Redefining the path forward for children with focal cortical dysplasia
Children’s National is transforming how doctors detect and treat focal cortical dysplasia, the leading cause of surgically treatable epilepsy in children.
Diagnostic Imaging & Radiology
U.S. News & World Report voting
Children’s National is ranked one of the top 10 pediatric hospitals in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Our faculty and staff are proud of the impact made on the lives of children and families in our community. Your participation in the U.S. News & World Report annual reputational survey validates the quality of care we provide and reflects the mutual respect and trust we share as healthcare professionals.
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Voting for the U.S. News & World Report Best Children’s Hospitals rankings can be done only through Doximity.
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- You have to claim your profile on Doximity.com to participate in the online survey. If you have not yet claimed your Doximity profile, go to Doximity.com, and click “Find My Profile.”
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Once registered, users wishing to participate in the online survey should:
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- Once logged in, look for a U.S. News graphic or button on the homepage and click on it.
- The survey asks users to name the hospitals that provide the best care in your respective specialty, without consideration to location or cost. Pediatric specialists will list 10 hospitals. The order in which you list the hospitals does not matter.
Please note: Children’s National Hospital is listed as “Children’s National Hospital Washington, DC” on the survey.
Visit Doximity’s FAQs if you have issues or questions about registration or claiming your profile.
How to cast your vote
In February 2026 when voting opens, all survey-eligible physicians will receive a notification on the Doximity app for Android or iOS. If you do not use the Doximity app, you will receive an email when voting opens.
- Log in to your Doximity account at doximity.com or via the mobile app.
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The best of 2025 from Innovation District
In 2025, Innovation District readers gravitated toward stories that explored how research and clinical innovation are reshaping pediatric care in real time. This year’s most popular articles highlighted advances in complex surgical care, evidence-based treatments for chronic and neuropsychiatric conditions and emerging technologies — from wearable data to artificial intelligence — that are changing how clinicians diagnose, treat and support children and families. Read on for our list of the most popular articles we published on Innovation District in 2025.
1. Life-changing care: How Children’s National tackles pediatric cervical spine injuries
The Cervical Spine program at Children’s National Hospital is responsible for treating a range of conditions, including trauma, congenital abnormalities and tumors. These conditions can lead to instability or misalignment of the cervical spine. “There are unique challenges in pediatric cases due to anatomical differences. The cervical spines of children are more at risk for injury because of their developmental stage and structural characteristics,” says Matthew Oetgen, MD, MBA, chief of Orthopaedic Surgery and Sports Medicine at Children’s National.
(2 min. read)
2. Pioneering evidence-based treatments for substance addictions
Increasing evidence-based treatment is a key component of the Addictions Program at Children’s National Hospital, created in 2022 and led by Sivabalaji Kaliamurthy, MD. “We really want to focus on intervening in an evidence-based manner in the primary care setting because that is where most of our patients are going to first access care outside of the emergency room,” explains Dr. Kaliamurthy.
(3 min. read)
3. Breaking barriers in growth disorder treatment for families
For many children with short stature and other rare genetic growth disorders, there have been no next steps after usual treatment options prove ineffective. Researchers at Children’s National Hospital are digging deeper to find the root genetic causes of short stature disorders and creating novel, nuanced treatment options that have the opportunity to change how the field approaches these cases.
(4 min. read)
4. The link between metabolic acidosis and cardiovascular disease in children with CKD
Denver D. Brown, MD, nephrologist at Children’s National, is looking at whether untreated metabolic acidosis could potentially contribute to cardiovascular outcomes in children with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Here, she explains her motivation, findings and future directions for this critical research.
(3 min. read)
5. Therapy approach shows promise for PANS/PANDAS
A multidisciplinary therapy model developed at Children’s National shows promise for children with PANS and PANDAS, significantly reducing symptoms through structured cognitive-behavioral therapy and family-centered care. The approach could offer a new standard for treating these rare, complex neuropsychiatric disorders.
