November 16, 2021

Following his dream to become a security officer when he grows up, Devarjaye Daniel was sworn in as an Honorary Security Officer by Texas Children’s Security Department. During his recognition, he received a certificate, badge as well as a uniform.

Devarjaye, often known as “Turtle” in honor of his favorite Ninja Turtles, is a patient at Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Center who was diagnosed with a brain tumor called ependymoma. After his tumor came back despite receiving the best available treatments, Devarjaye went on to participate in a genomic sequencing study, TX KidsCanSeq, which identified a rare and unique genetic change within his tumor. This resulted in a precision oncology strategy where Devarjaye can now take oral medication to control his tumor.

His visits are known to be filled with his jokes, laughter, and desire to serve others; his honor as a junior officer tracks right in line with his desire to contribute to his community.

March 2, 2021

In the midst of a winter weather event with some of the coldest temperatures Texas has seen in decades, our Texas Children’s team members immediately sprang into action to support the needs of our patients.

On February 16, a pipe burst in a mechanical room in Mark Wallace Tower, causing the loss of power to the elevators. The Cancer & Hematology Center, located on the 14th floor, was the only clinic in operation that day due to the critical need to administer chemotherapy and blood products to our patient population. The compromised elevators left patients and staff stranded on the 14th floor, while those arriving for treatment were unable to get to the clinic.

Our staff not only ensured that treatments continued for those patients still on the 14th floor, but they also took medications and supplies to the third-floor food court area to provide infusions there for patients that could not get to the clinic. Some nurses even repeatedly climbed the stairs from the third to the 14th floor to ensure patients received their treatments.

With true One Amazing Team spirit, our Ambulatory Hematology-Oncology and BMT clinics and Kangaroo Crew also rose to the challenge by collaborating together to move the infusion portion of the clinic to West Tower 7. This planning began at 4 p.m. that day and the team saw the first of 40 total patients in the “new” space at 7:30 a.m. the following day, February 17.

It took roughly 15 hours to complete the move, including the transport of our patients – some wheelchair-bound down the stairs in Mark Wallace Tower.

“Moving the clinic was a herculean task and it could not have been accomplished without our people,” said Kathleen Magee, director, Cancer Center-Clinical.

Though she said several team members deserved special thanks for embracing freedom to make the move happen – Dr. Kala Kamdar, Sandi Knight, Rhoda Phillips, Paulette Reed and Brittany Anderson – Magee also emphasized that the whole team had a hand in making it a success.

“Our entire team played a crucial part in the move,” she said. “Our clinic medical assistants, LVNs and RNs embraced the new space and created new workflows and processes. Our ShareDesk and nurse coordinators kept track of all our patients and handled rescheduling appropriately, and our faculty reviewed our patient lists numerous times.”

Also essential were the partners who worked overnight on Tuesday to support the effort: EVS, Pharmacy, Registration, IS and the OR.

“I am so thankful for all of you and your ability to really make sure our patients get the care they need, when you are all going through so much at home as well,” Magee said.

Chief Nursing Officer Jackie Ward echoed the praise and gratitude for the team members who stepped up at a time when it mattered most. Whether we’re fighting a global pandemic or navigating a significant winter weather event, Texas Children’s team members remain committed to taking care of our patients, their families and each other.

“This is leadership – doing what is right, not always what is easy,” Ward said. “I know this was not easy, but it was necessary for the patients we serve. Our patients and families are just as appreciative for each of you as I am. Thank you for your efforts today and every day.”

Have a success story to share? If you are interested in sharing a team success story, please send a brief blurb along with a photo to HRCommunications@texaschildrens.org.

October 6, 2020

As part of the company’s global Amazon Goes Gold campaign during Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, Amazon surprised Texas Children’s Cancer Center with a $500,000 donation. The gift will support pediatric cancer research and help with the hospital’s treatment efforts. Additionally, Amazon gifted $20,000 that will be used for patient holiday gifts and virtual events for pediatric patients and their families.

