Tag Archive for: intensive care unit

patient undergoing MRI

Brain tumor team performs first ever LIFU procedure on pediatric DIPG patient

patient undergoing MRI

The ultrasound waves activate the drug selectively within the tumor, causing tumor cell death. Credit: Image provided by Insightec.

A multidisciplinary brain tumor team at Children’s National Hospital successfully performed the first treatment with sonodynamic therapy utilizing low intensity focused ultrasound (LIFU) and 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA) medication on a pediatric patient. The treatment, performed on a 5-year-old child diagnosed with a diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), was done noninvasively through an intact skull. The child was discharged from the hospital one day later.

What happened?

Shortly after announcing the use of LIFU, the brain tumor team at Children’s National treated the patient as part of a cutting-edge trial using LIFU combined with a novel medication.

The ultrasound waves – which are given while the child is asleep through an intact skull and does not require an invasive neurosurgical procedure – activate the drug selectively within the tumor, causing tumor cell death.

“This treatment is currently being trialed in adults diagnosed with recurrent glioblastoma tumors, but has never been attempted in pediatric patients,” said Hasan Syed, M.D., co-director of the Focused Ultrasound Program at Children’s National. “Similar to the adult trial, our protocol involves using a medication that is taken up by tumor cells and then targeting those cells with LIFU to induce tumor cell death, and hopefully leading to tumor control.”

Dr. Syed co-directs the program with Roger Packer, M.D., head of the Brain Tumor Institute, and Lindsay Kilburn, M.D., director of the Experimental Therapeutics Program.

How are we leading the way?

The launch and use of LIFU was possible thanks to the efforts of a multidisciplinary team from various departments that understood if too high a dose of ultrasound was utilized, there could be associated brain swelling and even death.

“Our efforts show great teamwork and a commitment from the hospital and our clinical teams to develop innovative means to treat a tumor that kills 90% of those children afflicted within 18 months of diagnosis,” Dr. Syed said.

The work shows expertise of the brain tumor team, as well as radiology, anesthesiology and intensive care units.

“Despite the risks involved, the use of focused ultrasound is a novel way to try to treat these very deep-seated lesions that have been highly resistant to all forms of therapy and is potentially the greatest breakthrough we’ve had in this disease in the past 50 years,” Dr. Packer said.

What has limited therapy in the past?

DIPGs are deep-seated in critical areas of brain, controlling breathing and heart rate and cannot be removed. The brain has an intrinsic system called a blood brain barrier which blocks drugs from getting to the tumor.

Focused ultrasound is a new way to overcome the brain’s ability to stop the drugs from getting there. It can also be used to activate a drug as it passes through the brain stem.

“We are extremely excited to have taken the first step in developing this novel and non-invasive approach to treating one of our most deadly brain tumors,” Dr. Kilburn said. “This is the first step of numerous steps toward evaluating the many potential uses of LIFU as part of combination therapies to treat children with DIPGs and eventually other pediatric brain tumors.”

Children’s National is partnering with other institutions across the world to perform these studies. But because of the commitment of its team and its expertise, it is the first to use this technique in a child.

“I think we’re in a unique position thanks to the collaborations possible at Children’s National and the expertise of those caring for children with brain tumors,” Dr. Packer added.

Why we’re excited

The Brain Tumor Institute at Children’s National is excited about making this a potential treatment option for DIPG patients, which currently have really no surgical options or alternatives. It’s a way to deliver the ultrasound and therapies in a potentially less toxic way, not requiring surgery.

This trial and subsequently others will give doctors more options for children with DIPGs and other malignant tumors.

Katie Donnelly

Firearm injuries disproportionately affect African American kids in DC Wards 7 and 8

Katie Donnelly

“Because the majority of patients in our analyses were injured through accidental shootings, this particular risk factor can help to inform policy makers about possible interventions to prevent future firearm injury, disability and death,” says Katie Donnelly, M.D.

Firearm injuries disproportionately impact African American young men living in Washington’s Wards 7 and 8 compared with other city wards, with nearly one-quarter of injuries suffered in the injured child’s home or at a friend’s home, according to a hot spot analysis presented during the Pediatric Academic Societies 2019 Annual Meeting.

“We analyzed the addresses where youths were injured by firearms over a nearly 12-year period and found that about 60 percent of these shootings occurred in Ward 7 or Ward 8, lower socioeconomic neighborhoods when compared with Washington’s six other Wards,” says Monika K. Goyal, M.D., MSCE, assistant chief of Children’s Division of Emergency Medicine and Trauma Services and the study’s senior author. “This granular detail will help to target resources and interventions to more effectively reduce firearm-related injury and death.”

