-class facility and tremendous volume have driven this project from the bedside to the bench, and this award will hopefully allow us to return to the bedside armed with new tools to help these patients,” he said. “This collaboration is the perfect weave between bioengineering and surgery.”

“Bioengineers bring a unique way of approaching surgical challenges and surgeons bring the surgical insight and the science, resulting in a synergistic relationship,” Keswani said. “In addition, it has been absolutely essential to the success of this project to have the support of our surgical leadership, who are strong advocates for surgical research as a means to develop innovative care for patients.”

Keswani is the principal investigator for Texas Children’s Laboratory for Regenerative Tissue Repair and a pediatric and fetal surgeon. His laboratory investigates the interaction of inflammation and the extracellular matrix that drives fibrosis with the goal of developing anti-fibrotic, regenerative therapies. Grande-Allen’s Integrative Matrix Mechanics Laboratory specializes in studying the composition and behavior of biological tissues, with a particular interest in heart valves.

The project also received support from the Virginia and L.E. Simmons Family Foundation Mini-Collaborative Research Fund and a gift from Lew and Laura Moorman.

May 29, 2018

On May 23, a day after the opening of phase one of Legacy Tower, another significant milestone was reached in Texas Children’s Hospital’s storied history. At 7:15 a.m., a 9-month-old boy was taken back to a new, state-of-the-art operating room for the first surgery in Legacy Tower, Texas Children’s new home for heart, intensive care and surgery.

Watch this video highlighting the clinical features of Legacy Tower, including the facility’s new operating and transitional ICU rooms.

Dr. Larry Hollier, surgeon-in-chief, Dr. Edward Buchanan, chief of plastic surgery, Dr. Howard Weiner, chief of neurosurgery, and Dr. Robert Dauser, neurosurgeon, along with a team of anesthesiologists, nurses, physician assistants and operating room staff, performed the successful craniofacial procedure. Following the surgery, the patient was taken to the hospital’s new neurological ICU, a first-of-its-kind unit dedicated to pediatric patients who require specialized neurological care.

“As the largest and busiest department of surgery in the country, we are called upon every day to perform some of the most complex surgeries on the sickest of children,” said Hollier. “Legacy Tower is an answer to those calls, and this is the first of many positive outcomes in our new home.”

Weiner agreed and said the new tower is a game changer that will allow various teams at Texas Children’s to offer better family-centric care.

“This is a huge day at Texas Children’s Hospital,” he said. “It’s a privilege to be here and to be part of something so transformational.”

Phase one of Legacy Tower, Texas Children’s 640,000-square-foot expansion, officially opened on May 22 with six technologically-advanced operating rooms for neurosurgery, orthopedics, plastic surgery, transplant and pediatric surgery – one with intraoperative MRI – and 84 ICU beds, including dedicated surgical, neurological and transitional ICU rooms. This milestone will help Texas Children’s continue to provide the highest-quality care possible to patients and families, particularly those children who are critically-ill.

Beginning at 7 a.m. on May 22, seven specially-trained clinical teams safely transported 45 critically-ill patients to their new, spacious, state-of-the-art critical care rooms. More than 150 Texas Children’s staff members were involved in the move, and the careful transfer of the patients took seven hours.

Click here to view a video and photo gallery of the patient move to Legacy Tower.

Dauser said the Legacy Tower, specifically the operating rooms and their location to other specialties and services, are fantastic.

“Having the ability to conduct an intraoperative MRI in a room adjacent to one of the ORs has tremendous advantages,” he said. “Having an ICU dedicated to neuro patients also is a plus.”

Buchanan said such features provide the perfect environment for him and his colleagues to treat some of the sickest and most complex patients in the country.

“We all are very excited,” he said.

The second phase of Legacy Tower will open in September and house Texas Children’s Heart Center®, ranked No. 1 in the nation by U.S. News & World Report for cardiology and heart surgery.

May 22, 2018

The Department of Surgery hosted the ninth annual Edmond T. Gonzales Jr. Surgical Research Day May 18 at Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women providing a forum for researchers across the department to showcase their work.