“We are extremely grateful to Amazon for this generous gift and proud to partner with them to raise awareness during Childhood Cancer Awareness Month,” said Dr. Susan Blaney, director of Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers. “Their support will help us continue to advance our cutting edge translational research efforts in precision medicine and cellular immunotherapy. These efforts will make an incredibly positive impact in the outcome for children with cancer.”

The Texas Children’s donation caps off a month of giving by Amazon and is the last of several donations made across the country during the month of September. To date, Amazon has donated more than $6 million to childhood cancer programs across the country and around the world. This year, Amazon is doubling down its focus toward innovative research by donating $4 million to eight leading cancer research institutions across the U.S. In addition to partnering with hospitals, Amazon also colors packages gold (the official color of Childhood Cancer Awareness) to further increase awareness around the world

“We are incredibly proud to donate $500,000 to Texas Children’s Cancer Center and make a difference in these children’s lives,” said Daniel Martin, Amazon Operations Public Relations Manager. “Texas Children’s has done incredible work in the efforts to find a cure for childhood cancer and increase survival rates. It’s an honor to support the hospital’s mission and patients and give back to the community where our employees work and live.”

As one of the largest and top-ranked pediatric cancer and hematology centers in the U.S., Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers provide individualized state-of-the-art medical treatment for patients with childhood cancer and blood disorders. During the check presentation, several Amazon associates received a heartwarming thank you note signed by several of our Cancer Center patients.

“This gift from Amazon means a lot for Texas Children’s,” said Paola Alvarez-Malo, Vice President of Innovation Hub. “It enables us to advance pediatric cancer research, but it also gives us the opportunity to help our patients connect and normalize their experience while in our care. Amazon is a big thought leader in innovation and technology. So, whether it’s helping us advance research or optimize the patient experience, this partnership means a lot for Texas Children’s in many different ways.”

September 29, 2020

This installment of the “Take Five” series provided by The Psychology Section’s Collaborative on Racial Equity and Inclusion (REI) for Black Youth acknowledges that the month of September is not only Disease Literacy Awareness Month, but also the Awareness Month for Sickle Cell, Pulmonary Fibrosis, Childhood Cancer, Childhood Obesity, and Blood Cancer. Access to high quality health care and other health resources are essential to ensure optimal health for children with these conditions. Yet, African American and Black children with any of these diseases have lower access to health resources and as a consequence experience worse health outcomes.

We encourage you to “TAKE FIVE” and learn about the FIVE diseases and what action steps you can take to increase and promote equitable health care access and services, such as by getting involved in organizations or advocacy, or making a donation:

  1. Sickle Cell Awareness Month: https://www.sicklecelldisease.org/get-involved/events/national-sickle-cell-awareness-month/
  2. Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation: https://www.pulmonaryfibrosis.org/
  3. American Childhood Cancer Organization: https://www.acco.org/childhood-cancer-awareness-month/
  4. Childhood Obesity Facts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/childhood.html
  5. Leukemia and Lymphoma Society: https://www.lls.org/blood-cancer-awareness
September 21, 2020

Texas Children’s Cancer Center hosted several virtual activities throughout the month of September to honor our courageous patients and their families, and to thank our dedicated staff for all they do. While COVID-19 changed this year’s Going Gold celebrations, many came together in a virtual and socially distant way to shine the light on pediatric cancer for Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.

Director of Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers Dr. Susan Blaney said she is grateful for those who participated in our virtual events to help raise awareness for such an important cause. Although great strides have been made in combatting childhood cancer, there is still work to be done.

“We need a cure for every child diagnosed with cancer,” Blaney said. “Each day in our Cancer Center, our devoted team of physicians, nurses, researchers, and many others, are focused on translating the discoveries from our laboratories into novel therapies to improve the cure rate and outcomes for childhood cancer. ”

Here are some highlights from this year’s Going Gold celebrations at Texas Children’s.

