January 24, 2017

12517Austin175Texas Children’s Hospital is excited to welcome Dr. Paul Austin to the Division of Urology.

Beginning July 1, Austin will lead the Division’s Complex Urological Reconstruction Program as well as serve as Urologic Director for the Spina Bifida, ARM, and Gender Medicine multidisciplinary clinics. He also will establish a new Pediatric Urologic Basic Science Research Lab. Austin’s research interests include bladder pathology, kidney repair, renal fibrosis, stone disease, and kidney development.

Austin comes to Texas Children’s Hospital from Washington University in St. Louis, where he is currently Professor of Surgery, Director of the Multidisciplinary Spina Bifida Program, and leader of a robust basic science research lab with substantial NIH funding.

For his many contributions to the field of Pediatric Urology, Austin was recognized with the John W. Duckett Pediatric Research Excellence Award from the American Urology Association’s Urology Care Foundation in 2016.

12517RebaHillawardsinside640The 17th Annual Reba Michels Hill Memorial Grand Rounds were held recently. Awards were given to Neonatology non-physicians who have made a significant contribution to advancing the quality to which Dr. Hill was dedicated: compassionate commitment to education, patient care, research and family.

12517running640Texas Children’s helped push 51 runners across the finish line of the Houston Marathon and Half Marathon January 15 in front of the George R. Brown Convention Center. As part of the Texas Children’s Running Team, the runners signed up for the 26.2 mile or 13.1 mile race not only to hit the pavement but to raise money for a good cause – Texas Children’s.

The team – comprised of Texas Children’s employees, patient family members and others who have been touched by the organization – has raised almost $30,000 for Promise: The Campaign for Texas Children’s Hospital. Members have until mid-February to continue fundraising. If you would like to give to those who went the extra mile, click here.

12517DrSusanBlaney175Deputy director of Texas Children’s Cancer Center Dr. Susan Blaney recently was appointed to the hematology-oncology self-assessment team of the American Board of Pediatrics (ABP). In this role, Blaney will develop content for Maintenance of Certification exams, one component of which is self-assessment.

Founded in 1933, the ABP is one of the 24 certifying boards of the American Board of Medical Specialties. The ABP is an independent, nonprofit organization whose certificate is recognized throughout the world as a credential signifying a high level of physician competence.

In addition to her duties with the Cancer Center, Blaney is executive vice chair of the Department of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine. She also is the vice chair of the Children’s Oncology Group, the National Cancer Institute supported clinical trials group and the world’s largest organization devoted exclusively to pediatric cancer research.

Blaney served as the co-director of the Developmental Therapeutics Program at Texas Children’s Cancer Center where she performs pre-clinical and clinical studies of new antineoplastic agents. A primary focus of her research is the development of new drugs for the treatment of central nervous system tumors in children with a particular emphasis on the development of new agents for intrathecal administration.

January 17, 2017

11817drhair175Dr. Amy Hair, neonatologist and director of the neonatal nutrition program at Texas Children’s Hospital, was selected by the American Society for Nutrition (ASN) to receive the 2017 Samuel J. Fomon Young Physician Award.

This award is given to a physician within 10 years of completion of medical postdoctoral training for outstanding work in the general area of pediatric nutrition, infant growth or body composition.

Hair will be presented with the award at the ASN’s awards ceremony on April 23 in Chicago. Hair is nationally known for her leadership in advocating for human milk feeding for very low birth weight infants and has published numerous studies related to human milk feeding.

12716Pederson175Texas Children’s hand surgeon and professor of surgery and pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine Dr. William Pederson was recently named president of the American Association for Hand Surgery (AAHS).

Pederson, a highly-regarded pediatric hand surgeon, joined Texas Children’s in January 2016, further expanding the highly-specialized, multidisciplinary care offered to children, adolescents and families who seek treatment at Texas Children’s.

Pederson’s clinical interests include the management of vascular problems in the upper extremity, nerve injury and repair including brachial plexus, Volkmann’s ischemic contracture, facial paralysis and microsurgical reconstruction of complex extremity defects.

A native Texan, he is an honors graduate of The University of Texas at Austin and received his medical degree from The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas. He completed an internship and residency in surgery at The University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. Pederson continued his medical education with training in plastic and reconstructive surgery at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina and was a Christine Kleinert Fellow in hand surgery in Louisville, Kentucky. Following this, he completed a one-year fellowship in microsurgery at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne, Australia.

With more than 1,300 members, the AAHS represents a diverse but cohesive mix of highly respected professionals working in all disciplines of hand surgery and hand therapy. Members include orthopedic surgeons, plastic surgeons, general surgeons, microsurgeons, hand therapists, nurses, and basic scientists from the United States, Canada, and many other countries around the world. AAHS is an inclusive organization that welcomes members from many disciplines who are interested in the care of the upper extremity.

AAHS was founded by a group of American and Canadian hand surgeons. The group received their training under Dr. Joseph L. Posch at the Grace Hospital in Detroit and shared a vision of forming an organization that would represent the interest of all surgeons practicing hand surgery. In 1970, that vision became a reality. The founding purpose of the American Association for Hand Surgery was to provide an educational forum to increase the professional expertise and knowledge of surgeons involved in hand surgery. Today, the association has expanded to include hand therapist and other health professionals who care for patients with hand and upper extremity problems.

11817CNOR640For the third year in a row, Texas Children’s Hospital has been named CNOR Strong by the Competency and Credentialing Institute (CCI).

To achieve this recognition, more than 50 percent of a hospital’s operating room (OR) nurses’ must undergo a rigorous process that involves mastering high standards of perioperative practices before nurses can earn their individual CNOR certification.

“Words cannot express how proud I am to be the leader of an OR that is CNOR strong for the third year in a row,” said Amanda Austin, manager of Surgical Services at Texas Children’s. “It has been amazing to watch the dedication and drive grow amongst the OR nurses who worked extremely hard to achieve this milestone. They are showing their passion for what they do.”

While obtaining the CNOR designation is not an easy task and requires lots of study and preparation, this nationally recognized certification exemplifies Texas Children’s commitment to being the best of the best in the delivery of safe patient care.

“It all goes back wholeheartedly to being patient advocates that set the highest bar for the care we provide to our sleeping patients,” said Nakeisha Archer, director of Perioperative Services at Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women and president of the Greater Houston Chapter of the Association of PeriOperative Registered Nurses. “We are proud of being designated as a whole, and putting the Pavilion for Women on the map as the first women’s hospital to become CNOR strong internationally.”

Research shows that nurses who earn the CNOR credential have greater confidence in their clinical practice. A team of CNOR certified nurses who have mastered the standards of perioperative practice furthers a culture of professionalism and has been correlated to improved outcomes in surgical patients.

In a recent study published in the journal of the Association of Perioperative Registered Nurses, hospitals with high rates of specialty nursing certifications saw significant lower rates of central-line associated bloodstream infections among surgery patients. The study also found that a 10 percent increase of CNOR’s and other support certified nurses resulted in an 8 to 16 percent reduction in surgical infections.

“I am honored to be involved with an institution and perioperative departments that have a commitment to excellence,” said Janet Winebar, director of Perioperative Services at West Tower. “I commend the individual OR RNs who have worked so hard to achieve this honor and their leaders for supporting them.”