Children's Memorial Online Rounds

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May 2008

Welcome to the e-newsletter from Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago. Access the new multimedia lectures for free CME credit, and read hospital and research news from Children’s Memorial below.

The next issue will present new faculty-recorded multimedia CME lectures soon to be added to the Children’s Memorial online CME program. Please forward this e-newsletter to colleagues who are interested in free CME opportunities and may wish to sign up for a free subscription to Online Rounds.

In This Issue

Earn up to two AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™  toward the AMA Physician's Recognition Award by listening to multimedia lectures by Children’s Memorial physicians, who hold academic appointments at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, and responding to a post-test. Answers will be graded immediately, and an AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™  certificate will be issued automatically to qualified participants.

Release date 5/19/08
CME quiz must be taken before 5/19/09 to receive credit.
Target audience: Community physicians

Topics

• CME: Minimally Invasive Surgery in the Neonate
  At the conclusion of this activity, participants will be able to: describe recent advances in neonatal minimally invasive surgery; discuss outcomes of minimally invasive repair compared to traditional surgical techniques for esophageal atresia with tracheoesophageal fistula, diaphragmatic hernia, and duodenal atresia.
• CME: Allergy Shots
  At the conclusion of this activity, participants will be able to: describe the indications for allergen and venom immunotherapy; discuss the risks and benefits of immunotherapy with patients; identify patients who are at high risk for developing anaphylaxis with immunotherapy injections.
• CME: Treatment of Anxiety Disorders in Children and Adolescents
  At the conclusion of this activity, participants will be able to: recognize developmentally appropriate anxiety in children and adolescents; identify unique presentation of clinical anxiety in children and adolescents; refer for appropriate treatment of pediatric anxiety.
• CME: Pediatric Care of Premature Children
  At the conclusion of this activity, participants will be able to: describe the concepts of corrected and chronological age as they pertain to assessment of growth and development of the preterm infant; describe the use of vitamins and iron in preterm infants after discharge; formulate a timeline for developmental assessment of preterm infants in the general pediatric office.
• CME: Dermatology Quiz and Case Discussion
  At the conclusion of this activity, participants will be able to: recognize the dermatological disorder shown in the photographs; describe clinical features; describe management approaches.

Visit our online CME section to view other available topics.

Construction Began for Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago:

After the April 21 groundbreaking ceremony, construction began on the state-of-the-art facility Children’s Memorial is building on the campus of Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. The new 23-floor hospital, named in recognition of an unprecedented $100 million gift from Chicago philanthropist Ann Lurie, will be able to admit over 3,000 more children a year, compared to the current facility in Lincoln Park. It will offer family-friendly private rooms, expanded capacity for intensive and emergency treatments, more space dedicated to clinical research, advanced technology, and innovations to the delivery of care. Read more about the future hospital »

Unique Comprehensive Cardiac Unit Planned:

One of the innovations at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago will be the 36-bed acuity-adaptable Regenstein Comprehensive Cardiac Unit where cardiology and cardiovascular surgery patients will be treated from admission to discharge. It will be one of the few pediatric units of its kind, greatly improving patient safety and comfort through reduction of intra-hospital transfers. Better outcomes in adult comprehensive cardiac settings are well demonstrated.

Innovative NICU Combines Privacy and Visibility:

The neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago is planned to have all single family rooms. While the positive aspects of NICUs with all private rooms have been well researched and published, the primary concern with this model typically expressed by caregivers is not being able to see and monitor infants as easily, compared to the traditional NICU ward model. The layout of the 44-room NICU on the 14th floor of the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago will combine the best of both models, providing privacy for families and sufficient visibility of infants for the caregivers. The NICU floor will be divided into north and south units, with 22 private patient rooms in each unit, organized into neighborhoods of 11 rooms that surround a NICU care team core. This organization allows for visibility of patient rooms from the core and for visual and verbal communication between NICU caregivers. The care team core itself will be transparent by design and organized into a series of adjacent work spaces.

The remaining 16 NICU rooms will be dedicated to the Regenstein Comprehensive Cardiac Unit (CCU) on the 15th floor, along with 20 pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) rooms dedicated to the CCU. The remaining 40 PICU rooms will be on the 16th floor.

Hendrix Research Discovered Protein that Controls Cancer Cell Growth:

Recently published laboratory research led by Mary J.C. Hendrix, PhD, president and scientific director of Children’s Memorial Research Center, found that a protein called Lefty inhibits the growth and spread of malignant melanoma cells and prevents metastasis of aggressive breast cancer cells. This protein is secreted only in the human embryonic stem cells. The discovery may lead to the development of new therapies. Results of the study, published in the March 3 online version of The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, build on an elegant body of research by the Hendrix lab to identify the genes and cellular pathways involved in cancer metastasis.

Children’s Asthma Differs by Neighborhood in Chicago:

Urban neighborhoods, even when they are next to each other, can have drastically different rates of childhood asthma prevalence. This unexpected finding was documented for the first time in a study led by Children’s Memorial’s Ruchi S. Gupta, MD, MPH, published in the March 2008 issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. The study, which was part of the Chicago Initiative to Raise Asthma Health Equity, supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, analyzed the role of race and demographic factors on asthma prevalence among 287 neighborhoods in Chicago. Over 42,000 school children comprised the study sample. Childhood asthma rates were found to vary from 0% to 44% among neighborhoods. Read more about the findings »

Farrow Receives Richard D. Rowe Award in Perinatal Cardiology:

Kathryn N. Farrow, MD, PhD, a neonatologist at Children’s Memorial Hospital, has been awarded the 2008 Richard D. Rowe Award in Perinatal Cardiology from the Society for Pediatric Research. The award will be presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies’ meeting in Hawaii in May. Farrow also is an associate member affiliated with the Molecular and Cellular Pathobiology Program of Children’s Memorial Research Center and an assistant professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.