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Fighting Back Against COVID-19 Misinformation on the Web
 Fighting Back Against COVID-19 Misinformation on the Web 1024 683 David Stukus, MD
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Misinformation on the internet is nothing new, but in the age of COVID-19, it is more important than ever for health care experts to speak up for evidence-based care. Misinformation on the internet has been rampant for years. From antivaxxers and naturopaths to flat earthers and others, misinformation has always infiltrated online searches and only…

Preventing and Addressing Child Abuse During COVID-19
 Preventing and Addressing Child Abuse During COVID-19 1024 575 Kristin Crichton, DO, MPH
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With schools and daycares closed, stay-at-home orders in effect, and most non-emergency health care visits being conducted via telehealth, reporting and addressing child abuse is more difficult. Dr. Crichton from The Center for Family Safety and Healing shares advice for providers to identify child abuse during telehealth visits. As concerns about the coronavirus pandemic swept…

THRIVING After Severe Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia
 THRIVING After Severe Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia 1024 731 Abbie Miller
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Meet Willow. She was born via emergency C-section at just 22 weeks. Doctors at the delivering hospital told Willow’s mom Cortney that her baby’s chances of survival were low. But after a long journey through the newborn intensive care unit (NICU) at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Willow is a vivacious 4-year-old looking forward to starting kindergarten…

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…

Epigenetics, Chromatin Architecture and a Judo Mechanism to Attack Cancer
 Epigenetics, Chromatin Architecture and a Judo Mechanism to Attack Cancer 1024 575 Abbie Miller
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yellow squiggly lines representing chromatin strands in the nucleus

Researchers broaden the understanding chromatin architecture in human disease. Epigenetics is the study of how genetic information is context-dependent: it is organized so it can be repressed, but also read, repaired and replicated. For example, transcription factors can “communicate” with each other through the chromatin-DNA interface, and work in combinations to regulate which genes are…

Accountable Care and Quality Improvement: How an ACO Helps Community Practices Provide the “Right Care” Through QI
 Accountable Care and Quality Improvement: How an ACO Helps Community Practices Provide the “Right Care” Through QI 1024 575 Jeb Phillips
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An accountable care organization (ACO) should deliver “the right care at the right time,” according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Early, high-quality primary care helps people stay well, while coordinated specialty care can help people with chronic or complex conditions spend less time in a hospital. ACOs are usually considered the province…

Uncovering Why Synthetic Tracheal Replacements Fail, and Hints for Success
 Uncovering Why Synthetic Tracheal Replacements Fail, and Hints for Success 1024 575 Kevin Mayhood
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“There is no ideal replacement for the trachea,” says Tendy Chiang, MD, a pediatric otolaryngologist and a principal investigator in the Center for Regenerative Medicine in the Abigail Wexner Research Institute (AWRI) at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. “There are many surgical techniques that can manage tracheal defects and disorders, however, for longer-segment defects, they oftentimes require replacement tissue that…

Beyond A Bigger Workforce: Addressing the Shortage of Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists
 Beyond A Bigger Workforce: Addressing the Shortage of Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists 1024 575 David Axelson, MD
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How can the psychiatrists we have make the greatest impact for the most children? The United States does not have enough child and adolescent psychiatrists. Nearly anyone who works in the field knows about the months-long wait times for new appointments that families can face, or the great distances that some must travel for those…

The Path to a Long Career in Medicine
 The Path to a Long Career in Medicine 150 150 William Long, MD
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I want to be a pediatrician forever. But the laws of nature won’t let me. In addition, many of us of all ages, are feeling increased pressure and demands that come with our profession.  From insurance issues, and just about everything with the EMR, to the rise in patient behavioral health complaints — it is…

From Lab Work to “Home Work:” Tips on the Transition to Work From Home
 From Lab Work to “Home Work:” Tips on the Transition to Work From Home 1024 683 Adrianna Matos-Nieves
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PhD candidate Adrianna Matos-Nieves shares tips for research employees who are suddenly finding themselves transitioning from the wet lab to their home office. PhD students have a significant advantage when enduring coronavirus-imposed social distancing. We decided to do it voluntarily many years prior. But in all seriousness, the transition to working from home can be…

