Monthly Archives :

October 2020

Exploring the Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Pediatric Functional Abdominal Pain Disorders
Exploring the Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Pediatric Functional Abdominal Pain Disorders 1024 680 Mary Bates, PhD
Close up color photo of little boy holding hands on his belly

A survey finds most children with functional abdominal pain disorders use at least one form of complementary and alternative medicine. Functional abdominal pain disorders, which include functional dyspepsia, irritable bowel syndrome and abdominal migraine, are influenced by both biological and psychosocial factors. The underlying mechanisms are complex and largely unknown, making treatment challenging. Researchers from…

Probiotics are Safe and Feasible for Gastrointestinal Symptoms in Autism Spectrum Disorders
Probiotics are Safe and Feasible for Gastrointestinal Symptoms in Autism Spectrum Disorders 150 150 Mary Bates, PhD

A pilot trial found a trend toward improvements in quality of life in patients treated with probiotics. Gastrointestinal disorders and anxiety symptoms are commonly reported in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Recent research in rodent models and neurotypical humans has demonstrated that changing the gut microbiota can improve gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms. Some studies even…

Measuring the Progression of CF in School-Aged Children
Measuring the Progression of CF in School-Aged Children 1024 575 Abbie Miller
Illustration of lungs on blue silhouette of upper chest on black background

A multicenter study utilized chest computed tomography and lung function tests taken repeatedly over two years in school-aged children with mild cystic fibrosis. Understanding disease progression in chronic illnesses is important to managing patients and improving outcomes. For children with cystic fibrosis, it can be difficult to predict how long it will take for negative…

Comprehensive Type 1 Diabetes Wellness Score to Help Patients and Providers
Comprehensive Type 1 Diabetes Wellness Score to Help Patients and Providers 1024 683 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
Device for monitoring glucose placed on girl's arm

A quality improvement effort resulted in the first-known composite score to track multiple clinical indicators of diabetes-related health in patients with Type 1. Despite the traditional use of hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) as the standard metric for diabetes control, it has its shortcomings, such as an incomplete picture of blood sugar variability and hypoglycemia risk. To…

Increases in Number and Severity of Suicide-Related Calls to U.S. Poison Control Centers Involving Over-the-Counter Pain Relievers
Increases in Number and Severity of Suicide-Related Calls to U.S. Poison Control Centers Involving Over-the-Counter Pain Relievers 1024 575 Laura Dattner
Teen girl with backpack

Experts call for increased regulation, prevention efforts. Over-the-counter (OTC) analgesics such as acetaminophen, ibuprofen and acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin) have long been a staple in households for managing pain, fevers and other common ailments. However, the accessibility of these medications can make them easy to take in dangerous amounts. In a new study, researchers at the Center…

Paying for Telehealth After COVID-19
Paying for Telehealth After COVID-19 1024 535 Jeb Phillips
Collage of health technology tools

Telehealth has become an essential part of health care delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic, but its future depends on reimbursement and other financial questions. Just weeks into the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, health care stakeholders across the country were talking about the expansion of telehealth as a silver lining, and how it seemed…

Intractable Epilepsy Linked to Brain-Specific Genetic Mutation
Intractable Epilepsy Linked to Brain-Specific Genetic Mutation 1024 794 Lauren Dembeck

DNA replication errors during development are revealed by genomic study. As part of an ongoing, collaborative study between neurologists and genomics experts at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, researchers have identified somatic mosaicism in the resected brain tissues of a child with treatment-resistant, intractable epilepsy. One of the two genetically distinct cell populations identified carries a pathogenic…

More to Telehealth Than Meets the Screen
More to Telehealth Than Meets the Screen 1024 535 Abbie Miller
Collage of health technology tools

Telehealth has become essential to American health care during the COVID-19 pandemic, but is it really the solution to our biggest access-to-care problems? When COVID-19 ignited stay-at-home orders, public and private insurers quickly relaxed the rules for covering telehealth visits. Health care systems responded in kind by rapidly expanding their telehealth capacity and training. Expanding…

Updated Guidance on Oral Food Challenges
Updated Guidance on Oral Food Challenges 1024 575 Mary Bates, PhD

New report offers guidelines and examples for safely performing oral food challenges in clinical practice. Oral food challenges are integral for allergists to diagnose food allergies. In 2009, the Adverse Reactions to Foods Committee within the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology published a report providing guidance for safely conducting an oral food challenge.…

The New Emergency Department — for Behavioral Health
The New Emergency Department — for Behavioral Health 1024 575 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES

How pediatric hospitals are creatively tackling the unique care needs of a growing population of youths in crisis. From attention deficit disorder to anxiety or depression, mental health conditions affect about 1 in every 5 children. While some of these cases resolve, many children go on to adulthood with mental or behavioral health disorders, and…

Obsessed with Zero: Reflections on the Career and Achievements of Richard J. Brili, MD
Obsessed with Zero: Reflections on the Career and Achievements of Richard J. Brili, MD 1024 575 John Barnard, MD
Richard J. Brilli, MD

In 2008, Richard “Rich” Brilli, MD, was recruited to Nationwide Children’s Hospital as its chief medical officer. Among other physician executive duties, he was charged with lowering the rate of preventable harm as leader of the hospital’s quality and safety programs. After a few months of learning about our organization’s culture and assessing our potential,…

Advances in Neonatal GERD
Advances in Neonatal GERD 1024 683 Mary Bates, PhD
Dr. Jadcherla

New studies from the Jadcherla Lab provide insights into diagnosing, classifying and treating GERD in infants. Differentiating gastroesophageal reflux (GER), which is defined as the passage of gastric contents into the esophagus, from GER disease (GERD), when reflux is associated with troubling symptoms, remains a challenge in infants. Symptom-based diagnosis and treatment of GERD has…

Findings Show TEVG Stenosis Spontaneously Resolves
Findings Show TEVG Stenosis Spontaneously Resolves 600 400 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
Tissue engineered vascular graft

The complication that halted a clinical trial for tissue-engineered vascular grafts for children with congenital heart disease may reverse spontaneously without clinical complications. Based on promising laboratory and animal modeling of a biodegradable scaffold seeded with a patient’s own cells, a clinician-scientist research team now based at Nationwide Children’s Hospital initiated a pediatric tissue engineered…

Pediatric Vital Signs: Measuring and Improving the Health of a Population
Pediatric Vital Signs: Measuring and Improving the Health of a Population 150 150 Jeb Phillips

Nationwide Children’s Hospital and its community partners have begun an “audacious” project to help every child in their region. Despite the best efforts of primary care providers and children’s hospitals, some children do not receive the care they need. Patients can only spend a limited amount of time in a medical office; some who would…

Diagnosing Adolescent Polycystic Ovary Syndrome
Diagnosing Adolescent Polycystic Ovary Syndrome 1024 673 JoAnna Pendergrass, DVM

New adolescent-specific guidelines provide more precise guidance on diagnosing polycystic ovary syndrome in adolescent females. Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), the most common female reproductive endocrine disorder, presents diagnostic challenges in adolescents, highlighting the need for adolescent-specific diagnostic guidelines for PCOS. “We can’t use the adult criteria for diagnosing adolescent PCOS,” says Andrea Bonny, MD, section chief…

A Collaborative Approach to Preventive Cardiology
A Collaborative Approach to Preventive Cardiology 1024 575 Andrew Tran, MD

Many of us have friends or family members who have had an early heart attack. The event is sudden, unexpected and sobering. Those who recover often make drastic changes to their diet and lifestyle, along with taking medications, and endeavor to delay and undo years of accumulated toll. However, these efforts can only go so…