Researchers Describe Molecular Switch Controlling “Chameleon” Bacteria
Researchers Describe Molecular Switch Controlling “Chameleon” Bacteria 150 150 Abbie Miller

Closing the gap on developing a vaccine for middle ear infections. Researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, and Griffith University’s Institute for Glycomics in Australia have discovered groundbreaking evidence that will help vaccine developers in their search for a vaccine against multiple infections of the…

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Racism in Our Hospitals and Communities: Everyone Matters
Racism in Our Hospitals and Communities: Everyone Matters 150 150 Kelly Kelleher, MD, MPH

Let’s touch all families by erasing racism from children’s hospitals. Here at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, we are engaged in an important new initiative: Everyone Matters. The idea is simple — we each have effects that ripple far beyond us through our everyday actions and attitudes toward…

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Toddler playing with toys
The Childhood Roots of Illness
The Childhood Roots of Illness 1024 575 Dave Ghose

A growing body of scientific evidence reveals the dramatic impact of early-life adversity on lifelong health. Kelly Kelleher, MD, compares childhood health to a boulder sitting on the peak of a mountain. A slight push could send the boulder in many directions. And once…

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Do Overly Restrictive Feeding Practices Contribute to Obesity?
Do Overly Restrictive Feeding Practices Contribute to Obesity? 150 150 Anne Unger

Researchers are discovering that the way caregivers feed their kids may be just as important as what they give them to eat. It is estimated that by 2020, 16 million kids under the age of 5 will be obese. Currently, most public health initiatives…

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Designing a Center for Collaborative Care
Designing a Center for Collaborative Care 150 150 Marc Levitt, MD
Reducing Practice Variation in Pediatrics
Reducing Practice Variation in Pediatrics 150 150 Jonathan Slaughter, MD, MPH

With variations in practice existing even between practitioners at the same institution, research can provide the keys to standardizing care and improving outcomes. Practice variation occurs when care providers diagnose or treat patients differently, even in the setting of similar disease presentation and risk…

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Data-Driven Health Care Delivery
Data-Driven Health Care Delivery 150 150 Tiasha Letostak, PhD

Health care enterprise data warehouse (EDW) technology, analytics and cross-functional teams are leading to improved quality and efficiency of patient care. Big data has big potential, but despite the value of electronic health record (EHR) systems in digitizing care at hospitals, data-driven improvements are…

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What Do DALYs Mean for Pediatrics?
What Do DALYs Mean for Pediatrics? 150 150 Dave Ghose

An emerging, innovative metric could radically change childhood health policy. A new way of looking at illness is beginning to change how public health officials view life and death. The concept — called DALYs — offers a fuller view of disease that could have…

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Adolescents, Young Adults and Cancer: What Are the Issues?
Adolescents, Young Adults and Cancer: What Are the Issues? 150 150 Abbie Miller

Adolescents and young adults with cancer have unique needs that may explain their plateau in survival rates, despite improved survival rates in other age groups. At an age when achieving independence and experiencing life milestones are most important, adolescents and young adults facing a…

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Talking to Adolescent Patients About Marijuana
Talking to Adolescent Patients About Marijuana 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES

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…

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Do You Believe in Integrated Health Care?
Do You Believe in Integrated Health Care? 150 150 Miguel Saps, MD

Patients are more than a segregated set of organ systems. Treating them as whole beings requires the practice of integrated medicine. I believe in an integrated approach to health care. The care of patients is often envisioned as fractionated, with different specialists taking care…

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A Watershed Moment for Cancer Virotherapy
A Watershed Moment for Cancer Virotherapy 150 150 Timothy Cripe, MD, PhD

A recent decision may define the future of virotherapy’s role in the clinical treatment of cancer. At 4:50 pm on Wednesday, April 29 2015, the votes were cast: 22 in favor, 1 against. With this overwhelming majority, an advisory committee sent a clear message to the…

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Crohn’s Disease Not Exempt From Racial Disparities
Crohn’s Disease Not Exempt From Racial Disparities 150 150 Gina Bericchia

Disparities exist among pediatric Crohn’s patients of different races for a number of health care metrics. A study published in the journal Inflammatory Bowel Diseases found significant differences in hospital readmissions, medication usage and both medical and surgical complications of children with Crohn’s disease related to race.…

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Technology Expands Access to Translational Medicine
Technology Expands Access to Translational Medicine 150 150 Abbie Miller

When primary care physicians, specialists and all the lab work in their arsenal fail to provide a diagnosis for debilitating symptoms, patients earn the label of “undiagnosed.” These undiagnosed patients wait with unresolved symptoms for medical research to catch up with them. The Undiagnosed Diseases…

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Prodigy and Autism Share a Common Genetic Link, Study Finds
Prodigy and Autism Share a Common Genetic Link, Study Finds 150 150 Tiasha Letostak, PhD

Researchers have discovered the first molecular genetic evidence for a shared etiology between prodigy and autism. A new study published in the journal of Human Heredity last month found that child prodigies share some of the same genetic variations with people who have autism. These findings could help…

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Color photo, family portrait of Reagan, a young girl with an orphan disease, her parents, and their dog
Orphan Disease Seeks Parents, Funding
Orphan Disease Seeks Parents, Funding 1024 575 Kevin Mayhood

Research on rare pediatric diseases often remains underfunded and obscure until motivated families give scientists — and their own children — a much-needed shot at potential therapies worthy of federal funding. Reagan McGee’s pediatrician couldn’t figure out why she had cold after cold. Her parents,…

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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
Fighting Fibrosis
Fighting Fibrosis 1024 575 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES

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…

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Preserving Biopreservation
Preserving Biopreservation 1024 575 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES

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…

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InSight: A Window to the Heart
InSight: A Window to the Heart 720 530 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES

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…

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Patients Without Borders
Patients Without Borders 150 150 Dave Ghose

Immigrant children represent the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population. What can pediatricians do to help these vulnerable patients? James Duffee, MD, MPH, watched the immigrant population change dramatically during his 15 years as a community health pediatrician and child psychiatrist in Springfield,…

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