What Could COVID-19 Mean for Pediatrics?
 What Could COVID-19 Mean for Pediatrics? 1024 683 Abbie Miller
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As COVID-19 spreads across the globe, experts are digging into the data and establishing protocols to better understand the illness in the context of pediatrics. As COVID-19, the illness caused by a novel coronavirus, has reached pandemic status, life has changed dramatically. At Nationwide Children’s Hospital, the halls are uncharacteristically quiet as a “stay at…

A Decade of Healthy Homes
 A Decade of Healthy Homes 1024 683 Kelly Kelleher, MD, MPH
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Dr. Kelleher and Rev. John Edgar, executive director and pastor emeritus, Church and Community for All People, discuss the first decade of a collaboration aimed to take on housing issues in the South Side of Columbus as a way to improve health outcomes and answer the question: What’s on the horizon? The last decade has…

How Does a Children’s Hospital Excel in the Discovery and Development of New Therapies?
 How Does a Children’s Hospital Excel in the Discovery and Development of New Therapies? 1024 575 Abbie Miller
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conceptual art of DNA

A conversation with Dennis Durbin, MD, MSCE chief scientific officer, Abigail Wexner Research Institute, Nationwide Children’s Hospital Nationwide Children’s has become an epicenter for gene therapy discovery and development. The discovery in 2009 that adeno-associated virus (AAV) could cross the blood-brain barrier was a milestone in the development of dozens of gene therapy products for neuromuscular…

Oral Food Challenges: The Most Important Test in Diagnosing Food Allergy
 Oral Food Challenges: The Most Important Test in Diagnosing Food Allergy 1024 683 David Stukus, MD
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I routinely hear the same question from pediatricians, parents, friends, and acquaintances: Why are we seeing so many more kids develop food allergies now compared with 10 or 20 years ago? Unfortunately, there is no single answer as to why the prevalence of food allergies has doubled among children over the past two decades. Food…

From Natural Killer Cells to Virus-Specific T Cells: What’s Next in Cellular Therapy
 From Natural Killer Cells to Virus-Specific T Cells: What’s Next in Cellular Therapy 969 533 Abbie Miller
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Illustration of NK Cells, T Cells, other immune cells floating across white background

Harnessing the power of the immune system to overcome cancer, improve outcomes of bone marrow transplants and fight viral infections in immunocompromised pediatric patients is at the heart of cell therapy research.   Natural Killers in Action Natural killer (NK) cells are a component of the innate immune system that mediates the death of cancer…

Answers to Burning Questions About Pediatric Urinary Tract Infections
 Answers to Burning Questions About Pediatric Urinary Tract Infections 1024 683 Abbie Miller
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Nationwide Children’s urologists and nephrologists recently co-hosted a Twitter chat for primary care providers, answering common questions about pediatric urinary tract infections (UTIs). Below is a summary of the questions and answers, adapted for brevity and clarity. Q: What causes UTIs in children? A: UTIs are typically caused by uropathogenic E. coli bacteria that invade the urinary…

Using an Evidence-Based Parenting Program to Engage a Community
 Using an Evidence-Based Parenting Program to Engage a Community 1024 575 Abbie Miller
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Given the similar size and distribution of Asian and Hispanic populations in central Ohio, Michael Flores, PhD, clinical team coordinator in the Big Lots Behavioral Health Services at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, was puzzled about why significantly fewer Asian families were seeking mental and behavioral health services at Nationwide Children’s. Roughly 4.9% of the Columbus population…

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…

Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Recommended for Adolescents With Severe Obesity
 Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Recommended for Adolescents With Severe Obesity 150 150 Kevin Mayhood
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Growing evidence shows the procedures reduce weight and comorbidities immediately and lower risk for associated diseases in adolescence and adulthood. Metabolic and bariatric surgery has been established in adults for more than 50 years. Studies now indicate the procedures are safe and appear to be the only therapy that enables severely obese adolescents to keep…

