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Monthly Archives :

April 2024

How Does Thickened Formula Affect Reflux in Infants?
 How Does Thickened Formula Affect Reflux in Infants? 1024 683 Mary Bates, PhD
By: Mary Bates, PhD

Infants in the neonatal intensive care unit with suspected gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) are often fed formula with added rice cereal or other thickeners, despite limited evidence of its efficacy or long-term consequences. Additionally, the consequences of thickened feeds are not well-studied, says Sudarshan Jadcherla, MD, a principal investigator at the Center for Perinatal Research…

Donor-Derived NK Cells Safe and Efficacious in Relapsed and Refractory AML
 Donor-Derived NK Cells Safe and Efficacious in Relapsed and Refractory AML 1024 649 Lauren Dembeck
By: Lauren Dembeck

Researchers have used their approach for growing large numbers of NK cells to allow repeated dosing for a more effective and less toxic treatment.   Outcomes for patients with relapsed and refractory acute myeloid leukemia (R/R AML) have not significantly improved over the last 30 years. For example, a recent study of patients treated with…

Telemedicine’s Past, Present and Future Role in Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease Care
 Telemedicine’s Past, Present and Future Role in Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease Care 1024 683 Erin Gregory
By: Erin Gregory

A recent study sheds light on how telemedicine’s use during the pandemic has reshaped care delivery for children with IBD.   A recent study published in Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition utilized electronic medical record data to compare the volume, duration and nature of office and telemedicine visits for pediatric patients with inflammatory bowel…

Trauma and Resilience in Youth With Opioid Use and Eating Disorders
 Trauma and Resilience in Youth With Opioid Use and Eating Disorders 1024 575 Pam Georgiana
By: Pam Georgiana
Teen girl with backpack

Health care providers should expect patients to have hidden traumas and reduced resilience.   When treating adolescents and young adults in the Substance Use Treatment and Recovery program at Nationwide Children’s, medical director Erin R. McKnight, MD, MPH, noticed that while most of her young patients had experienced some trauma in their lives, some patients…

Nationwide Children’s Research Benefits Kids Everywhere
 Nationwide Children’s Research Benefits Kids Everywhere 1024 575 Nationwide Children's
By: Nationwide Children's

Pediatric research benefits children everywhere. Through the stories below, discover more about the breadth and depth of research at Nationwide Children’s that is improving child health. Changing Feeding Outcomes Through Crib-Side Research “We have developed personalized approaches that allow for precision diagnosis and guided therapies that favor better nutrition, better oral skills, better airway protection…

Improving Medication Adherence and Clinical Outcomes After Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant
 Improving Medication Adherence and Clinical Outcomes After Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant 1024 683 JoAnna Pendergrass, DVM
By: JoAnna Pendergrass, DVM

A clinical trial is evaluating the acceptability and efficacy of a mobile app in improving medication adherence, symptoms and clinical outcomes in pediatric hematopoietic stem cell patients. A research team led by Micah Skeens, PhD, APRN, FAAN, principal investigator in the Center for Biobehavioral Health at the Abigail Wexner Research Institute, assistant professor of pediatrics…

Optimizing Prenatal and Neonatal Care for Infants With Treatable Rare Diseases
 Optimizing Prenatal and Neonatal Care for Infants With Treatable Rare Diseases 1024 619 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By: Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES

As new treatments emerge and diagnostics improve, earlier interventions offer infants with rare metabolic and neurodegenerative conditions a future wildly different than ever before. Not long ago, a diagnosis of molybdenum cofactor deficiency (MoCD) type A meant death before kindergarten. Since the FDA approval of NULIBRY® (fosdenopterin) in 2021, however, children diagnosed with MoCD type…

Turning Complications into Fuel for a New Approach to Better Outcomes
 Turning Complications into Fuel for a New Approach to Better Outcomes 1024 418 Alaina Doklovic
By: Alaina Doklovic

A new web application enhances Morbidity and Mortality data storage and actively improves patient care. Morbidity and Mortality (M&M) Conferences are mandated meetings that occur regularly at all academic medical centers and are powerful opportunities for learning and reflection. These conferences have been around for decades and provide opportunities to learn from medical errors, complications…

Accelerating Advances in Epilepsy Surgery
 Accelerating Advances in Epilepsy Surgery 1024 683 Abbie Miller
By: Abbie Miller

One program is bringing together clinical care, surgery and research to create a brighter future for children with intractable epilepsy. Childhood-onset epilepsy affects 1% of children worldwide. Up to a third of patients with epilepsy will have medically refractory epilepsy, continuing to have seizures despite using two or more antiseizure medications. Options for this group…

