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Health Care Quality

Collaboration Advances Preemie Care and Lowers Costs

Not long ago, hospitals worked independently and information about medical advances in patient care was shared only in professional journals or at medical conferences. Today, however, evidence-based collaboration is the name of the quality improvement game that’s advancing child health and reducing its related costs – as proven once again by the Ohio Perinatal Quality

Research and Discoveries

Home safety devices are worth the effort

If you’ve ever wondered exactly how much safer your home would be for small children by using safety devices such as stair gates and cabinet locks, we now have a precise number for you. Seventy percent. About 2,800 U.S. children die each year from preventable injuries in the home, and millions more are treated in

Research and Discoveries

Cincinnati Region Leading in Successful Deliveries of the Smallest Preemies

Cincinnati Children’s is leading the way in meeting national goals for delivering the smallest preemies at the places that are best equipped to handle them. A compendium of U.S. Public Health Services/Department of Health and Social Services goals and objectives, Healthy People 2010, calls for delivering 90 percent of very low birth weight infants in

Heart Conditions

The right care for grown up heart kids

Of the 600,000 American adults with congenital heart disease, fewer than 50,000 are believed to be treated by cardiologists trained to care for them. That’s largely because advances in pediatric heart surgery and cardiac care have increased the lifespan of these patients, who either stop going to cardiologists when they reach adulthood or show up

Health Care Public Policy

Children’s Hospitals Graduate Medical Education funding in jeopardy

The 2012 federal budget, offered to Congress on Monday Feb. 14, would eliminate the Children’s Hospitals Graduate Medical Education (CHGME) program. As Dr. Tom DeWitt discussed here last week, since the program’s inception in 1999, this funding has helped ensure children receive care from pediatric specialists trained to meet their unique health care needs. “The

Research and Discoveries

A booster shot for the medicine of tomorrow

It made the news in Cincinnati when the state of Ohio’s Third Frontier program awarded a $2 million grant to Cincinnati Children’s to commercially develop new biomedical discoveries from the medical center. Understandably, the grant didn’t generate much coverage outside of the city. Still, the potential significance of the grant extends well beyond Cincinnati’s borders,

Health Care Public Policy

Crucial reauthorization of Children’s Hospitals GME program

A vital national program helping to ensure that children receive care from pediatric specialists trained to meet children’s unique health care needs is up for renewal this year at the federal level. Since 1999, the Children’s Hospitals Graduate Medical Education (CHGME) program has provided funding to children’s hospitals to train the next generation of pediatric

Health Care Quality

Lessons from an aircraft carrier

One of the defining elements of our culture at Cincinnati Children’s is a nearly fanatical focus on safety. While we’re proud of our record and the expertise we’ve developed over the years, we also believe we can learn from others. For several years, I’ve been told by safety experts that aircraft carriers are a great

Best Way to Thwart Flu? Vaccinate All Children Starting at 6 Months (Part 2)

The best way to disrupt the spread of influenza is immunization for everyone — even the healthiest people — beginning at 6 months of age. But what about the very young — infants under 6 months for whom no flu vaccines are licensed? The best way to protect them from influenza is by vaccinating their

Health Care Public Policy

Onward to 2011: the kids are counting on us

Another year come and gone. For some, this is a time to say “good riddance.” For others, there’s sorrow in watching 2010 pass into the history books. For those involved in health care, the year just past is one of monumental change. Health care took center stage for much of the past two years. In

Safety and Prevention

Resolve in 2011: spend more time with kids and adults

It seems the older we get, the years go by faster and faster. Thank goodness we work with kids, they keep us young. Good-bye 2010, hello 2011. This time of year has us looking both backward and forward. For many people, it’s a time for New Year’s resolutions. It’s interesting that when you look at

Best Way to Thwart Flu? Vaccinate All Children Starting at 6 Months (Part 1)

The best way to disrupt the spread of influenza is immunization for everyone — even the healthiest people — beginning at 6 months of age. That’s what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends. And more and more studies are proving the benefits, including a Finnish study that recently reported that flu immunization in

