Drs. Zoghbi and Bottazzi were recently honored for their contributions to the advancement of women and improving the quality of life for future generations of Texas women. Read More
January 17, 2023
Almost every year since 1976, the Department of Clinical Neuroscience at Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet in collaboration with the Department of Neurosurgery at Karolinska University Hospital honors an international neurosurgeon for their contributions to brain or spinal cord surgery and/or research.
This year, Dr. Daniel J. Curry was awarded the 23rd Herbert Olivecrona Award, also known as the “Nobel Prize of Neurosurgery,” for his work on Stereotactic Laser Ablation and the Advance of Minimally Invasive Epilepsy Surgery in Children. Dr. Curry is the John S. Dunn Foundation Endowed Chair for Minimally Invasive Epilepsy Surgery and the director of Functional Neurosurgery and Epilepsy Surgery at Texas Children’s Hospital. He is also a professor of Neurosurgery at Baylor College of Medicine.
Curry gave the 2022 Olivecrona Keynote Lecture “Stereotactic Laser Ablation and the Advance of Minimally Invasive Epilepsy Surgery in Children” and received the Olivecrona Award medallion at a ceremony in Stockholm on December 2, 2022. By receiving this honor, Dr. Curry joins an illustrious group of neurosurgeons whose contributions have defined the current practice of neurosurgery.
“The work Dr. Curry has contributed to the field of functional and minimally invasive pediatric neurosurgery can’t be overstated,” said Dr. Howard Weiner, chief of Neurosurgery at Texas Children’s Hospital.
“Over the last 15 years, he has fundamentally changed how epilepsy is treated surgically in children and has improved the lives of countless families,” said Dr. Weiner. “It is my true privilege and honor to work side by side with him as my colleague here at Texas Children’s at, arguably, the premier pediatric epilepsy surgery program in the world.”
The Olivecrona Award is named in honor of professor Herbert Olivecrona (1891-1980), an internationally renowned neurosurgeon and professor of Neurosurgery at Karolinska Institutet from 1935 to 1960, who was credited as being the father of modern neurosurgery in Sweden. To learn more, click here.
Please join us in congratulating Dr. Curry on this incredible honor!
August 30, 2022
The Quality, Clinical, and Information Services (IS) teams who were among the international winners of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) 2022 Davies Award of Excellence are sharing highlights from their case studies presented at HIMSS’ virtual site visit in July. Excerpts from their work shows how the technologies they have pioneered are helping to identify opportunities for collaboration with clinical teams across Texas Children’s to drive improvements in the delivery of our patient care and outcomes.
Pediatric Palliative Care: Optimizing the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) to Improve End-of-Life Care in Children
Dr. Jessica Casas, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Division of Palliative Care
Amy Jeppesen, Systems Analyst Lead, Information Services
Challenge: As an international referral center for patients with the most complex illnesses, Texas Children’s Hospital treats diverse and complex patients of all ages. Being a busy center comes with challenges, including the need to provide goal-concordant care to a wide variety of patients in all stages of the disease process. This is particularly important for seriously ill children.
Approach: The Pediatric Advanced Care team (PACT) partnered with Epic Informatics/IS and Quality Outcomes & Analytics to improve the quality of care for these seriously ill children, including end-of-life care, to ensure delivery of goal-concordant care every time for every patient. PACT led focus groups with stakeholders across the institution to learn about their needs and questions regarding caring for children at end of life. Evidence shows that end-of-life care outcomes are strongly related to communication between clinicians and patients.
Using stakeholder input, the team engineered the electronic medical record (EMR) to create a novel navigator that consolidates all end-of-life care activities: consents, advance directives, autopsy, organ donation, keepsakes, spiritual rites and bereavement. The team then carefully guided EMR users through the end-of-life navigator workflow.
Outcome: This EMR optimization minimizes unnecessary variation in end-of-life care, improves communication between teams and is improving appropriate post-mortem care. The new process elevates the care that seriously ill children receive to mirror the institution’s standards of excellence.
COVID-19 Vaccine Tracking with Integrated Medication Management Technology
Challenge: In 2020, the SARS-COV-2 pandemic brought about rapid mobilization of vaccine research, production and implementation, with Federal and state regulations mandating accuracy of vaccine inventory for institutional allocations.
Approach: The Texas Children’s Pharmacy Informatics team developed new and repurposed existing technological solutions to track procurement, distribution, administration, and vaccine waste. The team created a PowerApp named COVID19VaccTrac to track vaccine movement in the system through procurement, distribution, preparation, and waste.
Outcome: Collaboration with multiple disciplines and swift development of innovative technological solutions ultimately provided efficiency and a paramount level of care for our patients.
Improving High Blood Pressure Recognition in Pediatric Primary Care
Dr. Justin Zachariah, Associate Professor in Pediatrics (Cardiology), Baylor College of Medicine; Co-Chair of Research Operations, Texas Children’s Heart Center
Dr. Scott Watson, Pediatric Physician, Texas Children’s Pediatrics; Associate Medical Director of Clinical Informatics
Challenge: Pediatric Hypertension is often missed in primary care due to the complexity of evaluating normal blood pressure ranges for children at different ages.
Approach: Texas Children’s Preventive Cardiology and Texas Children’s Pediatrics leadership developed a plan to improve initial measurement accuracy and increase primary care recognition of high blood pressure during clinic visits. The project involved multi-step decision support tools to automate recommendation for manual blood pressure confirmation by staff members, allow for easier review and classification of blood pressure readings by physicians, and encourage American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) guideline recommended initial evaluation steps for confirmed elevated readings.
Outcome: Initial data from our go-live showed clear improvement in recognition and referral rates for many previously unrecognized cases of elevated blood pressure.
