Transformational Pediatrics

The Piccolo device is an innovative and minimally invasive way to close the Patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) in pediatrics. Dr. Rockefeller talks about how the Piccolo came to fruition, the benefits, and what else is on the horizon for the PDA closure world.

Bactrim is a commonly prescribed antibiotic used to treat a variety of conditions, including urinary tract infections, acne and skin and soft tissue infections. The American Academy of Dermatology recently revised its guidelines discouraging the use of Bactrim to treat acne based on research conducted by my next guests – Dr. Jenna Miller, pediatric intensivist, and Dr. Jennifer Goldman, Infectious Diseases, of Children’s Mercy Kansas City.

To accelerate precision medicine for pediatric oncology, Children’s Mercy Kansas City, together with its Research Institute (CMRI), pioneered a new whole-exome-sequencing-based genetic test for all children diagnosed with cancer. While many pediatric research institutions in the country conduct genetic sequencing of tumors, CMRI is one of the few institutions performing both research and clinical sequencing in-house on both tumor and normal DNA samples.

Children’s Mercy Kansas City, one of the nation’s leading independent pediatric health organizations, announced it is the first health care system to use 5-base HiFi sequencing, the world’s most-advanced genomic sequencing technology from PacBio, in the clinical setting to accelerate diagnoses for even more patients and families.

Incredible advances in the care of patients born with single-ventricle heart disease have led to significantly better quality of life and survival. Complex surgical palliation culminating in the Fontan procedure is effective and can allow patients to grow and develop similar to their peers. Unfortunately, changes related to Fontan anatomy lead to stress and increased pressure on the liver, known as Fontan-associated liver disease. These stresses can cause scar tissue to form and—rarely—liver cancer to form. Dedicated liver care is vital to providing Fontan patients with the healthiest life possible.

In this episode, Dr. Mark Clements leads a discussion focusing on population health management and pediatric type 1 diabetes.

Data science -- often discussed with terms like artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data, data goverernance -- has the potential to transform every aspect of health care, from the patient experience to how, when and where care is provided, and improving outcomes. In this Transformational Pediatrics episode, Mark Hoffman, PhD, Chief Research Information Officer at Children's Mercy Kansas City, discusses the challenges and opportunities for data science within pediatric health care and gives examples where it is already making a difference for children today.

The health care sector has begun to embrace coaching to promote resilience and innovation during a time of massive disruption while also cultivating healthier workplace cultures. In this podcast, Alyssa Stephany, MD, Director of the Physician Leadership Center at Children's Mercy Kansas City shares how professional and peer coaching can help reduce burnout, increase job satisfaction, and improve the overall provider experience of health care, while also having a positive effect on patient care.

Nearly 1 in 5 children in the United States live in rural areas. Rural children experience health and health care disparities compared to their urban peers and represent a unique and vulnerable pediatric patient population. Important disparities exist in all-cause mortality, suicide, firearm-related unintentional injury, and obesity. In this episode, Dr. Jessica Bettenhausen discusses research into these disparities, their causes and potential actions to address them.

Children's Mercy Kansas City has been at the forefront of implementing genomic sequencing in clinical pediatrics and neonatology. In this podcast, John Lantos, MD, Director of Pediatric Bioethics at Children's Mercy Kansas City, discusses the promise of genomic medicine and three suppressing lessons we have learned about the role of genomic medicine for diagnosing, the response of parents, and how testing is impacting care.

What is informatics and why is it important in health care? Listen as Jill Westcott, MD, MS, FACOG, Physician Informaticist for the Fetal Health Center at Children's Mercy, shares her expertise on the topic and how informatics is improving patient outcomes in fetal health.

The Children’s Mercy Research Institute® is undertaking a research initiative to build a first-of-its-kind pediatric data repository to facilitate the search for answers and novel treatments for pediatric genetic conditions. Our goal is to collect genomic data and health information for 30,000 children and their families over the next seven years, creating a database of nearly 100,000 genomes.

How do we create a healthier future for children? The Children's Mercy Research Institute with a core focus on genomics, personalized therapeutics, population health, health care innovation and bioethics is positioned to fundamentally transform pediatric research and create a world of well-being for all children. Listen as Thomas Curran, PhD, FRS, Chief Scientific Officer, discusses the institute and the future of pediatric research.

Autism is one of the fastest growing developmental disability’s in the United States, effecting approximately 1 in 54 births. For the safety of emergency medical providers and patients with developmental disabilities, it is important to understand what Autism is and how to care for pediatric patients diagnosed with it. In this segment, Children’s Mercy specialists will discuss common misconceptions about Autism Spectrum Disorder, as well as share insight from a memorable EMS encounter...

Children’s Mercy Kansas City is recognized as one of the top 10 nephrology programs in the nation by U.S. News & World Report, and the kidney transplant program has incorporated a number of innovative practices into their management plan that are designed to enhance patient outcomes. Join us as Dr. Bradley Warady discusses how the program’s personalized approach to meeting each patient’s unique needs — including repeated surveillance biopsies, epitope matching and pharmacokinetic assessment of immunosuppressive medication — has contributed to a 100% three-year patient and graft survival rate for the past six years.

To reduce the risk of complications related to hemodialysis, the Children’s Mercy Kansas City Division of Nephrology has implemented several strategies. Listen as Dr. Bradley Warady shares how the institution of standardized infection prevention practices has resulted in more than 1,200 consecutive days without an outpatient central line-associated blood stream infection (CLABSI) in a hemodialysis (HD) patient. In addition, Dr. Warady discusses how vascular preservation protocols also are improving the long-term venous access options for these and future patients.

Devika Maulik MD shares her translational research as it relates to folic acid and different responses to dosing among women of various races and ethnicities. She is using the information gathered to create recommended guidelines for folic acid dosing. She discusses current literature on this topic, as well as her studies in this area.

Dr. Christina Low Kapalu discusses cases and literature surrounding pediatric recurrent intentional foreign body ingestion.

Dr. Sarah Tsai discusses his recent findings from his study surround serum morning cortisol levels.

Dr. Emanuel "Mike" Vlastos discusses the algorithm for diagnosing and trading twin to twin transfusion syndrome.