Texas Children’s Transition Medicine Team holds victory celebration dinner

October 20, 2015

102115TransitionMedinside640Texas Children’s Transition Medicine Team hosted its third annual dinner event with the evening’s theme – Transition is a Victory. The celebration was held at Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women in conjunction with the 16th Annual Chronic Illness and Disability Conference. More than 100 people attended the dinner to learn about the progress Texas Children’s has made developing transition solutions.

Nearly 90 percent of children born with chronic or disabling conditions are surviving into adulthood. People with sickle cell disease are living into their sixties and the number of adults with cystic fibrosis now outnumbers the children. This victory has left providers and hospitals nationwide with the challenge of defining and constructing appropriate and timely transitions of care.

Transition Medicine describes the planned process of educating, coordinating and transferring patient care from the pediatric to the adult health care system in a way that optimizes a patient’s health and ability to function. Texas Children’s is dedicated to helping patients transfer care smoothly without a decline or break in their treatment.

Many young adults between the ages of 18 to 21 transition their care to adult providers when they leave for college or enter the workforce. But for those with complex chronic pediatric diseases, transitioning is a struggle filled with barriers and challenges that include patient maturity, psychosocial and family needs, coordination and reimbursement issues, and identification of adult providers able to care for unique patient populations.

At the conference and the dinner, Texas Children’s patients, family and staff shared their inspirational stories and spoke to the importance of a solid transition program. The conference featured discussions on legal issues and quality improvement strategies involved in health care transition, as well as opportunities to meet and talk with faculty, exchange ideas among participants, and share knowledge and information about how best to plan for a successful transition from pediatric to adult care.

Physician speakers from Texas Children’s delivered presentations including conference founder and chair Dr. Albert Hergenroeder and Drs. Heidi Schwarzwald, Carla Tapia and Connie Wiemann.

Administration leaders John Nickens, Diane Scardino, and Daniel DiPrisco along with Drs. Marcia Katz, Angelo Giardino and Albert Hergenroeder spoke about educational efforts, innovative quality and process improvement strategies and recognized supporters of transition medicine. They were joined by family advisor, Jeb Ligums who awarded the 2015 Benjamin B. Ligums Scholar to Dr. Rebecca Laster from Texas Children’s Pediatrics Gulfton location. The scholar program allows a provider in the community to receive training on the adult special needs population and project management assistance in setting up a referral process between providers.

The dinner also included a presentation from Texas Children’s congenital heart patient Kristin Edwards who shared her touching story of transition from pediatric to an adult care at Texas Children’s. The evening wrapped up with Dr. Ahmet Uluer, director of the Weitzman Family BRIDGES Program at Boston Children’s Hospital, who spoke in support of a collaborative nationwide approach to Transition Medicine.

Click here to watch a video about Texas Children’s Transition Medicine Program. For questions or additional information, contact Kris Barton at Ext. 4-1265 or email her at krbarton@texaschildrens.org