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Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES

How to Increase Continuous Glucose Monitoring Utilization in Patients With Type 1 Diabetes
 How to Increase Continuous Glucose Monitoring Utilization in Patients With Type 1 Diabetes 1024 683 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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An innovative quality improvement project grew the use of CGM nearly six-fold in 2 years. A 2017 round-table meeting of the Type 1 Diabetes Exchange revealed that some diabetes clinics had a very small number of patients using continuous glucose monitors (CGM) — devices that allow patients to avoid repeated finger sticks to check glucose…

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Regional Anesthesia Dramatically Reduces Opioid Use After Limb Lengthening and Reconstructive Surgeries
 Regional Anesthesia Dramatically Reduces Opioid Use After Limb Lengthening and Reconstructive Surgeries 1024 584 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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The peripheral catheter approach to postoperative pain management may also shorten length of stay. When clinicians in the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine at Nationwide Children’s Hospital first proposed the use of regional anesthesia for the patients of Christopher Iobst, MD, he was resistant to the idea. As an orthopedic surgeon specializing in limb lengthening and…

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Asymptomatic Infants With Congenital Cytomegalovirus May Still Have Detectable, Significant Abnormalities
 Asymptomatic Infants With Congenital Cytomegalovirus May Still Have Detectable, Significant Abnormalities 1024 575 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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Color photo of Black father holding infant on shoulder in front of nursery background with clouds on the wall

More than half of high-risk CMV-positive newborns may have abnormalities not detected by a physical exam alone. A study in 34 infants with a normal physical exam despite a positive diagnosis of congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) — a viral infection that can lead to neurodevelopmental delays and permanent hearing loss — found that in more than…

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Tackling Physician Burnout and Moral Injury
 Tackling Physician Burnout and Moral Injury 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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Across the United States, burnout and suicide rates for physicians have reached record highs, claiming the life of a doctor a day. What can be done to protect and improve the wellbeing of the people who care for everyone else? Most doctors enter their profession knowing that it is demanding, but believing that it is…

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Multicenter Data Reveals Distal Hypospadias Repair Overall Success Rate
 Multicenter Data Reveals Distal Hypospadias Repair Overall Success Rate 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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Despite its use as an indicator of a department’s surgical skill, the reoperation rate for distal hypospadias repair has long been based on publications covering data from single-center studies — until now. Among its indicators for urologic surgery quality, U.S. News & World Report examines the complication rate for children undergoing distal hypospadias repair (relocation of the…

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Medicaid Patients With Common “Buckle” Fractures Have Less Access to Primary Care Physicians
 Medicaid Patients With Common “Buckle” Fractures Have Less Access to Primary Care Physicians 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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A national study found that the known disparity in access to care for Medicaid-covered children seeking orthopedic specialty care also occurs in primary care practices. Limits in access to specialty orthopedic care exist for children with Medicaid, in a large part due to many practices not accepting government insurance. Although many orthopedic injuries can be…

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A New Therapeutic Era in Pediatric Functional and Motility Disorders
 A New Therapeutic Era in Pediatric Functional and Motility Disorders 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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20 years ago, treatment options were limited for children with functional gastrointestinal (GI) and motility disorders. Now, a growing list of drugs, behavioral and dietary care plans, and an advanced, forward-looking technique – neuromodulation – are transforming pediatric GI care. Gastrointestinal (GI) disorders are notoriously difficult to diagnose. Virtually all functional and motility-related GI problems…

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What Pediatric Subspecialists Need to Know About Hypophosphatasia and Its Treatment
 What Pediatric Subspecialists Need to Know About Hypophosphatasia and Its Treatment 1024 575 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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Patients with hypophosphatasia may present to a wide range of specialists. Here’s the latest on diagnosis, patient management and clinical need for its only medical treatment: asfotase alfa enzyme replacement therapy (AA ERT). Hypophosphatasia is a rare, inherited condition that results in low serum alkaline phosphatase, which leads to poor construction of bones and teeth.…

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Pharmacists: The ‘Next Big Thing’ in Population Health Management
 Pharmacists: The ‘Next Big Thing’ in Population Health Management 1020 304 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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Nationwide Children's style illustration showing a row of houses with a prescription in front of it

