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Monthly Archives :

April 2016

Using Social Media to Advance Care
 Using Social Media to Advance Care 150 150 Nationwide Children's
By: Nationwide Children's

As the use of social media has grown, so has the medical community’s understanding of how it can be harnessed for health care. From collaborating with peers and educating the public to building your career, physicians have a growing responsibility and growing presence in the social media arena. David R. Stukus, MD Section of Allergy…

Achieving CLARITY
 Achieving CLARITY 1024 575 Abbie Miller
By: Abbie Miller
conceptual art of DNA

Multidisciplinary team from Nationwide Children’s wins international genomics competition. Accurate, patient-centered, comprehensive. That’s how the judges and leaders of the CLARITY Undiagnosed Challenge described the work of a team from Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Those same words could be used to describe the highly motivated and diverse team who surprised themselves by winning the challenge. “When we entered the challenge, we knew we would…

Simulating Surgery With High-Performance Computing
 Simulating Surgery With High-Performance Computing 1024 575 Abbie Miller
By: Abbie Miller

By applying high-performance computing to the field of otolaryngology, a team of researchers is developing a simulation environment for teaching surgical techniques related to the temporal bone. The purpose of training — whether a fire drill or practicing a surgical technique — is to create successes and avoid failures. “The impact of training is safety…

Neurologists Urged to Consider MCA When Evaluations Don’t Support Claims
 Neurologists Urged to Consider MCA When Evaluations Don’t Support Claims 150 150 Kevin Mayhood
By: Kevin Mayhood

Up to half of medical child abuse cases include neurological symptoms Medical child abuse (MCA) is highly variable, but neurologists are in a position to help detect up to half of these cases, researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital report. Consistent with the authors’ clinical experience, studies estimate that abusive caregivers make up, exaggerate or induce…

The Smallest Victims of the Opioid Crisis
 The Smallest Victims of the Opioid Crisis 1024 575 Abbie Miller
By: Abbie Miller
Black and white photo of infant crying in hospital

Research, protocols and community connections lead to help infants with neonatal abstinence syndrome and their mothers. It’s a sound you’d never forget. The panicked, high-pitched cry of a newborn withdrawing from the drugs his mother took. All the sensations that drive an addict to use again and again just for the relief – shaking, vomiting,…

Signaling Pathway Changes May Flag CAVD, Offer Target for Therapies
 Signaling Pathway Changes May Flag CAVD, Offer Target for Therapies 150 150 Kevin Mayhood
By: Kevin Mayhood

Loss of TgfB1 from the endothelium leads to a reduction in Sox9 expression and valve calcification. A team of researchers has identified a molecular signaling pathway that, when altered, can contribute to calcific aortic valve disease (CAVD). The finding may provide a method for early diagnosis — many patients don’t learn they have the disease until it’s in the final…

Helping the Sickest Children Navigate the Health Care System
 Helping the Sickest Children Navigate the Health Care System 150 150 Jeb Phillips
By: Jeb Phillips

Care coordination focuses on better outcomes for children with medical complexity. Consider a child with cerebral palsy who needs a feeding tube to eat. She has special equipment for a basic life function. She requires regular visits with a primary care physician and specialists in neurology, orthopedics and gastroenterology. She has frequent acute infections that lead to emergency department visits.…

Predicting Risk for Chronic Renal Disease in Children
 Predicting Risk for Chronic Renal Disease in Children 150 150 Kevin Mayhood
By: Kevin Mayhood

Studies using a new contrast agent have the potential to determine if infants born premature develop a full complement of nephrons. A new magnetic resonance imaging contrast agent enables researchers to see the number and volume of blood-filtering nephrons in rodent kidneys and donated human adult kidneys, potentially offering a way to diagnose chronic renal disease far earlier than current…

The Journey to a Program Project Grant
 The Journey to a Program Project Grant 1024 575 Tiasha Letostak, PhD
By: Tiasha Letostak, PhD