Linking Structure and Function in Children With 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome
 Linking Structure and Function in Children With 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome 1024 575 Kevin Mayhood
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Children with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome commonly have velopharyngeal dysfunction (VPD), affecting speech and swallowing. A recent series of studies finds that anatomy of their soft palate and associated bony structures and muscles differ from children who don’t have the syndrome. The findings suggest that these differences may be associated with speech, hearing and middle ear…

Unique Course Trains Young Physicians and Researchers in Muscle Disorders and Therapies
 Unique Course Trains Young Physicians and Researchers in Muscle Disorders and Therapies 150 150 Kevin Mayhood
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The annual myology course is designed to train the next generation of clinicians and lab scientists in the basics and the latest. Every year, more than 60 young trainees come to Nationwide Children’s Hospital for the annual Myology Course, an intensive, week-long introduction to muscle biology, disease and therapeutics. Hosted by Nationwide Children’s and The…

When Is It Appropriate to Send Pediatric Patients to an OB/GYN?
 When Is It Appropriate to Send Pediatric Patients to an OB/GYN? 150 150 Geri Hewitt, MD
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This post was reviewed by Dr. Hewitt and updated on June 4, 2021.  The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) recommends that young women have their first visit with an obstetrician-gynecologist (OB/GYN) between the ages of 13 and 15. Making sure that first appointment is with a pediatric gynecologist can have added benefits. Specific…

Meet Oluyinka Olutoye, MD, PhD
 Meet Oluyinka Olutoye, MD, PhD 1024 575 Abbie Miller
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In August 2019, Nationwide Children’s welcomed Oluyinka Olutoye, MD, PhD, as surgeon-in-chief. In a Q&A, the internationally renowned fetal surgeon shares his thoughts about the past, present and future of fetal surgery and the challenges and opportunities facing pediatric surgeons today.   Q: What brought you to Nationwide Children’s Hospital? I was initially attracted to…

Bias: Do You See What Influences You?
 Bias: Do You See What Influences You? 1024 575 Abbie Miller
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In the United States, children of color have worse clinical outcomes than white children. Racial disparities have been documented in nearly every pediatric specialty. Among the most studied and most widely perpetuated disparities are those between black and white children. For example: The infant mortality rate, while declining overall, is nearly three times higher for…

How and When Do Children Become Aware of the Construct of “Race”?
 How and When Do Children Become Aware of the Construct of “Race”? 1024 737 Abbie Miller
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Researchers have shown that babies of color are just as likely to experience bias as adults of color. But very young children don’t interpret that experience in the same way as older children. “Children become aware of differences in physical characteristics of human beings when they are 3 years old. They notice differences in sex…

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…

Finding the Reasons Why: Looking for Answers in Trends of Child and Youth Suicides
 Finding the Reasons Why: Looking for Answers in Trends of Child and Youth Suicides 1024 575 Kevin Mayhood
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Epidemiological studies are the first step to learn how to prevent suicide attempts and deaths. Suicide is the second-leading cause of death among 10- to 24-year-olds. And even as awareness grows, the suicide rate continues to climb, according to national statistics. But those national statistics don’t tell the whole story. For decades, researchers around the…

Why Advocate?
 Why Advocate? 1024 575 Ray Bignall
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Several months ago, I had the privilege of attending a panel discussion on health in the African American community hosted by my local church. It was an opportunity for our largely African American congregation to hear from Black health professionals promoting health-seeking behavior in communities of color. Sitting in the audience, I listened as each…

Exercise as Medicine: What Does This Really Mean?
 Exercise as Medicine: What Does This Really Mean? 1024 575 Alyssa Schafer
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A child’s lack of exercise can contribute to numerous health issues. “Currently, physical inactivity is ranked as the number four cause of death. 5.5% of deaths are due to physical inactivity which is totally preventable and treatable,” says James MacDonald, MD, MPH, a physician for Nationwide Children’s Sports Medicine. The question at large is how much do…

