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"A disservice was done to the American public by several candidates in the Republican presidential debate on September 16. One candidate parroted outlandish claims about vaccine safety. The truth is this: Vaccines do not cause autism. Period. The science is crystal clear on this," wrote David Kimberlin, M.D. in a recent editorial piece featured on AL.com 

Click here to continue reading the AL.com article by Dr. Kimberlin . 

The Pediatric Research Office (PRO) is pleased to announce that its final two positions have been filled. Inmaculada (Chichi) Aban, Ph.D., a Professor in the Department of Biostatistics, now has office hours in the PRO (suite 302 of Children’s Harbor Building) three days each week to meet the statistical needs of our researchers, and Eric Macomb will be joining the Office as an informaticist on Sept. 29. Eric was formerly the Director for Clinical Information Technology at Children’s of Alabama. With his move to the PRO, he will be supporting data retrieval for feasibility assessments, preliminary data and research protocols.  
 
Located in Suite 302 of the Children’s Harbor Building, the PRO provides assistance to investigators conducting pediatric research by providing pre-award and post-award support. For more information on the Office, please visit the new Pediatric Research Website.  It features information on PRO personnel, as well as information on funding opportunities, research resources including , and training resources boilerplate language for grant applications. For more information, please contact the PRO Administrative Director, Cheryl Perry or Director, David Kimberlin.  

Alabama Child Health Improvement Alliance (ACHIA) is a state-wide collaboration of public and private partners, including Children's of Alabama and UAB, that uses measurement-based efforts and a systems approach to improve the quality of children’s healthcare. ACHIA is housed in the UAB Department of Pediatrics.

Click here to view the annual report for the 2014-2015 year. 
For more information about ACHIA, visit the website.

Michael Seifert, M.D., M.S.C.I., assistant professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Nephrology, has been awarded a National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant for his study, Novel Biomarkers of Angiogenesis and Vascular Injury in Chronic Rejection, in the amount of $556,286 over the course of three years. 

 The new Pediatric Gait & Lab Motion Lab at Children's of Alabama opened on Thursday, Sept. 17. The lab is the first of its kind in a four-state region that includes Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and Florida, and will provide access to unprecedented, comprehensive and cutting-edge clinical care. Through advanced technology, gait and motion analysis measures movement, muscle activity and force production to create a clear picture of a patient’s challenges and needs. Physicians and surgeons use the data acquired through the analysis in conjunction with imaging scans, the patient’s medical history and other evaluations to plan treatment and measure outcomes in children, teens and young adults with a wide variety of conditions including limb discrepancies, brain injury and complex movement disorders.

Elizabeth A. Beierle, M.D. received a grant of $250,000 from Hyundai's Hope of Wheels Program on Sept. 10, 2015. The $250,000 Hyundai Scholar Grant will fund childhood cancer research led by Dr. Beierle, Associate Professor of Pediatric Surgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and a general surgeon at Children's. 

The newly named Hyundai Scholar, Dr. Beierle, will use the funds to develop innovative therapies with the goal of improving outcomes and reducing toxicities in children with neuroblastoma. The event was celebrated at Children's of Alabama with children putting colorful hand prints on the new Hyundai Santa Fe and on the back of Dr. Beierle's coat.


To view the photo album from Children's photographer, Denise McGill, click here. 
To view the AL.com article, click here.

Namasivayam Ambal, M.D., M.B.B.S, professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Neonatology, has been awarded a National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant for his study, "STOP BPD," in the amount of $367,500 per year through 2017. Congratulations on this well-deserved award! 

Michael A. Taylor, M.D., FAAP joined the faculty of the UAB Department of Pediatrics as professor of pediatrics and director of the newly-created UAB Division of Child Abuse Pediatrics in August of 2015. Prior to coming to UAB, Dr. Taylor was Chief of the Child Abuse Pediatrics Division at MUSC in Charleston, SC from 2013 to 2015.Taylor brings a rich background of work with victims of child abuse to the Children’s position. He served as medical director for the West Alabama Child Medical Evaluation Program in Tuscaloosa for 22 years, was a member of state and county child death review teams and served as Child Medical Examiner for the Commonwealth of Kentucky and Wake County, N.C.

Under Taylor’s direction, the new Child Abuse Pediatrics Division will expand the current services provided by the Children’s Hospital Intervention and Prevention Services (CHIPS) Center. The CHIPS Center provides forensic medical evaluations, psychosocial assessments, play therapy, counseling, social work services, prevention education, court support and expert court testimony for victims of child abuse. Taylor hopes to coordinate those services with all local, regional and state resources and organize educational efforts to increase awareness, understanding and reporting of child maltreatment.For a link to the Children's of Alabama press release regarding Dr. Taylor, click here.