(2 min. read)
6. Wearable tech data shows promise in ADHD detection
A study from Children’s National reveals that common wearable devices like Fitbits may hold the key to improving how we identify Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in adolescents. By analyzing patterns in heart rate, activity levels and energy expenditure, researchers were able to predict ADHD diagnoses with striking accuracy, offering a glimpse into a future where objective, real-time data supports earlier and more personalized mental healthcare.
(2 min. read)
7. Novel pediatric pacemaker shows safety, effectiveness for fragile infants in multi-center study
A novel implantable pacemaker designed specifically for infants has demonstrated safety and effectiveness in stabilizing heart rhythms for at least two years. The multi-center study of 29 infants showed stable pacing, normal electrical parameters and expected battery life, offering a viable alternative to standard-size devices for the smallest children.
(2 min. read)
8. Socioeconomic disadvantage associated with higher long-term mortality for children after heart surgery
Children who had heart surgery and come from less advantaged neighborhoods in the Washington, D.C., region are much more likely to die in the long term than those from neighborhoods with more wealth and opportunity. The finding was part of a presentation titled, Socioeconomic Disadvantage Is Associated with Higher Long-Term Mortality After Cardiac Surgery, by Jennifer Klein, MD, MPH, cardiologist at Children’s National Hospital, during the Society of Thoracic Surgeons Annual Meeting in Los Angeles.
(2 min. read)
9. Children’s National brings AI into the RHD early diagnosis equation
Experts from Children’s National traveled to Uganda to continue work on a pilot program applying artificial intelligence (AI) to the diagnosis of rheumatic heart disease (RHD). The team created a tool that uses AI to predict RHD by identifying leaky heart valves on handheld ultrasound devices, then prompts a referral for a full echocardiogram.
(2 min. read)
10. Fighting food insecurity with fresh produce and education
Food insecurity is rising in Washington, D.C. and it’s hitting families with children the hardest. That’s why Children’s National Hospital created the Family Lifestyle Program (FLiP) – a multi-layered intervention, which offers Patient Navigation (FLiP-PN) and a Produce Prescription Intervention (FLiPRx). FLiP is a Food Is Medicine, clinical-community initiative that helps families get access to fresh food, build healthy habits and lower their risk of diet-related diseases like diabetes and obesity.
(3 min. read)
Children’s National in the News: 2025
In 2025, Children’s National Hospital was featured in major national news outlets for pioneering advances in pediatric care, groundbreaking clinical research and powerful human stories of healing and hope. From gene therapy for sickle cell disease and innovative pacemakers for newborns to breakthrough transplants, cancer trials and emerging mental health concerns like AI psychosis, these stories highlight the hospital’s leadership across the full spectrum of pediatric medicine. The following ten highlights showcase the patients, families and experts behind this impact, as reported by outlets including NBC News, The Washington Post, Good Morning America, USA Today, Healio, ABC News and ESPN.
1. Gene therapy treatment gives new hope to sickle cell patients
Children’s National patient Wedam, 19, begins the first steps for intensive gene therapy for sickle cell disease, discussing his skepticism while his mother expresses her joy and gratitude for the treatment. (NBC News)
2. Little pacemakers ‘reliable’ in stabilizing newborns needing pacing
Charles Berul, MD, pediatric electrophysiologist and emeritus chief of Cardiology, discusses his study highlighting the safety and efficacy of an innovative smaller pacemaker designed for newborns with critical congenital heart disease. (Healio)
3. Why this clinical trial is offering some young cancer patients hope
Catherine Bollard, MBChB, MD, senior vice president and chief research officer, and the NexTGen team are poised to recruit patients for a new clinical trial that will take on an old, implacable foe: children’s solid tumors. (The Washington Post)
4. 11-year-old receives living donor heart valve to replace artificial one in breakthrough surgery
Yves d’Udekem, MD, PhD, chief of Cardiac Surgery, talked to Good Morning America about how an 11-year-old’s groundbreaking partial heart transplant will change his life and the lives of other children in need of valve replacements. (Good Morning America)
5. 9-year-old fights brain cancer with magic in her heart
The Lilabean Foundation along with Brian Rood, MD, medical director of the Brain Tumor Institute, talked about how patients like Kasey Zachman are the motivation behind finding a cure for brain cancer. (ABC News)