The Search to Identify Tumor Cells Evading Chemotherapy
 The Search to Identify Tumor Cells Evading Chemotherapy 150 150 Sanjana Rajan
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Graduate research associate Sanjana Rajan shares why her work to label and track cells before and after chemotherapy is the next step to preventing tumor relapse. For a long time, the cells within a tumor were thought to be similar to one another, like a bowl of chocolate chips. However, scientific studies have identified that…

Using Computer Models to Predict How Tissue Engineered Vascular Grafts Will Work
 Using Computer Models to Predict How Tissue Engineered Vascular Grafts Will Work 150 150 Kevin Mayhood
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Model and experimental data strongly suggest testing TEVGs until scaffold has biodegraded Identical tissue engineered vascular grafts (TEVGs) being tested in small-diameter veins and arteries of a mouse model performed well for 12 weeks. At 14 weeks, all TEVGs in the veins continued performing well, but all in the arteries suddenly failed. During their effort to understand…

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.…

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…

A Hidden Epidemic: Parental Incarceration and What To Do When It Affects Your Patients
 A Hidden Epidemic: Parental Incarceration and What To Do When It Affects Your Patients 1024 512 Andrew Axelson and Samantha Boch, PhD
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If having an incarcerated parent was classified as a chronic health condition, it would be the second most prevalent chronic condition in the United States for children under the age of 18 – just behind asthma. In fact, the percentage of American youth with an incarcerated parent is about 10 times higher than the percentage…

Nation’s First Clinical Trial for Pediatric Stroke Rehabilitation
 Nation’s First Clinical Trial for Pediatric Stroke Rehabilitation 1024 575 Mary Bates, PhD
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Toddler playing with toys

A novel movement-based therapy is being evaluated in infants who suffered a stroke as newborns or in the womb. Nationwide Children’s Hospital is participating in the nation’s first multicenter pediatric stroke recovery trial. The Phase III clinical trial, called I-ACQUIRE, will evaluate an innovative therapy to increase motor skills in 8-month-old to 24-month-old infants who…

CMV Testing: Why You Don’t Need Legislation to Make It a Good Idea
 CMV Testing: Why You Don’t Need Legislation to Make It a Good Idea 1024 575 Samantha Morsink
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CMV is the leading non-genetic cause of sensorineural hearing loss in infancy and childhood. Identification of newborns with congenital CMV infection can improve their outcomes by early intervention programs and/or antiviral treatment. Cytomegalovirus, or CMV, infects almost everyone at some point in time, and it is one of the most common congenital infections worldwide. While…

Medical Marijuana 101: What Does Increasing Legalization of Medical Marijuana Mean for Pediatrics?
 Medical Marijuana 101: What Does Increasing Legalization of Medical Marijuana Mean for Pediatrics? 479 272 Chet Kaczor
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The legalization of medical marijuana has been front and center in community conversation over the last several years. As more states turn to legalization under specific conditions, the federal law has not changed. Experts in pediatric health care are carefully considering what legalization of medical marijuana could mean for children and adolescents with chronic or…

Not an App, We Need a Digital Health Ecosystem
 Not an App, We Need a Digital Health Ecosystem 1024 575 Emre Sezgin
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For teens with chronic health conditions and their caregivers, a digital health ecosystem may improve self-management and independence. Teens with chronic conditions and their caregivers encounter a number of challenges while teens are transitioning to health independence. We have investigated these challenges and proposed a “digital health ecosystem” as a roadmap to help families and…

What You Need to Know About Tick-Borne Diseases
 What You Need to Know About Tick-Borne Diseases 1024 575 Mike Patrick, MD
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Update: July 2021, this content has been reviewed for accuracy. The downloadable practice tool has been replaced with an updated version. Ranges of disease-carrying ticks are shifting in the United States. Combined with family travel, this means physicians and families should have a wider lens on what tick-borne diseases they might encounter. Ticks represent a…