The Pediatric Division of Nephrology will be participating in the Improving Renal Outcomes Collaborative Network (IROC). The primary objective of IROC will be to eliminate the survival disparity between children with kidney disease and the general population. Our Pediatric Renal Transplant Program is one of 10 institutions invited to participate in the initial planning and development of the IROC initiative. The initial focus of IROC will be children with a kidney transplant, but in the future we plan to collaborate with the SCOPE dialysis collaborative and relevant research networks to create a Collaborative Chronic Care Network (C3N) that improves care throughout all phases of a patient’s illness including Chronic Kidney Diseases (CKD), dialysis and transplant. Upon successful completion of the design and planning phase and pending sufficient ongoing funding, it is anticipated that IROC will officially launch and start enrolling patients by early 2016. A generous donation from the Porter family has funded the participation and personnel effort that makes our involvement possible. The pediatric kidney transplant program is thrilled to participate in this exciting endeavor that has the potential to transform health outcomes and care for children with kidney disease.

-Dan Feig, M.D., Ph.D., M.S.
Professor of Pediatrics
Director, Division of Nephrology

Professor of Pediatrics Hematology/Oncology, Frederick Goldman's, M.D., paper on the correction of a mutation that caused severe combined immune deficiency in one of our patients was recently published in Cell Reports. Additionally, this has gained attention locally and nationally. See the findings covered by NPR, here.  
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Dr. Michele Kong, assistant professor of Pediatrics Critical Care, has received a CCTS pilot award for her proposal, "Prospective Clinical Trial of Azithromycin Treatment in RSV-Induced Respiratory Failure in Children." Through the CCTS Multidisciplinary Pilot Program, the CCTS aims to develop the future research workforce by supporting pilot research that addresses scientific questions across the translational spectrum. This may include novel approaches to therapeutics, or strategies that promote innovation and efficiency in participant recruitment.  Efforts like these − which reach across Schools, Departments and Centers − are at the heart of the CCTS's mission to advance translational investigation and to apply discovery research to human health. Congratulations to Dr. Kong!

For more information about the pilot program, please visit the CCTS Research Commons: http://www.uab.edu/ccts/research-commons/pilot-funding

The National Institutes of Health has awarded the University of Alabama at Birmingham Center for Clinical and Translational Science $33.59 million over four years to continue the center’s programs advancing translational research. Since its initial funding in 2008 through Alabama’s only Center for Translational Science Award to work toward innovative discoveries for better health, the UAB CCTS has nurtured UAB research, accelerating the process of translating laboratory discoveries into treatments for patients, training a new generation of clinical and translational researchers, and engaging communities in clinical research efforts.

The CCTS will continue to advance its mission to accelerate the delivery of new drugs, methodologies and practices to patients at UAB and throughout a partner network of 11 institutions in the Southeast.

Photo by Denise McGillDr. Brad Troxler, our Pediatric Department Champion, presented an ICD-10 Guide for Pediatricians at yesterday’s Grand Rounds.
Click here to view this important and timely information.

Children’s of Alabama’s Neurophysiology Lab has been granted American Board of Registration of Electroencephalographic and Evoked Potential Technologist (ABRET) Accreditation-Neurophysiological Intraoperative Monitoring (LAB-NIOM). This honor deems our lab the first pediatric hospital in the world to obtain this accreditation, the 19th hospital in the U.S. and one of just three in the southeast. Now, The Neurophysiology Labs are accredited in EEG, EMU and NIOM – one of few labs in the country to hold all three designations.

Lauren Nassetta, M.D. accepted the UABHS Innovation Award for the Insulin Safety Team’s Quality project on standardizing subcutaneous insulin at the UABHS Board Meeting on Thursday, Aug. 20. She is pictured with her team.

Q: What is CDE anyway?
A: CDE is a process used by hospitals that employ specialists who review clinical documents for gaps in documentation and provide feedback to physicians. It is a method of obtaining complete, accurate and compliant documentation.

Q: Why can’t you just tell me what to write in my note?
A: Just as an attorney cannot “lead” a witness into a statement, CDE nurses cannot lead physicians in their documentation. A physician may be contacted by a CDE RN during rounds or by a query (communication tool in I-Connect used to clarify documentation) in order to clarify documentation.

Q: So…What’s the point?
A: The primary purpose of accurate, specific and complete health record documentation is continuity of patient care. This serves as a means of communication among healthcare providers. It is also used to evaluate the adequacy and appropriateness of quality care, provide clinical data for research and education and support reimbursement, medical necessity, quality of care measures and public reporting of services rendered by a healthcare entity.
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Even after cancer is defeated, it can cast a lifelong shadow. “Cancer survivorship represents a very critical phase,” said Smita Bhatia, M.D., M.P.H., a pediatric oncologist and director of the new Institute for Cancer Outcomes and Survivorship in the UAB School of Medicine and associate director for cancer outcomes research at the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center. “We and others have shown in our research studies that our cancer survivors are a vulnerable population,” she said. “When you follow them long-term, you find that they have a very high burden of chronic health conditions.”

Often, these health problems can be linked back to cancer treatments, including chemotherapy, radiation and even surgeries, Bhatia said. Because these complications can occur “many years after the completion of treatment,” they are called “late effects.” One example involves a particular class of chemotherapy drug known as anthracyclines. “We use these agents often because they are highly effective in a large variety of cancers,” Bhatia said. But research shows that patients who take these drugs have a high risk of developing congestive heart failure many years later.
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