6. How Little League helps father-son duo recover from kidney transplant
USA Today Sports spoke with Gavin Brown and his parents, as well as Yi Shi, MD, a pediatric nephrologist at Children’s National Hospital, about their kidney transplant journey. (USA Today)
7. Jayden Daniels surprises Children’s National patient
After Jayden Daniels visited Commanders fan Sarah Addison at Children’s National Hospital while she was being treated for myeloid leukemia, they quickly became friends. (ESPN)
8. At D.C. children’s hospital, opera singers offer light, hope and healing
International opera stars performed for children, their families and employees at Children’s National Hospital. (The Washington Post)
9. ‘Gift of life:’ Tiny heart transplant saves life of Maryland baby
A baby boy in Maryland is back home after being given a second chance at life, just before his first birthday. The boy’s mother and his surgeon, Manan Desai, MD, share the remarkable story of a moment that changed all of their lives. (NBC4)
10. AI psychosis: Kids left delusional and paranoid over conversations with chatbots
Ashley Maxie-Moreman, PhD, clinical psychologist, spoke to ABC7 about what AI psychosis is and what parents need to know. (ABC7)
AI tool shows promise for faster, more accurate pediatric tuberculosis detection
AI researchers have created pTBLightNet, a deep-learning model that detects pediatric tuberculosis on chest X-rays with high accuracy.
A new international study published in Nature Communications highlights a promising step forward in using an artificial intelligence model, pTBLightNet, to detect pediatric tuberculosis (TB) on chest X-rays. The study, led in part by Marius George Linguraru, DPhil, MA, MS, Connor Family Professor of Research and Innovation and principal investigator in the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation at Children’s National Hospital and by Ramón Sánchez-Jacob, MD, a radiologist at Children’s National, could help improve early diagnosis in settings where clinical experts are scarce
The big picture
Tuberculosis remains one of the leading causes of death from an infectious agent worldwide, and children face disproportionate risks. Diagnosing TB in young patients is complex: symptoms are often nonspecific, radiographic findings are subtle and bacteriologic confirmation is difficult to obtain. As a result, many children with TB are never diagnosed or treated.
The World Health Organization (WHO) identifies chest X-rays as a central tool for screening and triage, yet interpreting pediatric images is challenging even for experts. pTBLightNet was developed to support clinics by identifying the radiographic signatures consistent with pediatric TB.
The study team, led by the Polytechnic University in Madrid, trained and evaluated the AI model on more than 900 pediatric chest X-rays collected in Mozambique, Spain, and the United States. To mirror real-world radiology practice, the model incorporates both frontal and lateral X-rays. The system was also pretrained on more than 100,000 adult chest X-rays before fine tuning on pediatric TB data.
The model achieved an accuracy of approximately 90% on data from international sites. The cohort from Children’s National was drawn from emergency department patients with respiratory symptoms.
Why this matters
Young children, especially those under five, face the highest risk of severe TB and related death. They are also the group most likely to be missed or receive delayed treatment. In this context, a tool capable of identifying TB in X-ray imaging can meaningfully shift the timeline of care and improve chances of recovery.
The study offers several important insights. First, pretraining on adult datasets and fine-tuning on pediatric cases improves the performance of the AI model. Second, age stratified models match or even exceed the performance of a single, all ages model despite being trained on substantially smaller datasets. This suggests that the radiologic presentation of TB varies enough by age to justify the development of pediatric-specific models. Third, the addition of lateral X-ray views proves especially valuable for diagnosing TB in younger children.
What’s next
The team plans to validate the AI model performance in routine clinical workflows and help clinicians distinguish TB from other respiratory infections. Integration of pTBLightNet into telemedicine and referral platforms holds potential to extend expert-level diagnostics to underserved regions, helping ensure children everywhere receive timely, accurate evaluation.
You can read the full study, “Multi-view deep learning framework for the detection of chest X-rays compatible with pediatric pulmonary tuberculosis” in Nature Communications here.