One of the nation’s largest pediatric accountable care organizations has expanded pharmacists’ role in quality improvement efforts, which could substantially impact prescribing patterns and patient management. Partners For Kids (PFK), one of the country’s oldest and largest pediatric accountable care organizations, is a provider-based organization dedicated to population health management with three key aims: improved…

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RNase 7: Paving the Way for a Natural, Antibiotic-Free Treatment for Urinary Tract Infections
 RNase 7: Paving the Way for a Natural, Antibiotic-Free Treatment for Urinary Tract Infections 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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The latest in the body of antimicrobial peptide research suggests RNase7 may be a useful prognostic marker and potential therapeutic option for UTIs. Building on their body of research focused on the naturally occurring antimicrobial peptides in the urinary tract, clinician-scientists at Nationwide Children’s Hospital have now confirmed the suspected role of Ribonuclease 7 (RNase…

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Medicaid Patients With Common “Buckle” Fractures Have Less Access to Primary Care Physicians
 Medicaid Patients With Common “Buckle” Fractures Have Less Access to Primary Care Physicians 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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Pushing the Boundaries of Regional Anesthesia for Complex Urological Surgery
 Pushing the Boundaries of Regional Anesthesia for Complex Urological Surgery 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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Physician-researchers extend the possibilities for regional anesthesia using combined spinal/caudal catheter anesthesia, allowing even complex, time-consuming pediatric urological surgeries to be completed without general anesthesia. In an effort to extend more regional anesthetic options to children undergoing urological procedures — and to obviate concerns about airway safety and theoretical neurocognitive effects of general anesthesia (GA)…

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Most Seymour Fractures Can be Effectively Treated in the Emergency Room
 Most Seymour Fractures Can be Effectively Treated in the Emergency Room 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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After decades of unclear optimal management for Seymour fractures, evidence suggests orthopedic surgeons need not treat all of these cases in the operating room. Seymour fractures — open fractures of the distal phalanx with a juxta-epiphyseal pattern — were long managed nonsurgically following their namesake’s landmark study from the 1960s that asserted the risks of…

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Weight-Loss Surgery in Teens with Severe Obesity Offers Greater Benefits Than Waiting Until Adulthood
 Weight-Loss Surgery in Teens with Severe Obesity Offers Greater Benefits Than Waiting Until Adulthood 1024 575 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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scale

Research reveals that gastric bypass surgery during the teen years offers a greater chance of reversal of type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure than when the surgery is delayed until adulthood.

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Looking to the Future: Optimizing Fertility Preservation Decisions in Pediatric Patients Newly Diagnosed with Cancer
 Looking to the Future: Optimizing Fertility Preservation Decisions in Pediatric Patients Newly Diagnosed with Cancer 1024 575 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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Parent and child holding hands

Family-centered research aims to improve fertility preservation uptake and decision satisfaction among adolescents newly diagnosed with cancer.

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Profile of a Cancer: Getting to Know Ewing Sarcoma
 Profile of a Cancer: Getting to Know Ewing Sarcoma 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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Ewing sarcoma – a tumor type affecting the bone or soft tissue that primarily affects children and adolescents – has a 5-year survival rate of 70 percent among those with localized disease at diagnosis. Among children whose disease is metastatic, only 30 percent survive 5 years or longer. As a comparison, of all children diagnosed…

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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
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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…

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How do Babies With Single Ventricles Fare Between Stage 1 and 2 Hybrid Palliation?
 How do Babies With Single Ventricles Fare Between Stage 1 and 2 Hybrid Palliation? 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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Chronic Constipation: What Manometry Tells Us About Gastro-Colonic Response and Pathophysiology
 Chronic Constipation: What Manometry Tells Us About Gastro-Colonic Response and Pathophysiology 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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Child Sex Trafficking in the U.S. is Real — and a New Tool can Help Doctors Identify Victims
 Child Sex Trafficking in the U.S. is Real — and a New Tool can Help Doctors Identify Victims 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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Researchers exploring the alarmingly high prevalence of child sex trafficking in the United States have validated a practical tool for identifying victims in multiple health care settings. At least one in every 10 minors visiting emergency departments, child advocacy centers and teen clinics for sexual trauma or assault are victims of child sex trafficking, according…