New Frontiers for Data Science in Pediatric Research
 New Frontiers for Data Science in Pediatric Research 1024 577 Peter White, PhD
By: Peter White, PhD

From discovery science to population health, researchers generate masses of data that hold immense potential to transform pediatric research, diagnostics, treatments and even guide disease prevention strategies. To make sense of this data deluge, we’ve been harnessing the power of cloud computing and cutting-edge data science techniques, such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML)…

Unraveling the Genetic Mystery Behind a Rare Pediatric Disease
 Unraveling the Genetic Mystery Behind a Rare Pediatric Disease 980 429 Wendy Margolin
By: Wendy Margolin

Prune belly syndrome (PBS) is a rare, congenital urologic disease, affecting an estimated 1 out of 50,000 births. While most urologists will see fewer than three cases of PBS in their careers, Nationwide Children’s Hospital’s Linda Baker, MD, has treated more than 50 patients and met and counseled nearly 200 in the last 15 years.…

The First 3 Years With PBS: Bryson’s Story
 The First 3 Years With PBS: Bryson’s Story 953 269 Wendy Margolin
By: Wendy Margolin

The first time Andrea Williams met her new baby was four days after his birth. Baby Bryson was born with the rare congenital disorder, prune belly syndrome (PBS), and was rushed to the Nationwide Children’s Hospital NICU immediately after birth. His enlarged belly meant he was delivered by C-section at 37 weeks, and it wasn’t…

Connecting Well-being to Compassionate Care in Pediatric Residents
 Connecting Well-being to Compassionate Care in Pediatric Residents 1024 683 Madison Storm
By: Madison Storm

A multicenter study identified several well-being factors associated with pediatric residents’ confidence in providing calm, compassionate care to patients. Suzanne Reed, MD, has been interested in medical education since her training as a medical student. Captivated by the academic side of education, Dr. Reed has dedicated much of her research and clinical work to medical…

Proton Therapy – A New Era of Cancer Therapy for Children
 Proton Therapy – A New Era of Cancer Therapy for Children 1024 683 Abbie Miller
By: Abbie Miller

Proton therapy offers benefits over traditional photon radiation therapy. Using proton therapy, doctors can give more specific, concentrated doses of radiation with less risk and damage to the surrounding tissue. Proton therapy is an advanced type of radiation treatment that uses protons instead of X-rays to kill cancer cells. Our proton therapy center uses the…

Practical Advice for Investigator-Initiated Trials
 Practical Advice for Investigator-Initiated Trials 1024 363 Lauren Dembeck
By: Lauren Dembeck

Investigator-initiated trials play a crucial role in advancing medical research and contributing to evidence-based medicine. These trials are initiated, designed and conducted by researchers, often physicians or scientists, rather than by pharmaceutical or biotechnology companies. They allow researchers to explore specific hypotheses, novel interventions or unique patient populations that may not be addressed in industry-sponsored…

New National “Vital Signs” to Measure Population-wide Pediatric Health
 New National “Vital Signs” to Measure Population-wide Pediatric Health 1024 683 Jeb Phillips
By: Jeb Phillips

In 2017, an opinion piece in JAMA Pediatrics started this way: “We call for a national effort to develop a parsimonious set of quality and outcome measures for (all) children.” And now, for perhaps the first time in American pediatrics, that “parsimonious set: has been laid out to guide communities and health systems across the United…

Featured Researcher – Rajan Thakkar, MD
 Featured Researcher – Rajan Thakkar, MD 150 150 Alaina Doklovic
By: Alaina Doklovic

Rajan K. Thakkar, MD, FACS, is a pediatric surgeon, the Trauma Medical Director, and the co-Director of the Burn Center at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. He is an associate professor of Surgery and Pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine and is a principal investigator at the Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences Research…

Supporting Optimal Developmental Outcomes After Neonatal Opioid Withdrawal Syndrome
 Supporting Optimal Developmental Outcomes After Neonatal Opioid Withdrawal Syndrome 1024 575 Abbie Miller
By: Abbie Miller
Toddler playing with toys

Children with prenatal opioid exposure have a higher risk for developmental and behavioral concerns. Prenatal opioid exposure is still far too common. Experts estimate that one infant who has been exposed to opioids is born every 15 minutes in the United States.  While standard diagnostic criteria for neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome (NOWS) were recently proposed,…

Scalable Delivery of Universal Suicide Prevention in Schools
 Scalable Delivery of Universal Suicide Prevention in Schools 1024 657 Pam Georgiana
By: Pam Georgiana