Additional research from Children’s National was done by Pooneh Roshanitabrizi, PhD.
Marius George Linguraru honored as MICCAI Fellow and celebrates a landmark year for medical imaging innovation
Dr. Marius George Linguraru, a global leader in pediatric imaging and AI, has been named a 2025 MICCAI Fellow for advancing quantitative imaging biomarkers and championing equitable AI in children’s health.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming how doctors diagnose, monitor and treat disease. At this year’s conference of the Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention (MICCAI) Society in Daejeon, South Korea, more than 3,300 scientists, engineers and clinicians from around the world gathered to explore that transformation firsthand. Among them was Marius George Linguraru, DPhil, MA, MS, the Connor Family Professor of Research and Innovation at Children’s National Hospital and a global leader in pediatric imaging and AI research, who was officially named a 2025 Fellow of the MICCAI Society.
The fellowship recognizes Dr. Linguraru for his “distinguished contributions to medical image computing, particularly in the development of quantitative imaging biomarkers for pediatric and rare diseases.”
The big picture
The MICCAI Society is the world’s leading organization for medical image computing and computer-assisted intervention. Each year, it recognizes researchers who have shaped the field through scientific excellence, mentorship and community leadership. Dr. Linguraru shares this year’s honor with Carl-Fredrik Westin of Harvard Medical School and Jayashree Kalpathy-Cramer of the University of Colorado School of Medicine.
In addition to receiving the fellowship, Dr. Linguraru currently serves as president of the MICCAI Society, helping to guide its global community through a new era of AI-driven discovery.
“The wellbeing of children is a core value of any society, and I believe AI is one of the most powerful tools we have to improve healthcare for all,” said Dr. Linguraru. “I stand firmly as an advocate for equitable imaging and AI, a mentor and a researcher devoted to children’s health. These values are at the heart of the MICCAI Society, my global family pushing the frontiers of science and healthcare.”
The backdrop
At the 2025 MICCAI conference in Daejeon, more than 3,300 participants came together to celebrate science, collaboration and culture. The meeting showcased the latest breakthroughs in artificial intelligence and machine learning for healthcare, including deep-learning approaches to imaging, robotics and clinical decision support.
Dr. Linguraru highlighted the growing momentum toward translating AI methods into clinical practice, as well as new partnerships with the European Society of Radiology and the European Society of Digital and Integrative Pathology that will strengthen the field’s impact.
The society also introduced new awards and grants focused on innovation, health equity and inclusivity, priorities that align closely with Dr. Linguraru’s own career-long mission to bring AI tools to children with rare diseases and limited access to care.
The bottom line
Dr. Linguraru’s installation as a MICCAI Fellow marks a defining moment for both his career and the society he now leads. It celebrates two decades of pioneering research in pediatric imaging and AI, mentorship across continents and a deep belief that technology should serve every child, everywhere.
As the MICCAI community looks ahead to Abu Dhabi in 2026 and Auckland in 2027, Dr. Linguraru’s leadership will help guide the field toward a future where imaging science, artificial intelligence and compassion work hand in hand to advance global health.
Improving diabetes care from day one
“Start Strong: The New Onset Diabetes Program” was developed with a grant from CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield (CareFirst) to support families during the critical period after receiving a new diabetes diagnosis.
Families receiving a new diabetes diagnosis face one of the most overwhelming transitions in pediatric care. “Start Strong: The New Onset Diabetes Program” was developed with a grant from CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield (CareFirst) to support families during this critical period with care coordination, social drivers of health screening and multi-modal education that build a strong foundation for confident, long-term diabetes management. This effort is part of a unique collaboration between CareFirst and Children’s National to address priority pediatric health issues, including diabetes.
Sarah Lydia Holly, BSN, RN, and lead physician Shideh Majidi, MD, MSCS, discuss the development of this project and their hopes for advancing care for newly diagnosed children and families.
Q: What inspired the development of this program for newly diagnosed children and families?
A: At the time of a diabetes diagnosis, families must quickly learn a new “language” of diabetes, adjust daily routines, adopt new technology and manage the emotional toll. The “Start Strong” program was designed to give families the education, structured follow-up and support they need to confidently manage diabetes from the very beginning.