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Opening the Door to Adult Medicine
 Opening the Door to Adult Medicine 1024 575 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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Care transition plans aren’t just for kids with congenital conditions anymore. Could your practice benefit from a proactive transition plan for all patients? In the shift from pediatric to adult care, young patients have the responsibility to adjust to a new life of self-management. But health care providers also play an important role in this…

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Generating the Genome: How Scientists Changed the Face of Cancer Research
 Generating the Genome: How Scientists Changed the Face of Cancer Research 1024 683 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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Color photo; environmental portrait ofDrs. Elaine Mardis and Richard Wilson

Team science. Ongoing innovation. Brilliant minds. Here’s how The Cancer Genome Atlas spawned a revolution in cancer research and technology. The Cancer Genome Atlas is wrapping up. Its data now lives online in the Genomic Data Commons, freely available to the public. Reports of the primary findings for each studied tumor type have been published, and…

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Are We Turning Away Too Many Pediatric Donor Hearts?
 Are We Turning Away Too Many Pediatric Donor Hearts? 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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More than half of all pediatric donor hearts are declined for use each year, despite the fact that many children die waiting for a heart. But why? And what can be done about it?   As many as one in every four infants on the heart transplant list dies awaiting an organ. For older children,…

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Could Antimicrobial Peptides Be Biomarkers for Obstructive Uropathy?
 Could Antimicrobial Peptides Be Biomarkers for Obstructive Uropathy? 1024 683 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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New research reveals the expression of antimicrobial peptides — long associated only with infections — in children with obstructive uropathy, creating the potential for a wide range of clinical applications. Previously only studied in the context of urinary tract and other infections, antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) — naturally occurring antibiotic molecules that our bodies may use…

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Could Earlier Spirometry Get CF Inpatients Home Sooner?
 Could Earlier Spirometry Get CF Inpatients Home Sooner? 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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A retrospective chart review suggests early spirometry is associated with shorter length of stay. As multicenter studies examine whether length of hospital stay and duration of treatment can be safely shortened for cystic fibrosis-related pulmonary exacerbations, physician-researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital have been exploring another unresolved angle related to these admissions: when to do pulmonary…

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Room for Improvement: Heart Catheterization Risks in Young Patients With Pulmonary Hypertension
 Room for Improvement: Heart Catheterization Risks in Young Patients With Pulmonary Hypertension 1024 575 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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Illustration of heart, CAVD

Identifying risk factors for cardiac catheterization complications offers physicians a way to improve pulmonary hypertension care. Up until a few years ago, cardiac catheterization in patients with pulmonary hypertension was considered a low-risk procedure for children and young adults. Some of the country’s best physicians had published studies showing very few complications among hundreds of…

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A Revolution in Deformity Correction Plus Limb Lengthening
 A Revolution in Deformity Correction Plus Limb Lengthening 1024 575 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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Orthopedic surgeons demonstrate that acute deformity correction and gradual limb lengthening can be accomplished simultaneously using an internal lengthening nail. In the past, limb lengthening and femoral deformity correction meant a long, painful, very visible process — an external fixator with manual adjusters, a knee that was difficult to bend, high infection risk and more.…

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Starting the Conversation on Sickle Cell Disease and Reproductive Health
 Starting the Conversation on Sickle Cell Disease and Reproductive Health 1024 575 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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Adolescents and young adults with sickle cell disease — and their caregivers — care about future fertility. But what should doctors tell them? Until just a few decades ago, sickle cell disease (SCD) was often fatal in childhood. Now that more patients reach adulthood, clinicians and researchers need to ask — and answer — questions…

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Mapping the World of Pediatric Severe Sepsis
 Mapping the World of Pediatric Severe Sepsis 1024 576 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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Blood cells