In the retrospective, cross-sectional study, the Children’s research team looked at all children aged 18 and younger who were treated at Children’s National for firearm-related injuries from Jan. 1, 2006, to May 31, 2017. During that time, 122 children injured by firearms in Washington were treated at Children’s National, the only Level 1 pediatric trauma center in the nation’s Capitol:

  • Nearly 64 percent of these firearm-related injuries were accidental
  • The patients’ mean age was 12.9 years old
  • More than 94 percent of patients were African American and
  • Nearly 74 percent were male.

Of all injuries suffered by children, injuries due to firearms carry the highest mortality rates, the study authors write. About 3 percent of patients in Children’s study died from their firearm-related injuries. Among surviving youth:

  • Patients had a mean Injury Severity Score of 5.8. (The score for a “major trauma” is greater than 15.)
  • 54 percent required hospitalization, with a mean hospitalization of three days
  • Nearly 28 percent required surgery, with 14.8 percent transferred directly from the emergency department to the operating room and
  • Nearly 16 percent were admitted to the intensive care unit.

“Regrettably, firearm injuries remain a major public health hazard for our nation’s children and young adults,” adds Katie Donnelly, M.D., emergency medicine specialist and the study’s lead author. “Because the majority of patients in our analyses were injured through accidental shootings, this particular risk factor can help to inform policy makers about possible interventions to prevent future firearm injury, disability and death.”

Pediatric Academic Societies 2019 Annual Meeting poster presentatio

  • “Pediatric firearm-related injuries and outcomes in the District of Columbia.”
    • Monday, April 29, 2019, 5:45 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. (EST)

Katie Donnelly, M.D., emergency medicine specialist and lead author; Shilpa J. Patel, M.D., MPH, emergency medicine specialist and co-author; Gia M. Badolato, co-author; James Jackson, co-author; and Monika K. Goyal, M.D., MSCE, assistant chief of Children’s Division of Emergency Medicine and Trauma Services and senior author.

Other Children’s research related to firearms presented during PAS 2019 includes:

April 27, 8 a.m.: “Protect kids, not guns: What pediatric providers can do to improve firearm safety.” Gabriella Azzarone, Asad Bandealy, M.D.; Priti Bhansali, M.D.; Eric Fleegler; Monika K. Goyal, M.D., MSCE;  Alex Hogan; Sabah Iqbal; Kavita Parikh, M.D.; Shilpa J. Patel, M.D., MPH; Noe Romo; and Alyssa Silver.

April 29, 5:45 p.m.: “Emergency department visits for pediatric firearm-related injury: By intent of injury.” Shilpa J. Patel, M.D., MPH; Gia M. Badolato; Kavita Parikh, M.D.; Sabah Iqbal; and Monika K. Goyal, M.D., MSCE.

April 29, 5:45 p.m.: “Assessing the intentionality of pediatric firearm injuries using ICD codes.” Katie Donnelly, M.D.; Gia M. Badolato; James Chamberlain, M.D.; and Monika K. Goyal, M.D., MSCE.

April 30, 9:45 a.m.: “Defining a research agenda for the field of pediatric firearm injury prevention.” Libby Alpern; Patrick Carter; Rebecca Cunningham, Monika K. Goyal, M.D., MSCE; Fred Rivara; and Eric Sigel.

Dr. Bear Bot

Advances in telemedicine start with new cardiac critical care robot

Dr. Bear Bot

Dr. Bear Bot’s “robot-only” parking space in the Cardiac ICU. Alejandro Lopez-Magallon, M.D., is featured on the robot display screen, where he drives the robot from his location in the command center, in order to visit patient rooms and capture additional medical information and connect with patients, parents, and attending nurses and physicians.

The telemedicine robot at Children’s National arrived in late August 2018 and recently completed a 90-day test period in the tele-cardiac intensive care unit (cardiac ICU) at Children’s National. The bot travels between rooms as a virtual liaison connecting patients and attending nurses and physicians with Ricardo Munoz, M.D., executive director of the telemedicine program and the division chief of critical cardiac care, and Alejandro Lopez-Magallon, M.D., a cardiologist and medical director of the telemedicine program.

Drs. Munoz and Lopez-Magallon use a nine-screen virtual command center to remotely monitor patient vitals, especially for infants and children who are recovering from congenital heart surgery, flown in for an emergency diagnostic procedure, such as a catheterization, or who are in the process of receiving a heart or kidney transplant. Instead of traveling to individual rooms to check in on the status of one patient, the doctors can now monitor multiple patients simultaneously, enhancing their ability to diagnose, care for and intervene during critical events.

If Drs. Munoz or Lopez-Magallon need to take an X-ray or further examine a patient, they drive the robot from its ‘robot-only’ parking space adjacent to the nurse’s station, and connect with attending doctors and nurses in the teaming area. The onsite clinicians accompany one of the telemedicine doctors, both of whom remain in the command center but appear virtually on the robot’s display screen, to the patient’s room to capture additional medical information and to connect with patients and families.