Recommendations from a multi-institutional research team who persevered to obtain a P01 to develop a vaccine for RSV. In 2015, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) awarded a $6.75 million program project grant to Mark Peeples, PhD, Octavio Ramilo, MD, and M. Asuncion Mejias, MD, PhD, all principal investigators in the Center for Vaccines and Immunity at The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s…

Vaccine Fails to Reactivate Immunity to Hepatitis C Virus
 Vaccine Fails to Reactivate Immunity to Hepatitis C Virus 150 150 Abbie Miller
By: Abbie Miller

T cells remain inactivated even after immunization in subjects with persistent, controlled infections. Two papers recently published in Hepatology uncovered evidence of permanent immune system damage after hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. The studies used a vaccine currently in clinical trials to attempt to restore immunity against HCV in animal models and humans with chronic HCV infection. “In chronic HCV, CD8+…

A Novel Approach to Pediatric Fecal and Urinary Incontinence
 A Novel Approach to Pediatric Fecal and Urinary Incontinence 150 150 Jeb Phillips
By: Jeb Phillips

A 9-year-old girl with caudal regression syndrome is the first child in the United States to be treated with pudendal nerve stimulation. Neuromodulation of the sacral nerve, or sacral nerve stimulation, is rarely but increasingly used in children to help control fecal and urinary incontinence when standard medical management has failed. The treatment involves the implantation of a device…

On the Front Lines
 On the Front Lines 150 150 Anne FitzSimons
By: Anne FitzSimons

Pediatricians can reverse health disparities among the LGBT population. A recent position paper from the American College of Physicians (ACP) examines health disparities experienced by the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) population in the United States and includes recommendations for improving access to care. The ACP found that some policies and accompanying social stigma of LGBT persons has led…

The Collapse of Biofilms?
 The Collapse of Biofilms? 1024 575 Jeb Phillips
By: Jeb Phillips
Illustration showing the precise pattern of a biofilm - a perfect, 3D matrix

Scientists are working to eliminate the causes of countless chronic and recurrent human infections. Before the discoveries that could lead to biofilm eradication, before the idea that he was even working on treatments for the bacterial communities that are crucial to most human infections, Steven Goodman, PhD, had a mystery on his hands. For nearly 15 years. Dr. Goodman, then a biochemist…

Taking Aim at the Opioid Problem
 Taking Aim at the Opioid Problem 1024 683 Abbie Miller
By: Abbie Miller
open bottle of pills

Pediatric specialists offer practical advice for protecting vulnerable patients from a growing epidemic. The opioid epidemic in the United States is so widespread that even parents and teachers are now being issued opioid overdose kits complete with naloxone. It’s in rural communities, suburban neighborhoods and inner cities. It’s so far-reaching that physicians and non-experts alike are being called to work together…

Remote Control Treatment
 Remote Control Treatment 1024 575 Jeb Phillips
By: Jeb Phillips

Magnetic growing rods help patients who have early-onset scoliosis avoid repeated surgeries. A common surgical treatment for young children with severe early-onset scoliosis is the implantation of growing rods or expandable titanium ribs. The devices are lengthened as the child grows, helping to straighten the spine. Lengthening involves surgery under general anesthesia every six months. Magnetic Expansion Control (MAGEC)…

Hearing Without Cochlear Nerves
 Hearing Without Cochlear Nerves 150 150 Tiasha Letostak, PhD
By: Tiasha Letostak, PhD

Auditory brainstem implant devices may help young children with sensorineural hearing loss. Sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) is the most common type of hearing loss, accounting for about 90 percent of all hearing loss worldwide. SNHL involves damage to the inner ear (cochlea) or to the nerve pathways from the inner ear to the brain, and thus cannot be managed via…

Identifying Characteristics Associated With Timely Follow-Up Psychiatric Care
 Identifying Characteristics Associated With Timely Follow-Up Psychiatric Care 150 150 Kevin Mayhood
By: Kevin Mayhood

Nearly one in three youths with mood disorders receive no outpatient care within 30 days of psychiatric hospital discharge. More than diagnoses and demographics influence whether youths receive critical outpatient care following psychiatric hospitalization. Individual attributes and aspects of the hospital where they receive treatment as well as the community they live in play roles, researchers from The Ohio State…