Researchers work to reveal the many subtypes of pediatric sepsis — and what to do about them. Once upon a time, sepsis was just sepsis. Children experiencing septic shock and its aftermath — any resulting organ failure — were viewed as a fairly homogenous group of patients. But now, thanks in a large part to…

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Is Whole Exome Sequencing the Future of Kidney Stone Management?
 Is Whole Exome Sequencing the Future of Kidney Stone Management? 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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The first use of whole exome sequencing for monogenic causes of kidney stone disease reveals the diagnostic tool is ripe for clinical application. In the first-ever study of whole exome sequencing for early-onset kidney stone disease, an international team of researchers led by clinician-scientists at Boston Children’s Hospital expanded on their prior finding that many…

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Reevaluate the Evaluation of Febrile Infants?
 Reevaluate the Evaluation of Febrile Infants? 1024 575 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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Black and white photo of infant crying in hospital

For decades, complete blood cell counts have been the go-to way to identify babies at high risk for serious bacterial infections. But recent research shows the popular lab test isn’t as useful as everyone thought. The Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) has worked for the past decade to both evaluate new technologies and…

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Solving the Puzzle of Transfusion-Related Immune Reactions
 Solving the Puzzle of Transfusion-Related Immune Reactions 576 367 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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Now that physicians have the “how” of blood transfusions mastered, they are starting to explore the “what” — and they’re learning that the effects of sharing human blood may be even more far-reaching and complex than previously imagined. With the initial safety challenges addressed and the technical barriers of donor blood storage and cleaning improved,…

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Childhood Kidney Stones Associated With Atherosclerosis
 Childhood Kidney Stones Associated With Atherosclerosis 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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Research could lead to early interventions to improve cardiovascular health. Kidney stones in children are increasingly common, and until recently were believed to be an isolated medical problem. But a study conducted by clinician-scientists at Nationwide Children’s Hospital has identified for the first time a significant association between kidney stones and atherosclerosis in children. Previous…

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Talking to Adolescent Patients About Marijuana
 Talking to Adolescent Patients About Marijuana 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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With legalization spreading across the United States, it’s hard to know what to say to teens curious about marijuana. Legal in 23 states and the District of Columbia. Renowned in pop culture. Affectionately called everything from “wacky tobaccy” to “hippie lettuce.” Marijuana isn’t going away. Despite its popularity and availability, many youths — and clinicians…

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Fighting Fibrosis
 Fighting Fibrosis 1024 575 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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Colorful illustration showing how fibrosis, or a spiky lumpy mass of scar tissue, forms over healthy liver tissue when the liver attempts to repair and replace damaged cells

Fibrosis is an unmet medical challenge with no satisfactory test and insufficient therapy. Now, one naturally occurring cellular component could simultaneously diagnose and heal patients. It’s much more than a million-dollar idea. The person who invents a simple blood or urine test that can accurately measure the severity of scarring in internal organs will have…

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Preserving Biopreservation
 Preserving Biopreservation 1024 575 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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Funding challenges, operational complexity and poor visibility threaten the field of human tissue biobanking. How sustainable are biorepositories? The Children’s Oncology Group (COG) boasts the collaboration of more than 9,000 pediatric cancer experts. They treat patients and research disease at more than 200 hospitals around the world. Nine out of every 10 U.S. children with cancer receive…

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InSight: A Window to the Heart
 InSight: A Window to the Heart 720 530 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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Cardiac MRI for Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome Hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) is a potentially fatal congenital heart defect affecting blood flow. It requires multiple palliative surgeries, starting within the first week of life. Nationwide Children’s employs a hybrid surgical approach. Hybrid Stage I (not shown) Bilateral branch pulmonary bands are placed to restrict blood flow.…

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A Shift in the Antibiotic Prophylaxis Debate?
 A Shift in the Antibiotic Prophylaxis Debate? 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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The RIVUR trial laid to rest certain questions surrounding antimicrobial prophylaxis in children with vesicoureteral reflux. But it also launched a new debate. The Randomized Intervention for Children with Vesicoureteral Reflux (RIVUR) trialwas supposed to provide clear direction for pediatric urologists. To date, it is the largest double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized, multicenter study examining urinary tract infection…