A Novel Method of Data Analysis Enables Identification of Genetic Drivers of Pediatric Cancer
 A Novel Method of Data Analysis Enables Identification of Genetic Drivers of Pediatric Cancer 1024 575 Bailey Dye
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conceptual art of DNA

An innovative approach to data analysis can more efficiently identify gene fusion events common to pediatric cancers, and inform clinical diagnoses and treatment decisions. The standard of care for cancer patients is changing. With the advent of personalized medicine, genetic testing is slowly becoming a routine clinical practice, and with it comes a better understanding…

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.

An Infant. A Virus. An Emergency IND. A Life Saved.
 An Infant. A Virus. An Emergency IND. A Life Saved. 150 150 Abbie Miller
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Clinician scientists collaborate to use virus-specific T-cells from the mother to successfully treat a systemic adenovirus infection in a preterm infant. It’s not every day that researchers can say that they’ve written and submitted and emergency investigational new drug (EIND) application to the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and saved a life. But that’s what…

What’s Next for NEC?
 What’s Next for NEC? 898 504 Abbie Miller
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Red. White. Black. These are the colors of necrotizing enterocolitis, or NEC. When surgeons open the distended abdomens of the tiny infants affected by NEC, they see a mottled mixture of red (inflamed), white (ischemic) and black (dead) tissue. Their first task is to assess whether or not there is enough viable tissue to save.…

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…

Worth It: Why Wrestling Through the Logistical Challenges of a Multidisciplinary Colorectal Center Matters
 Worth It: Why Wrestling Through the Logistical Challenges of a Multidisciplinary Colorectal Center Matters 150 150 Jeb Phillips
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Consider the complex case of a girl born with rectal, vaginal and urinary tracts fused into a common channel – a cloacal malformation. The child needs reconstructive procedures across three different organ systems and three different surgical specialties. It could take months or years to manage the surgeries needed for the colorectal portion, then the…

Fetal Balloon Aortic Valvuloplasty for Critical Aortic Stenosis
 Fetal Balloon Aortic Valvuloplasty for Critical Aortic Stenosis 1024 575 Abbie Miller
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Fetus in utero receiving valvuloplasty

Some heart defects, such as aortic stenosis can be detected on fetal ultrasound. For some fetuses, an intervention can be beneficial before birth. Aimee Armstrong, MD, director of Cardiac Catheterization and Interventional Therapies at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, performs fetal balloon aortic valvuloplasty among other fetal heart catheterization procedures as part of the Congenital Heart Collaborative, a…

How Research Reinforces the Collaborative Culture of a Children’s Hospital
 How Research Reinforces the Collaborative Culture of a Children’s Hospital 1024 575 Steve Allen, MD
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Steve Allen, MD

As he retires, the CEO of Nationwide Children’s Hospital reflects on the less-obvious effects of scientific discovery. Nationwide Children’s Hospital has undergone a dramatic transformation in the last two decades, from an important regional resource into a nationally preeminent medical system. One of the clearest signs of our growth, and one that we’re particularly proud…

Targeting Therapies for Children With Multiple Organ Dysfunction
 Targeting Therapies for Children With Multiple Organ Dysfunction 1024 575 Kevin Mayhood
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Anakinra, an interleukin-1 receptor antagonist, may be effective for selective children with MODS who meet diagnostic criteria for hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH). Multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) involves altered function of two or more organ systems and is among the most severe forms of critical illness, with mortality rates up to 50 percent in children. MODS…

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…

Collaboration Key in Recent Advances for Batten Disease
 Collaboration Key in Recent Advances for Batten Disease 1024 683 Abbie Miller
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Batten disease (neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis) is a collection of lysosomal storage disorders caused by a variety of genetic mutations. These disorders cause an accumulation of cellular “trash” to build up, ultimately causing the neurons to die. So far, scientists have identified 13 different versions of Batten disease, each with its own associated genetic mutation. Each version…