Read more on Connect about HIMSS’ Davies Award and the award announcement.
June 1, 2022 Dr. Huda Zoghbi with Dr. Harry T. Orr, her long-time collaborator
Pioneering neurologist and Texas Children’s Research-in-Chief Dr. Huda Zoghbi has been awarded the prestigious 2022 Kavli Prize for neuroscience, making history as the first Kavli Prize recipient for both Texas Children’s and the Baylor College of Medicine.
The Kavli Prize is a partnership among the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research and the Kavli Foundation to recognize scientists in astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience for breakthroughs that transform our understanding of the big, the small and the complex.
Zoghbi is one of just 11 scientists from around the world to be named a Kavli Prize Laureate this year, in recognition of two groundbreaking discoveries.
The first discovery came with long-time collaborator and University of Minnesota professor Dr. Harry T. Orr, who also received the Kavli Prize. Together, Zoghbi and Orr independently discovered the gene known as ATAXIN1, which is responsible for spinocerebellar ataxia 1 (SCA1). SCA1 is a progressive and often deadly disease in which neurons in the cerebellum and brain stem degenerate, causing loss of balance and coordination as well as swallowing difficulties.
Zoghbi’s second discovery was of the MECP2 gene responsible for Rett syndrome, a developmental disorder that strikes children, mostly girls, causing regression and disability.
“I am deeply honored by this recognition and credit my mentors, trainees, collaborators, and the incredible research environment at Baylor and Texas Children’s Hospital in helping me advance the work on SCA1 and Rett syndrome,” said Zoghbi, who is also the founding director of Texas Children’s Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute, a Distinguished Service Professor at Baylor and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator.
“To be acknowledged alongside Harry Orr, Jean-Louis Mandel and Chris Walsh is especially meaningful as it is beautiful recognition of the power of genetics for understanding disease,” she said.
Zoghbi joined Texas Children’s and Baylor in 1983 as a resident in child neurology. After encountering two patients with Rett syndrome and identifying other children with similar symptoms, she was inspired to go into research to uncover what caused the disorder.
While treating Rett syndrome, Zoghbi took note of spinocerebellar ataxia and her research with impacted families led her to Orr – who was also working with families affected by spinocerebellar ataxia. The pair shared techniques from their respective work and discovered the disease-causing gene ATAXIN1 in April 1993.
In 1999, Zoghbi and her research team were able to identify mutations in methyl-CpG-binding protein 2 gene, known as MECP2, as the root cause for Rett syndrome. The discovery of the Rett syndrome gene provided a straightforward diagnostic genetic test, allowing early and accurate diagnosis of the syndrome.
“From the moment Dr. Zoghbi arrived at Texas Children’s Hospital, we knew immediately that she was essential to unlocking the mystery of these devastating diseases,” said President and CEO Mark A. Wallace. “Dr. Zoghbi continues to amaze us with her commitment to not only understanding what causes neurological diseases but also her dedication to lead the discovery and development of new treatments that will undeniably transform the landscape of neurological research and, ultimately, change lives for generations to come.”
For more on Zoghbi, her work and the 2022 Kavli Prize honor, click here.
April 6, 2021
Know a team member who exemplifies our mission and core values? Help us recognize and reward your colleague as a Super Star! To nominate, click read more.
January 19, 2021
Men of Distinction (MOD) donated $50,000 to Texas Children’s to further research by Drs. Amy Hair and Geoffrey Preidis that focuses on developing new therapies for premature infants with liver and intestinal challenges while optimizing their overall nutrition and growth. This funding will enable Drs. Hair and Preidis to move forward with the initial sample analysis and position them well for future potential grants from the NIH.
Even though the 2020 Men of Distinction Luncheon fundraiser was postponed until later in 2021 due to COVID-19, organizers went ahead and awarded partial funding so that research can progress. Texas Children’s anticipates receiving the other half of the funding after the event.
Men of Distinction was founded in 2007 to support superior biomedical research, education, and patient care focused on pediatrics in the Texas Medical Center, which directly benefits the Houston community.
Since 2014, Men of Distinction has donated $400,000 to benefit pediatric research at Texas Children’s Hospital. Past awardees include:
2018: Dr. Sanjiv Harpavat Dr. Mary Elizabeth Tessier
2017: Dr. Michael A. Belfort
2014: Sundararajah Thevananther, Ph.D. Dr. Richard Kellermayer
May 26, 2020
The use of intelligence to meet customer needs and make long term decisions is one of the reasons Texas Children’s Health Plan is experiencing a revival.
The health plan’s business intelligence team has been so instrumental in the organization’s ability to help those in need that it recently won an international award for its efforts. Esri, a global leader in geographic information systems (GIS), recently named the team it’s 2020 Winner of the Special Achievement in GIS Award.
The award recognizes user sites around the world for their outstanding use of GIS technology.
“To say I’m proud of the team is an understatement,” said Kim Battenfield, manager of Clinical and Business Analytics. “To be chosen for this award from more than 100,000 organizations is incredibly gratifying and is confirmation that our hard work is making a difference.”
What the team does is impressive, it’s likely how their data is used is what sealed the deal for the award. “We are a health care organization that is using mapping technology to proactively support our members’ health care journey and meet our members’ needs in times of crisis. That’s a technology use that’s hard to beat.”
And they haven’t stopped there. Battenfield’s team not only builds informational tools but also teaches other health plan teams how to access the information. This way, they aren’t the only keepers — or interpreters — of the data.
Team members are:
Patricia Foster, Applications Architect Henry Peng, Senior Business Intell Analyst Andrea Qiao, Senior Business Intell Analyst Charles Summerhill, Applications Architect Jaennie Yoon, Senior Business Intell Analyst
