Research Information Solutions and Innovation

Gene Therapy for the Masses?
Gene Therapy for the Masses? 1024 683 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES

Long-lived financial and logistical hurdles make bringing new gene therapy products to market a major challenge. To help bring more of these medical miracles to fruition, experts across industry, regulatory review, science and medicine have begun to problem solve together.  With the approval of the gene therapy Kymriah® (tisagenlecleucel) in 2017, the Food and Drug…

Novel Digital Storybook Intervention Aims to Support Children With Hearing Loss
Novel Digital Storybook Intervention Aims to Support Children With Hearing Loss 1024 683 Abbie Miller

Hear Me Read, invented and developed at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, is now being validated in a prospective clinical trial. For children who are deaf or hard of hearing, access to sound via hearing aids and cochlear implants and intensive speech therapy with highly trained verbal therapists are important parts of developing speech and literacy. “Children…

Using Virtual Reality Games to Reduce Dressing Change Pain in Pediatric Burn Patients
Using Virtual Reality Games to Reduce Dressing Change Pain in Pediatric Burn Patients 934 401 JoAnna Pendergrass, DVM

Smartphone-based virtual reality games can reduce dressing change pain for pediatric patients receiving outpatient burn treatment. According to the American Burn Association, burn injuries affect approximately 250,000 children in the United States each year. The pain associated with burn injuries extends beyond the injury itself; there is also significant pain from dressing changes, which can…

Immersive Virtual Reality-Based Training Improves Empathy Among Health Care Providers
Immersive Virtual Reality-Based Training Improves Empathy Among Health Care Providers 414 224 Lauren Dembeck

A novel VR-based training program helps providers develop knowledge, skills, and attitudes to understand how social determinants of health affect patients and how to mitigate their effects. Researchers recently reported their novel virtual reality (VR)-based empathy training program, Making Professionals Able THrough Immersion (MPATHI), improved knowledge, skills, and attitudes of health care providers for care…

A Deep-Learning Computer Model for Predicting Pediatric Patient Health Care Risks and Costs
A Deep-Learning Computer Model for Predicting Pediatric Patient Health Care Risks and Costs 150 150 Kevin Mayhood

The model, which requires fewer resources and less time to develop, outperformed traditional risk-prediction models in prospective hospitalization prediction. A deep-learning computer model was better at predicting the health care risk of 112,000 children in a Medicaid accountable care organization (ACO) than traditional risk prediction models, researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital have shown. “Using this…

Not an App, We Need a Digital Health Ecosystem
Not an App, We Need a Digital Health Ecosystem 1024 575 Emre Sezgin

For teens with chronic health conditions and their caregivers, a digital health ecosystem may improve self-management and independence. Teens with chronic conditions and their caregivers encounter a number of challenges while teens are transitioning to health independence. We have investigated these challenges and proposed a “digital health ecosystem” as a roadmap to help families and…

Hey Google, Siri and Alexa, How Do We Bring Voice Technology Into Health Care?
Hey Google, Siri and Alexa, How Do We Bring Voice Technology Into Health Care? 1024 576 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES

As voice assistant technology plays an increasing role in everything from home security to baking, researchers at the vanguard of medical innovation must figure out how to appropriately adapt it for the future of health care. Voice assistant technology has advanced dramatically in the last couple of decades, moving from almost comical talk-to-text tools in…

Bridging the Gap Between the Genomics Lab and the Cardiology Clinic: CardioGX for Phenotype-Driven Variant Analysis
Bridging the Gap Between the Genomics Lab and the Cardiology Clinic: CardioGX for Phenotype-Driven Variant Analysis 150 150 Abbie Miller

The cloud-based platform is a free tool that empowers clinicians and fosters collaboration to find new genetic mutations that cause heart disease. Finding ways to support clinicians and researchers in accessing and utilizing genomic data is paramount to incorporating genomics into clinical care. CardioGX (CardioGenomics eXchange commons) is an interactive web application designed to help clinicians and…

Accessing Genomic Data for Research and Clinical Diagnostics – Meeting the Challenge
Accessing Genomic Data for Research and Clinical Diagnostics – Meeting the Challenge 1024 575 Rajeswari Swaminathan, MS
Rajeswari Swaminathan smiling and posing for photo in front of windows

What good is genomic data if it can’t be shared efficiently? The genesis of DNA sequencing technology in the 1970s was a turning point in science, giving birth to a modern era in biology. Further, with the unfolding of the relationship between nucleic acid order and uniqueness across species, improvement in strategies to sequence this…

Creative Reality: Using a New Platform Technology to Improve Patient Experience
Creative Reality: Using a New Platform Technology to Improve Patient Experience 1024 575 Abbie Miller

Amy Dunn, MD, had a problem. Some of her patients in the hematology clinic at Nationwide Children’s Hospital receive hundreds of needle sticks each year. “Needle phobia is very real for these patients and their families,” says Dr. Dunn, director of Pediatric Hematology at Nationwide Children’s. “In some cases, ports need to be implanted so that these…

New App Enables Families and Researchers to Track Seizures With an Apple Watch
New App Enables Families and Researchers to Track Seizures With an Apple Watch 150 150 Gina Bericchia

Could a wearable app help children with seizures? With the launch of the Track It! app for Apple Watch, that’s what researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital are hoping to find out. Nationwide Children’s Hospital and SeizureTracker.com recently introduced a new wearable app to help track seizures called Track It!, which free to download for the Apple Watch in the…

Solving the Problem of Managing Big Genomic Data
Solving the Problem of Managing Big Genomic Data 150 150 Abbie Miller

Researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital complete a first-of-its-kind project to evaluate a large-scale genomic data management system on the scale of up to one million genomes. The influx of genomics data resulting from the increasing affordability of whole exome/genome sequencing and President Obama’s Precision Medicine Initiative requires a novel technological solution to data storage, communication…

Using Informatics to Help Identify Patients for Research
Using Informatics to Help Identify Patients for Research 150 150 Tiasha Letostak, PhD

Researchers use Informatics for Integrating Biology and the Bedside (i2b2), a system that can rapidly convert a large amount of clinical data into searchable information, to dramatically reduce the time needed for patient cohort identification. Patient cohort identification, or the process of finding patients with shared characteristics, is an important first step in the early…