Over time, the telemedicine team will measure models of efficiency in the tele-cardiac ICU, such as through-put, care coordination, and standards of safety, quality and care, measured by quality of life and short- and long-term patient health outcomes. This test run will serve as a model for future command centers offering remote critical care.

Ricardo Munoz and Alejandro Lopez-Magallon

(R) Ricardo Munoz, M.D., executive director of the telemedicine program and the division chief of critical cardiac care, and Alejandro Lopez-Magallon, M.D., a cardiologist and the associate medical director of the telemedicine program in the tele-cardiac ICU command center.

“As technology and medicine advance, so do our models of telemedicine, which we call virtual care,” says Shireen Atabaki, M.D., M.P.H., an emergency medicine physician at Children’s National, who manages an ambulatory virtual health program, which enables patients to use virtual health platforms to connect with doctors, but from the comfort of their home. “We find the patient-centered platforms and this new technology saves families’ time and we’re looking forward to studying internal models to see how this can help our doctors, enabling us to do even more.”

The ongoing virtual connection program that Dr. Atabaki references launched in spring 2016 and has enabled 900 children to connect to a doctor from a computer, tablet or smart phone, which has saved families 1,600 driving hours and more than 41,000 miles over a two-year period. Through this program, virtual care is provided to children in our region by 20 subspecialists, including cardiologists, dermatologists, neurologists, urgent care doctors, geneticists, gastroenterologists and endocrinologists.

To extend the benefits of virtual communication, while saving mileage and time, Dr. Atabaki and the telemedicine team at Children’s National will partner with K-12 school systems, local hospitals and health centers and global health systems.

The Children’s National robot was named Dr. Bear Bot after a 21-day voting period with patients and staff, beating 14 other child-selected names, including SMARTy (Special Medical Access to Remote Technology), Dr. Bot and Rosie. Dr. Bear Bot celebrated with an official reveal party on Valentine’s Day, which was streamed to over 220 patients through the hospital’s closed-circuit television and radio station.

AACN Beacon Award logo

Pediatric Intensive Care Unit receives Silver Beacon Award for Excellence

AACN Beacon Award logo

The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) recently awarded the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at Children’s National Health System with a silver-level Beacon Award for Excellence.

The Beacon Award for Excellence recognizes unit caregivers who successfully improve patient outcomes and align practices with AACN’s six Healthy Work Environment Standards.

The silver-level award signifies continuous learning and effective systems to achieve optimal patient care. The PICU at Children’s National earned its silver award by meeting the following evidence-based Beacon Award for Excellence criteria:

  • Leadership structures and systems
  • Appropriate staffing and staff engagement
  • Effective communication, knowledge management, learning and development
  • Evidence-based practice and processes
  • Outcome measurement

“The hard work and dedication of the nurses at Children’s National is shown through the quality care they provide every day to their patients,” says Linda Talley, M.S., B.S.N., R.N., NE-BC, vice president of nursing and chief nursing officer at Children’s National. “I’m so proud of all of the critical care nurses and clinical teams that worked so hard to receive this well-deserved prestigious recognition.”

Congratulations to all of our caregivers and leadership teams across our Intensive Care Units for working together to meet and exceed the high standards set forth by the Beacon Award for Excellence.

Children’s receives $3M research grant from Mallinckrodt

Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals has awarded a $3 million Healthcare Advancement Grant to Children’s National Health System, supporting a research initiative focused on pediatric patients in the intensive care setting.

In the U.S., 20 percent of hospitalized children are cared for in the pediatric intensive care unit (ICU). Yet this is an under-researched patient population with layers of complexity. These patients face a 2.5 to 5 percent mortality rate, with 5 to 10 percent serious morbidity rate, and the morbidity and mortality rates double within three years.

Children’s National is uniquely qualified to address this opportunity, with its level IV neonatal ICU, ranked third in the nation by U.S. News and World Report in its 2016-2017 Best Children’s Hospitals survey. Home to the Children’s Research Institute and the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation, Children’s National is one of the nation’s top National Institute of Health (NIH)-funded pediatric institutions. It is a member of the Collaborative Pediatric Critical Care Research Network of the NIH and enjoys strong partnerships with major universities in the Washington, DC, area, providing data-generation resources. The institution plans to mine data from this myriad of sources and more to unearth knowledge and improve outcomes.

Children’s National has identified three priorities to launch and execute this multi-year initiative, specifically:

  • Establish a Critical Care Outcomes Research Initiative team
  • Build on existing partnerships and expand to acquire additional data
  • Build outcomes research studies in the critical care arena

“We applaud Mallinckrodt for their forward thinking as we begin this important research initiative that will help meet the challenges faced by seriously ill pediatric patients,” said Robin Steinhorn, M.D., Senior Vice President for the Center for Hospital-Based Specialties. “We firmly believe the combination of this generous research grant, our many collaborative relationships and Children’s National’s renowned research enterprise will lead to improved outcomes for children in the future.”