Implementing the Signs of Suicide (SOS) Prevention and Screening Program   Suicide is the second-leading cause of death among youth ages 10 to 19 years, and data indicate no sign of it decreasing as a major public health issue. While acute care and crisis intervention are critical efforts to reduce adolescent suicide rates, there is…

Infliximab Biosimilars Improve Growth Outcomes in Children With Inflammatory Bowel Disease
 Infliximab Biosimilars Improve Growth Outcomes in Children With Inflammatory Bowel Disease 1024 683 Mary Bates, PhD
By: Mary Bates, PhD

Treatment with either the infliximab originator or a biosimilar improves clinical and growth outcomes. In a new study, researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital report that children with inflammatory bowel disease showed similar growth and clinical outcomes whether they were treated with the infliximab originator or a biosimilar agent. The results add to the growing literature…

New Approach to Understanding Slow Oscillations in the Sleeping Brain
 New Approach to Understanding Slow Oscillations in the Sleeping Brain 150 150 Jessica Nye, PhD
By: Jessica Nye, PhD

Investigators have proposed a novel model-based approach that leverages data generated during sleep to mimic global slow oscillations in the sleeping brain with closed-loop (cl) Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation (tACS). “We’re really interested in the sleeping brain because as we develop, the brain is changing. During sleep, we process information that we learn during the…

Integrating PCOS Research and Clinical Care for Adolescents
 Integrating PCOS Research and Clinical Care for Adolescents 1024 575 Pam Georgiana
By: Pam Georgiana
Black and white image of teen girl posing outside

Researchers at Nationwide Children’s are participating in building the first-ever national registry of adolescent Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) patient data through a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded research grant. The grant will collect patient data from more than 12 multidisciplinary PCOS clinics, including Nationwide Children’s. PCOS is a hormonal imbalance that can cause irregular menstrual…

How Are Insulin Pumps Being Utilized for Patients with Type 1 Diabetes?
 How Are Insulin Pumps Being Utilized for Patients with Type 1 Diabetes? 1024 683 Pam Georgiana
By: Pam Georgiana

A multicenter observational study of 22,000 children and adults shows improving quality of life for patients with type 1 diabetes.    Type 1 diabetes diagnoses are increasing among children, particularly those in racial/ethnic minority groups. New technology, specifically insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) systems, may improve quality of life and long-term outcomes. However,…

What Features Make Virtual Reality Effective in Pain Management?
 What Features Make Virtual Reality Effective in Pain Management? 934 401 Mary Bates, PhD
By: Mary Bates, PhD

Game realism, fun and engagement all impact pain perception during burn dressing changes. Researchers from Nationwide Children’s Hospital show that three key features of a virtual reality intervention (game realism, fun and engagement) influence self-reported pain scores during burn dressing changes. The findings provide insight into the potential mechanisms through which virtual reality affects pain…

Spinal Anesthesia – an Alternative for Infants Undergoing Surgery
 Spinal Anesthesia – an Alternative for Infants Undergoing Surgery 1024 683 Pam Georgiana
By: Pam Georgiana

A new study highlights the safety and efficacy of more than 1,000 surgeries using spinal anesthesia. Nationwide Children’s Infant Spinal Anesthesia Program, headed by Grant J. Heydinger, MD, a pediatric attending anesthesiologist in the Department of Anesthesiology & Pain Medicine, recently published the results of a multiyear study of spinal anesthesia for infants undergoing surgery…

Quality Improvement Approach Reduces Pediatric Asthma Emergency Department Visits by 33%
 Quality Improvement Approach Reduces Pediatric Asthma Emergency Department Visits by 33% 770 513 JoAnna Pendergrass, DVM
By: JoAnna Pendergrass, DVM

With institutional support, a primary care-based quality improvement initiative markedly reduced asthma-related emergency department visits for children with asthma. Researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital implemented a quality improvement (QI) project that reduced pediatric asthma emergency department (ED) visits by 33% from 2010 to 2019. Stephen Hersey, MD, a pediatrician in Nationwide Children’s section of primary…

Improving UTI Detection in Neonates: Antimicrobial Peptides and Cotton Balls
 Improving UTI Detection in Neonates: Antimicrobial Peptides and Cotton Balls 1024 683 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By: Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES

New research sets the stage for less-invasive urinary tract infection identification in neonates 22-37 weeks gestational age. A team of researchers driving the revolution in urinary tract infection (UTI) identification using antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) has now expanded their focus from adults and children to newborns – including those born prematurely. Their latest study, published in…