This year 110 abstracts were submitted for review, 11 of which were chosen for oral presentations and 99 were accepted for poster presentations. This year eight students vied for the Best Presentation award and three faculty members were chosen to present their research.

The 2018 keynote speaker was Chandan Sen, who holds various roles at the Ohio State University Wexler Medical Center, including the John H. and Mildred C. Lumley Chair in Medicine, professor and vice chair of research in the Department of Surgery, associate dean of Translational Research, director of the College of Medicine, director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine and Cell-Based Therapies and executive director of the Ohio State Comprehensive Wound Center. Sen spoke about the regenerative medicine frontier and the reprogramming of tissue function in vivo.

Awards presented at the event were the Samuel Stal Research Award for outstanding research by a resident or fellow, the Research Mentor Award, and Best Oral Presentation and Best Poster Presentation.

  • The Samuel Stal Research Award was presented to Dr. Rodrigo Zea-Vera in Congenital Heart Surgery. The award is named after Dr. Samuel Stal, former chief of Plastic Surgery at Texas Children’s.
  • Pediatric Surgeon Dr. Sundeep Keswani was honored with the Research Mentor Award. The award is given on an annual basis to honor a Department of Surgery faculty member who serves as a research mentor through career development, professional guidance or cultivation of research interests.
  • Best Oral Presentation award was given to Urology Fellow Dr. Jeffrey White. He presented his work on the mining of CNV databases discovering a role for RBFOX-2 in penile development.
  • Best Poster award was given to researcher Jennifer Brown from otolaryngology for a poster on the implementation of a tracheostomy educational program for outpatient otolaryngology nurses.

Recipients of the 2018 Clayton Awards, former known as Surgical Seed Grant Awards, were announced as the grand finale of Texas Children’s Hospital Surgical Research Day. This grant program, funded by the Department of Surgery, allows surgery researchers to generate the preliminary data necessary for National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant applications and other extramural funding. 2018 Clayton Awards recipients are as follows:

Dr. Arvind Chandrakantan, Anesthesiology
Obstructive sleep apnea in vitro: A novel approach for cellular and molecular discovery

Dr. Erin Gottlieb, Anesthesiology
Antithrombin Levels in Neonates and Young Infants Undergoing Congenital Heart Surgery

Dr. Julie Hakim, Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology
Understanding the Role of Estrogen in Vaginal Scar Tissue Formation

Dr. Brian Kelley, Neurosurgery
Molecular and Structural Mechanisms of Diffuse Axonal Injury

Scott Manson, Ph.D., Urology
Myofibroblast-Targeted Therapies for Renal Fibrosis in Obstructive Uropathy

Dr. Bindi Naik-Mathuria, Pediatric Surgery
Promoting Safe Firearm Storage in Households with Children

Dr. Irene Tung, Ophthalmology
The Effect of Oral Omega-3 Supplementation in Children with Meibomian Gland Disease and Chalazia

Xinyi Wang, Ph.D. Pediatric Surgery
The Role of Hyaluronan in Renal Tubulointerstitial Fibrosis

May 15, 2018

The 2017 Texas Children’s Annual Report website highlighting last year’s growth and success with compelling stories, videos and graphics about our patients, staff, clinical programs and expanding facilities is here! This is the second time the Texas Children’s annual report has been released in a website format offering a dynamic representation of the breadth, depth and growth of our organization.

Titled Texas Children’s Strong, this year’s website illustrates in a special section how Texas Children’s successfully weathered Hurricane Harvey with strong leadership, a unified culture and fierce determination. It also includes an archive page that houses previous Texas Children’s annual reports, giving readers a centralized location to find such rich information about our organization.

Each section of the site – news, notes and numbers – gives readers an opportunity to experience how and why Texas Children’s health care system continues to set records organization wide. You also can hear directly from our President and CEO Mark Wallace in a video address about our accomplishments and what’s to come.

“I’m pleased to share some of the amazing work and triumphs that happened last year at Texas Children’s,” Wallace said. “We were incredibly busy in 2017.”

Read all about it at texaschildrensannualreport.org. Share the link to the online report with friends and colleagues, and encourage them to do the same.