Q: What makes this program different from the standard care families typically receive at diagnosis?
A: The program builds on the standard care offerings by adding proactive follow-up within days of discharge, consistent outreach from a dedicated care coordinator and early screening for both mental health and social drivers of health. These steps help us tailor care and address challenges early.
Q: What are the key outcomes you hope to see from this program?
A: We want families to stay engaged and feel supported in those first critical months. In practice, this looks like:
- Higher completion of education and follow-up visits
- More consistent mental health and social drivers of health screening, with formalized follow-up and resource referrals.
- Strong knowledge retention through assessments and supplemental modules.
- Expanded Type 2 diabetes education and support.
- A shorter turnaround from diagnosis to insulin pump technology initiation with equitable access for all families.
Q: What have you learned so far?
A: We have learned that intensive education and follow-up right after diagnosis makes a real difference in keeping families connected to care. Early coordination helps resolve underlying barriers before they derail diabetes management.
Q: How will this benefit patients and families?
A: Families benefit from ongoing support, not just at diagnosis but throughout the early months of adjustment. By combining clinical follow-up, psychosocial support and tailored education, the program helps families feel less overwhelmed and more confident.
Q: How might this program serve as a model for other hospitals or diabetes programs?
A: The “Start Strong” program shows the value of embedding care coordination, structured follow-up and screening into the new onset period. The care coordinator model, social drivers of health screening and follow-up, and multimodal education can be adopted by other programs looking to improve engagement and equity in the vulnerable new onset period.
Q: Do you see opportunities to expand or adapt this program in the future?
A: Yes. With continued support, we plan to expand Type 2 diabetes education and increase access to insulin pump technology. We also see opportunities to build out the knowledge assessment and learning module approach so families across diagnoses can receive tailored education. In the long term, core elements like structured follow-up and coordinated social drivers of health support could be adapted to benefit families managing other chronic conditions as well.
Q: Does this program address health disparities?
A: “Start Strong” was intentionally designed to serve all newly diagnosed diabetes patients and families across D.C., Maryland and Virginia. The program places a strong emphasis on reducing disparities by providing coordinated care, consistent follow up on social drivers of health and accessible education for every family.
Children’s National Hospital once again ranked among the nation’s best by U.S. News & World Report
Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., was ranked as a top hospital in the nation by the U.S. News & World Report 2025-26 Best Children’s Hospitals annual rankings. This marks the ninth straight year Children’s National has made the Honor Roll list. The Honor Roll is a distinction awarded to only 10 children’s hospitals nationwide.
For the fifteenth straight year, Children’s National ranked in 10 specialty services and is the highest U.S. News ranked children’s hospital in Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia. Last year, U.S. News introduced pediatric & adolescent behavioral health as a service line in its rankings. While there are no ordinal rankings for behavioral health, the Children’s National program was named one of the top 50 programs in the country for the second year in a row.
“To be named among the nation’s top children’s hospitals for nine years in a row is a reflection of the extraordinary expertise, innovation and heart that our teams bring to every child and family we serve,” said Michelle Riley-Brown, MHA, FACHE, president and chief executive officer of Children’s National. “Our leadership in specialties like neurology, cancer, and diabetes and endocrinology underscores the national impact of our work, and we remain focused on setting new standards in pediatric care.”
The annual rankings are the most comprehensive source of quality-related information on U.S. pediatric hospitals and recognizes the nation’s top 50 pediatric hospitals based on a scoring system developed by U.S. News.
“Being a top-ranked pediatric hospital means more than just excelling in a single specialty — it means being a pillar of outstanding care for your entire region,” said Ben Harder, chief of health analysis and managing editor at U.S. News. “Our rankings acknowledge these hospitals for their comprehensive excellence, helping families find the very best care conveniently located within their state and community.”
The bulk of the score for each specialty service is based on quality and outcomes data. The process includes a survey of relevant specialists across the country, who are asked to list hospitals they believe provide the best care for patients with the most complex conditions.