Let There Be GOLD Carnival

On September 8, The Faris Foundation hosted a socially distant Let There Be GOLD Carnival for patients and their families on our inpatient Cancer Center unit. The floor was adorned in gold ribbons, stars, beads and other festive decorations, and there were numerous activities for children including arts and crafts, games and gold slime making.

Patients and their families also received a special visit from Elsa, our therapy dog, who dressed up for the occasion wearing a Going Gold T-Shirt to celebrate September Childhood Cancer Awareness.

Texas Children’s Cancer Center was inspired to “Go Gold” six years ago by a young patient, Faris D. Virani, who was perplexed about why he didn’t see as much gold in September compared to other colors he saw during different disease awareness months. Motivated by Faris’ concern, each year the Cancer Center has increased their level of “gold-ness,” and this year was no different.

Faris’ mother and founder of The Faris Foundation, Dr. Asha Virani, joined with Texas Children’s Cancer Center staff for the Let There Be GOLD Carnival. Virani said she knows her son, who lost his battle with Ewing sarcoma, is smiling because of all of the gold that was shown around Texas Children’s in September.

“September Childhood Cancer Awareness month is a golden opportunity to spread awareness and love,” said Virani. “Over the years, Texas Children’s has been a leader in making this cause so visible.”

Pajama Day “Go Gold” Celebration

Also this month, patients, families and staff at Texas Children’s Cancer Center had their very own Pajama Day to help raise awareness of childhood cancer. Wearing their pajamas, they stood in solidarity to honor the courageous journeys of our patients and families who have been touched by pediatric cancer.

This year’s Pajama Day was part of #AmazonGoesGold campaign to raise awareness of childhood cancer. Children are fighting cancer while in their pajamas, so the team decided to have a pajama party to celebrate our patients and their journey.

The Pajama Day started with children decorating sleeping masks, pillowcases and their own robes. All three Cancer Center inpatient units had their own concession stand where the patients came and filled their snack box and chose a movie of their choice. Some patients were very interested in scary movies while others wanted something different – there was something for each of our patients. Each child took their snack box and watched a movie with their family in their room.

In conjunction with the #AmazonGoesGold campaign, Amazon donated a gift of $500,000 to Texas Children’s Cancer Center as part of their Go Gold initiative to help advance pediatric cancer research.

Video messages from our Cancer Center staff and patients

To celebrate our patients and their families, our Cancer Center team gathered virtually to share inspiring video messages throughout the month of September. And, several of our fellow patients shared their own messages of hope and encouragement for other children and families impacted by childhood cancer.

One of our patients had this to say to those facing cancer: “September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. My encouraging words to you are stay strong, always be positive, and you can beat cancer.”

Click here to view Cancer Center staff videos. Click here to view encouraging words from our patients.

August 31, 2020

 

Each year in September, Texas Children’s Cancer Center goes gold to honor the courageous journeys of our patients and families who have been touched by pediatric cancer and to create awareness about the challenges these children and their loved ones face. It’s also a special time to honor our Cancer Center staff and everyone who plays a role in ensuring that our patients and their families get the care and support they need.

This year, awareness celebrations will be conducted differently to maintain social distancing due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We will celebrate with our families and staff in a virtual way, instead of the large celebratory gatherings across our four campuses (Main, West, Woodlands and Vannie Cook) that we have held in previous years.

“Despite the challenges we all face due to COVID-19, we have a phenomenal team of providers who will do whatever it takes 24/7 to ensure our patients and their families get the care and treatment they need,” said Dr. Susan Blaney, director of Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers. “Our Cancer Center helps children fight and defeat cancer every day. We hope you will stand with us in Going Gold for childhood cancer, so that together, we can create a healthier future for these children who need our care.”

In this video spotlight on Texas Children’s Cancer Center, Blaney shares how our teams are advancing science and research every day to find cures and give hope to the many patients and families we serve.