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Conflicting Directions for BPD Treatment
 Conflicting Directions for BPD Treatment 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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Treatment of bronchopulmonary dysplasia differs dramatically among institutions. But why does variation matter? Recent studies report extreme variation among hospitals ordering three common medications for chronic lung disease, or bronchopulmonary dysplasia, calling into question the appropriateness of their use and the reason for their prescription. “In the use of diuretics, inhaled bronchodilators and inhaled corticosteroids,…

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Placental Transfusion Confusion
 Placental Transfusion Confusion 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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Medical professional organizations cannot reach consensus regarding delayed cord clamping and umbilical cord “milking.” Nearly every relevant professional organization has its own recommendations for placental transfusion techniques known as delayed umbilical cord clamping and milking. But it’s unclear whether additional research will lead to consensus. The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and American Academy of Pediatrics say there’s…

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Beyond the Basics: Enrolling Children in Research
 Beyond the Basics: Enrolling Children in Research 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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The ethics of pediatric research include far more than the concepts of autonomy and assent. Consent and assent. Competence and autonomy. Physicians are familiar with the catchphrases of ethical research, but the deeper researchers dig, the more they find that the field’s current understanding of the dimensions involved in pediatric investigations is still shallow. Numerous…

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Study Finds Cow’s Milk is Added to Breast Milk and Sold to Parents Online
 Study Finds Cow’s Milk is Added to Breast Milk and Sold to Parents Online 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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Deceptive Internet advertisements for human breast milk may put infants at risk. What do parents (and doctors) need to know about milk sharing? A study published yesterday on the safety of human breast milk bought over the Internet found that 10 percent of samples contained added cow’s milk. The discovery that purchased samples of human milk may…

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The High Cost of Antibiotic Redundancy
 The High Cost of Antibiotic Redundancy 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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As many as 78 percent of non-federal U.S. hospitals frequently prescribe redundant antibiotics, according to a study appearing in the journal Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology. Over a four-year period, these hospitals accounted for 32,507 cases of antibiotic regimens with overlapping antimicrobial spectra, resulting in more than $12 million in avoidable health care expenses. There are very few clinical…

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Colorectal Cancer Screening and the Pediatric Subspecialist
 Colorectal Cancer Screening and the Pediatric Subspecialist 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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Screening a 15-year-old for pre-cancerous polyps may seem a bit unusual, as colon cancer is widely considered an adult disease. But for children with a family history of Lynch syndrome, a hereditary condition that increases the risk of colon and other cancers, life-threatening malignancies can develop as early as the mid-teens. Fewer than one in…

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Mystery Rising: Why is T1D Incidence Rising Globally?
 Mystery Rising: Why is T1D Incidence Rising Globally? 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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Type 1 diabetes used to be rare. Late 19th-century estimates put its incidence at about 0.004 percent of the world’s population. But by the end of the 20th century, most nations reported a number 350 times that rate. With many countries continuing to experience a steady rise in new cases of up to 4 percent…

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Building the Modern-Day Vaccine
 Building the Modern-Day Vaccine 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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Vaccine development used to be straightforward. Now, the challenges are many and the successes are few. What will it take to overcome the obstacles presented by both immunology and society? For 160 years, vaccine after vaccine succeeded at safely and effectively preventing its targeted illness using a set of standard strategies. Scientists knew they simply…

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InSight: Working Up the Nerve
 InSight: Working Up the Nerve 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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Using regional anesthesia to numb nerves reduces pain and speeds recovery in pediatric orthopedic surgery. Ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia has been used in adult patients for more than a decade but is now being used more regularly in pediatric patients, especially for orthopedic procedures. Femoral nerve block, in which the femoral nerve is numbed, is among…

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Body, Heal Thyself: Harnessing Our Innate Immunity
 Body, Heal Thyself: Harnessing Our Innate Immunity 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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What the urinary tract’s front-line defenses can teach us about our innate ability to self-heal …. and thwart antibiotic resistance. Antibiotic resistance is on the rise, health care-acquired infections are becoming harder to treat and even simple infectious illnesses account for billions of dollars per year in spending in the United States alone. As with…

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