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Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES

More Data on Rare GI Diseases, With Less Work
 More Data on Rare GI Diseases, With Less Work 1024 535 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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Collage of health technology tools

Electronic health record systems can drive knowledge acquisition in rare gastrointestinal conditions — and other orphan diseases — without the burden of duplicative data entry. Rare diseases often remain poorly understood and inefficiently treated due to a lack of objective knowledge on their natural history, pathophysiology or clinical outcomes in response to various therapies. Collecting…

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Novel Genetic Driver Discovered for Pediatric Meningiomas Using Molecular Profiling
 Novel Genetic Driver Discovered for Pediatric Meningiomas Using Molecular Profiling 1024 575 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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Researchers have uncovered a rare subset of meningiomas with a genetic driver shared by another cancer type, opening the door to new therapeutic considerations. When an interesting or intractable cancer case arises at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, researchers and clinicians involved in the Brain Tumor Protocol through The Steve and Cindy Rasmussen Institute for Genomic Medicine…

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CLABSI in Hematology and Oncology: Progress Toward Zero
 CLABSI in Hematology and Oncology: Progress Toward Zero 1024 576 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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Blood cells

A thorough review of five years of CLABSI data reveals key gaps in clinical knowledge that must be addressed to further reduce infection rates. For some time, any bloodstream infection (BSI) in a patient with a central venous catheter was considered a central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI). In 2013, refined definitions enabled a distinction between…

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Transplant-Free Survival Among Children With Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome Undergoing Hybrid Palliation
 Transplant-Free Survival Among Children With Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome Undergoing Hybrid Palliation 1024 683 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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Young child

The first long-term evaluation of kids with hypoplastic left heart syndrome undergoing hybrid palliation procedures finds transplant-free survival similar to that of the standard treatment at age 15 years. As one of the few teams in the world almost exclusively performing hybrid palliation surgery for babies with hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) and related congenital…

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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
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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…

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

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Findings Show TEVG Stenosis Spontaneously Resolves
 Findings Show TEVG Stenosis Spontaneously Resolves 600 400 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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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…

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Finding the Best Treatment for Stable but Severe Slipped Capital Femoral Epiphysis
 Finding the Best Treatment for Stable but Severe Slipped Capital Femoral Epiphysis 1024 575 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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A novel comparison of the modified Dunn procedure for children with stable vs unstable SCFE has identified a new target to improve surgical outcomes. The modified Dunn procedure uses a surgical hip dislocation approach to realign the hip joint in adolescents with slipped capital femoral epiphysis (SCFE) — a condition in which the ball of…

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CMS Approves New Code for Adult Congenital Heart Disease Subspecialty
 CMS Approves New Code for Adult Congenital Heart Disease Subspecialty 1024 683 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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The official billing code will enable growth of the subspecialty and is expected to result in improved patient care. In March, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) approved a unique code for subspecialists in adult congenital heart disease (ACHD). The code will allow board-certified ACHD specialists to bill as such, rather than as…

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Choking Education an Important Element of Care for Prader-Willi Syndrome Families
 Choking Education an Important Element of Care for Prader-Willi Syndrome Families 1024 575 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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Choking prevention and intervention education offer a simple way to address this common cause of death among PWS patients. Individuals with Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS) suffer from poor oral muscle control, generalized low muscle tone that can make it hard to swallow properly, a poor gag reflex and an insatiable desire to eat. Together with a…

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Determining Ureteropelvic Junction Obstruction Surgical Success Using Biomarkers
 Determining Ureteropelvic Junction Obstruction Surgical Success Using Biomarkers 1024 575 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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Biomarkers initially found to differ among patients with ureteropelvic junction obstruction and healthy controls may also objectively gauge post-surgical resolution of obstruction. A follow-up study of a trial that initially identified four biomarkers that differ between healthy controls and pediatric patients about to undergo surgery for ureteropelvic junction obstruction (UPJO) has confirmed that two of…

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Preventing and Ameliorating Acute and Chronic Kidney Damage After Chemotherapy
 Preventing and Ameliorating Acute and Chronic Kidney Damage After Chemotherapy 720 480 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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Research looking at mitochondrial targets in kidney health holds promise for cisplatin-induced kidney injury. Recent work exploring the mitochrondrial metabolism in the kidneys following exposure to cisplatin, a common chemotherapy, has revealed a key role of superoxide (O2•-, an indicator of oxidative stress in renal cells associated with cell damage and death) in both acute…

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Hemophilia Gene Therapy Trials Aim to Reduce Patient Burden
 Hemophilia Gene Therapy Trials Aim to Reduce Patient Burden 1024 495 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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blood cells

Clinical trials using gene therapy to boost the body’s production of clotting factor aim to remove the need for regular infusions — ideally giving patients years or even decades free from daily worry about their condition. Unlike most pediatric treatment centers, Nationwide Children’s Hospital is one of only a few dozen sites worldwide selected to…

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How Practical COVID-19 Education for Community Providers Sprang From a Pediatric Behavioral Health Project ECHO
 How Practical COVID-19 Education for Community Providers Sprang From a Pediatric Behavioral Health Project ECHO 1024 575 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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When Partners For Kids® (PFK) and Nationwide Children’s Hospital launched Project ECHO in 2018, they did it to help community providers cope with common behavioral health conditions in their patient populations. Unexpectedly, it became a tool to supply Ohio physicians with some of the most proactive education in the nation about adapting their business practices to accommodate COVID-19-related…

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How a Network of Hospitals Reduced Average Age at Cerebral Palsy Diagnosis to 9.5 Months
 How a Network of Hospitals Reduced Average Age at Cerebral Palsy Diagnosis to 9.5 Months 1024 683 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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In just one year, hospital teams working as part of a network to implement international cerebral palsy diagnosis guidelines successfully reduced average age at diagnosis from 19.5 months to 9.5 months. More than 50% of all eventual cerebral palsy (CP) cases spend time in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, making early CP evaluation a crucial…

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Transforming Medical Science Through Research Affinity Groups
 Transforming Medical Science Through Research Affinity Groups 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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Purposeful synergy drives the most meaningful medical science. Nephrology physician-scientists require tissue samples, urologists desire tests to know which patients truly require surgery, and basic scientists must find ways to meaningfully assess new animal models to yield clinically valuable data. If each of these professionals had a defined network of colleagues from the other disciplines…

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Better Bone Healing by Reversing Current Techniques?
 Better Bone Healing by Reversing Current Techniques? 1024 575 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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Bones may heal denser and stronger when given room for controlled micro-movement at first, followed by rigid stabilization — a complete flip-flop of the standard of care. A combination of biology and mechanical influence determines how well a bone heals, for better or worse. For half a century, physicians have believed that complete bone immobilization…

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New Application of Nuclear Imaging in the Legs May Enable Early Detection of Cardiovascular Problems
 New Application of Nuclear Imaging in the Legs May Enable Early Detection of Cardiovascular Problems 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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Researchers have used a non-invasive imaging modality to quantify perfusion reserve in specific muscles of the extremities — a novel approach with numerous potential clinical applications Researchers have shown for the first time that SPECT/CT imaging can be used to quantify perfusion reserve of specific muscle groups in the lower limbs, which they directly related…

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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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