Virtual activities to raise awareness

Throughout September, Texas Children’s Cancer Center encourages staff to participate in several virtual activities to help shine the light on childhood cancer.

  • Patient and staff videos: Throughout the month of September, we will feature inspiring videos from patients and families sharing messages of encouragement and support to other families impacted by childhood cancer. Our Cancer Center staff will share video messages as well. The videos will be posted on Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers Facebook Page and our One Amazing Team Instagram Page.
  • Making a Mark virtual art gallery opens: Presented by The Periwinkle Foundation, the Making A Mark® exhibition will showcase art and creative writing by children ages 3 to 22 who have been affected by cancer and blood disorders. The exhibit opens each year in September and this year it will be hosted virtually on The Periwinkle Foundation website. The exhibit will feature over 130 pieces of art and creative writing made by patients and their siblings. A panel of guest judges have selected 15 purple ribbon pieces which they feel convey a positive message about childhood cancer and blood disorders awareness. Click here to access the art gallery.
  • Purple Songs Can Fly documentaryPurple Songs Can Fly, the first recording studio ever created on a pediatric cancer floor at Texas Children’s Hospital, will make its award-winning documentary, “Journey to Hope” available on YouTube September 12-30 during Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. “Journey to Hope,” is an original musical production featuring six childhood cancer patients. Written and recorded in the Purple Songs Can Fly studio during their individual cancer journeys, the songs in the documentary spread messages of hope, love and resiliency.
  • Visit the Texas Children’s Blog for Cancer Center-related posts throughout the month. Stay tuned to Connect for more Texas Children’s awareness activities in September.
Virtual activities in the community

Patient Activities
The Cancer and Hematology Centers’ inpatient team is hosting a carnival and the outpatient team is hosting a variety of activities throughout the month to honor childhood cancer awareness month as well as the patient populations impacted by the diseases/disorders being honored in September.

Childhood Cancer Awareness Month
September 17: Houston City Hall lights up in Gold

Click here to learn more about Texas Children’s Cancer.

July 27, 2020

If you ask Michael Pickett, a nurse practitioner in the Pediatric Cardiovascular Anesthesia Section at Texas Children’s, what he enjoys most about his job, he’ll be quick to say – his passion for innovation and the interdisciplinary collaboration with his colleagues. Pickett says no matter how big the challenge, staying focused on the end goal is what keeps him going.

“What I like about innovation is you have to expect the unexpected,” said Pickett, who also serves as an innovation mentor for the Texas Children’s Hospital Global Hematology-Oncology Pediatric Centers of Excellence and Nursing Innovative Solutions Council (ISC) at Texas Children’s. “There’s no guarantee that you’re going to be successful. But the hope is that you will be, and you just have to keep working at it.”

When Pickett was a graduate nurse 22 years ago, he says he faced many of the same challenges new nurses encounter when inserting a peripheral intravenous (PIV), performing central venous catheter (CVC) care and maintenance, and accessing a port on a patient for the first time. Back then, he wished there were more simulation training tools available when he was a new nurse.

As a natural innovator at heart, Pickett was determined to turn this vision into reality. Sharing his concepts with frontline innovators at Texas Children’s, Pickett gained the support from nursing colleagues and leaders across the organization who provided continual feedback throughout the innovation process. It quickly became the team’s goal to develop and implement novel skills technique videos partnered with the PIV, CVC and Port Task Trainers designed by frontline innovators that are wearable, cost-effective, durable, realistic and allow all procedural steps trainees would perform. A secondary goal was to document and open-source the innovation process utilized to develop these proof-of-concepts.

After nearly four years of development including more than 20 prototype iterations and pilot surveys, two international presentations and an international SimVentor award, the RediStik Wearable PIV, CVC and Port Trainers were finalized and produced in collaboration with Sawbones®, the leader in medical models for orthopedic and medical education, along with the support from ISC, Entrepreneurship and Innovation teams, Marketing and Legal departments, and hundreds of frontline innovators representing more than 20 different clinical areas at Texas Children’s Hospital.