Research and Discoveries

A Gutsy Scientific Breakthrough

A new breakthrough in stem cell research at Cincinnati Children’s is a critical first step to one day being able to grow new intestinal tissue that can be transplanted into patients with gastrointestinal disease. Published online Dec. 12 by the journal Nature, the study opens the door to new studies exploring the use of highly

Health Care Reform

No one should be on the outside looking in

It’s a part of the human condition to want to be included. We want friends. We want people to talk to. “Community” is ingrained in us somewhere deep in our DNA. OK, maybe not scientifically, but you get the point. We’re not meant to be solitary figures. Yet, when Americans were asked in a survey

Research and Discoveries

Healthy eating before pregnancy important – for dads?

Pregnant moms carry most of the responsibility for an unborn baby’s health. They’re the ones taking prenatal vitamins, drinking more milk, being more careful with their diet. But dads aren’t off the hook, says a Chicago Tribune article referencing a recent study. The study shows a direct link between dads’ diets and the health of

Research and Discoveries

Working Together to Improve Treatment of ADHD

Information is power – and the sharing of information among doctors and researchers is one of the best ways to empower physicians to better diagnose and treat ADHD, a chronic condition that affects about 4.5 million children nationwide. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has issued evidence-based guidelines for ADHD care, but most pediatricians and

Chronic Care Networks

Enhanced registry a new chapter in chronic care

Imagine if a doctor, treating a young patient with a chronic illness, could have instant access to information from others all around the U.S. on the latest treatments and protocols, how their patients are responding, and what practices are leading to better outcomes. Imagine if that information were available in real time, as the patients

What we learned from H1N1 and how it helps us this flu season

Flu season 2010-11 is fast approaching and as part of our preparation for this year’s strains of influenza, we’re remembering lessons from last year’s H1N1 pandemic. It was a flu season unlike any that we’ve seen before. With H1N1, we were reminded that pregnant women are more profoundly affected by influenza than the general population,

Childhood Obesity

Obesity may be even more expensive than we thought

Remember this summer when we talked about the cost — dollars and cents as well as human capital — of obesity? (Click here for a refresher.) At that time, the Centers for Disease Control had just issued a report that put the cost to treat obesity and its related ailments at close to $150 billion a year.

We learn from media: Good and bad

Doctors don’t talk much to their patients about Facebook. And it’s a rare visit to the pediatrician when your child’s cell phone use comes up. But those at the American Academy of Pediatrics annual meeting in San Francisco Oct. 2-5 were told it’s time they start talking and asking: The use of media (social and

Pro-vaccine movement could try opponents’ tactics

Maybe we just need to scare the hell out of people. That was the message from one the country’s leading advocates for childhood immunizations during a talk last week at the American Academy of Pediatrics annual meeting in San Francisco. After all, said Paul Offit, MD, chair of infectious diseases at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, that’s

Health Care Public Policy

Comparative effectiveness research must include kids

Comparative effectiveness research is all the rage in medical and political circles these days. It’s the simple-sounding concept of comparing treatments and interventions to figure out which one is best for which patients. It’s not something we’ve done a lot of in medicine, but that’s about the change. As part of this year’s health care

Challenge to docs: Look through the eyes of a child

As the nation’s pediatricians gathered in San Francisco this weekend for the annual American Academy of Pediatrics national educational conference, their leader told them not to keep their mouths shut. “We cannot keep quiet,” said Judith Paltry, MD, president of the AAP. “We see what children see. We hear what they are saying … Now

Leave No Child Inside: Our future depends on it

If you’re lucky, when you were growing up there was a special place outdoors where you spent a lot of time. It’s a place you hold in your heart as an adult, fond memories of a place you “owned,” where you discovered who you were and you held this natural playground world in awe. Today’s

Safety and Prevention

Avoiding Teenage Pregnancies

Ordering hormonally charged teenagers not to have sex is probably not the most effective strategy for avoiding pregnancy. Although the national birth rate for girls ages 15 to 19 decreased 2 percent between 2007 and 2008, the United States still has the highest teen pregnancy rate among fully industrialized nations. For parents who wonder how

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