The Redistik Wearable PIV, CVC and Port Trainers are portable, light weight, skin models that can be placed on a live person, table top or mannequin. The trainers help clinicians master various procedural skills like how to insert a PIV line, access and de-access a port, and how to perform sterile techniques for dressing application and cap changes to prevent pressure injuries and central line associated bloodstream infections.

“When we designed the task trainers, we wanted the experience to be realistic as possible,” said Pickett, lead inventor of the Redistik Wearable PIV, CVC and Port Trainers. “With many of the current simulation task trainers on the market, once they are used a few times, you can see where to stick and it’s just not as realistic. Our task trainers have a needle proof backing to prevent accidental needle sticks and resilient material that allow for over 1,000 punctures per task trainer that can’t easily be seen on the skin model.”

The RediStik PIV, CVC and Port Trainers were piloted in 2019 and are now being used throughout the Texas Children’s system. The nurse residency program has implemented PIV insertion skills training during new nurse orientation using the Redistik PIV trainers. Prior to training, 15 percent of nurses surveyed said they were “confident” on starting PIV lines. After completing training, their confidence level rose to 96 percent.

“We used the PIV and Port Trainers during our annual training and everyone appreciated the hands-on practice,” said Kate Jones, a decentralized education coordinator. “The ability to move the port placement around to increase the difficulty of access and the ability to get blood return made it much more realistic.”

The impact of Pickett’s innovation can also be felt around the globe. The RediStik PIV, CVC and Port Trainers have been piloted at Texas Children’s Global HOPE clinics in Sub-Saharan Africa where the PIV trainer has had a significant impact on improving their rates of PIV extravasations and reducing PIV attempts.

Far reaching impact

Global HOPE Director of Nursing Education Dr. Marilyn Hockenberry said when she learned about the RediStik PIV Trainer she was ecstatic because the rate of PIV attempts was high in her clinics as well as IV extravasation, which is when you are administering a drug, such as chemotherapy, and it seeps into the outer tissues surrounding the injection site causing painful inflammation.

“Children with cancer in Africa don’t have the benefit of a central line,” Hockenberry said. “All chemotherapy is done through a peripheral vein, creating challenges for both our patients and our providers.”

The use of the RediStik PIV Trainer has greatly reduced these challenges, lessening both the number of PIV attempts and IV extravasation incidents. Hockenberry introduced the innovation to her clinics in Botswana, Malawi and Uganda more than a year ago holding regular hands-on training workshops, many of which are still being held today.

During the workshops, clinical staff learn how to put in a peripheral intravenous line, care for the line and confidently administer chemotherapy. Prior to the trainer, staff learned as they cared for patients. There was no way to do hands-on training.

Competencies learned on the PIV trainers have decreased extravasation rates from 42 percent to 5 percent in less than a year’s time. Prior to using the task trainer, only 19 percent of PIVs were obtained with three or fewer attempts compared to 99 percent after the post task trainer assessments.

“If you want to cure cancer in Africa you have to improve IV use, PIV use and the administration of medication,” Hockenberry said. “These devices are great for making that happen.”

Hockenberry added that without people like Pickett and the team of innovators, the progress made in Africa would not have been able to happen. She said Pickett and the innovation team are crucial to the clinical process and have made a significant difference in the lives of our patients around the globe.

“It’s just a great feeling to see how these innovative training tools have benefited our staff and our patients,” Pickett said. “It took a lot of hard work to finally get to this point, but it was all worth it.”

About Redistik

Visit www.texaschildrens.org/redistik to access product details, skills video tips/techniques and data outcomes. Click here to learn more about Sawbones®.

Contact Michael Pickett at mtpicket@texaschildrens.org if you would like to check out one of the RediStik products for staff training.