The Children’s National specialty services that U.S. News ranked in the top 10 nationally are:
- Neurology and Neurosurgery (No. 4), led by Division Chiefs William D. Gaillard, MD, and Robert F. Keating, MD
- Diabetes and Endocrinology (No. 6), led by Division Chief Andrew Dauber, MD, MMSc
- Cancer (No. 8), led by Division Chief Eugene Hwang, MD
- Nephrology (No. 10), led by Division Chief Marva Moxey-Mims, MD
- Orthopedics (No. 10), led by Division Chief Matthew Oetgen, MD, MBA
The other six specialties ranked among the top 50 are Behavioral Health, Cardiology and Heart Surgery, Gastroenterology and GI Surgery, Neonatology, Pulmonology and Lung Surgery, and Urology.
From ballet to breakthroughs: The remarkable journey of Dr. Dorothy Bulas
Initially, Dr. Bulas pursued pediatrics, drawn to the joy and complexity of working with children. But during her residency, she found herself increasingly drawn to radiology.
What began as a passion for ballet evolved into a lifelong pursuit of innovation that allowed Dorothy Bulas MD, FACR, to find her rhythm not on stage, but in the radiology department.
As a child of Eastern European immigrants who came to the U.S. after World War II, Dorothy was raised with a strong sense of resilience and gratitude. Her mother, a physician trained at the University of Heidelberg, helped plant the seeds of a future in medicine. But before pursuing that path, Dorothy was devoted to ballet, dreaming of a life on stage. It wasn’t until she outgrew the physical limitations of the profession that she turned her curiosity toward science and eventually enrolled in a competitive six-year medical program right out of high school.
Initially, Dr. Bulas pursued pediatrics, drawn to the joy and complexity of working with children. But during her residency, she found herself increasingly drawn to radiology.
“I realized I was always sitting in the radiology department,” she recalled. “I loved the detective work. It was like reading mysteries every day.”
This fascination led her to complete a second residency in radiology, an uncommon path that blended her love of diagnosis with her background in pediatrics.
Dr. Bulas’ arrival at Children’s National Hospital came by way of serendipity and mentorship. After a rotation at Johns Hopkins, a respected radiologist encouraged her to connect with peers in Washington, D.C. What began as an exploratory trip quickly became a defining moment: she was offered a fellowship at Children’s National.
“I came to Children’s National and never left,” she said. “It felt like home.”
Over the past three decades, Dr. Bulas has helped shape Children’s National as a hub for innovation- particularly in fetal imaging. As one of the first to specialize in prenatal radiology at a freestanding children’s hospital, she was at the forefront of integrating fetal ultrasound and MRI into clinical care.
As a Professor of Pediatrics and Radiology, Dr. Bulas has remained a vital part of the hospital’s growth as a nationally recognized pediatric radiology division including perinatal imaging. “We were doing fetal MRIs before it was common. It was a new frontier. And now, it is one of the most exciting and rapidly growing areas in pediatric radiology,” she shared.
Despite the technical complexity of her work, what drives Dr. Bulas most is her connection to families. “Some of the most heartwarming parts of my career have been counseling families through difficult diagnoses, then seeing them return years later with healthy children.”
She has been part of remarkable cases including conjoined twin deliveries and pioneering fetal surgeries, always maintaining a sense of humility. “You can’t predict everything,” she says. “These families put their trust in us during the most vulnerable time of their lives.”
In recognition of her groundbreaking contributions, Dr. Bulas has received numerous awards- including the Radiologic Society of North America Outstanding Educator Award, the Society for Pediatric Radiology Gold Medal Award and the Beverly B. Wood Award for Outstanding Pediatrics from the AAP. Still, she remains humble.
“Nothing I have done has been alone. It takes a village – the sonographers, the technologists, the nurses, the leadership. Children’s National has always supported me, and for that, I’m grateful.”
Outside of clinical work and research, Dr. Bulas has also shaped the future of the field through education. She was part of the inaugural cohort of the hospital’s Master Teacher program and has served as a leader in national and international radiology societies including past president and chair of the Society for Pediatric Radiology, past president of the World Federation of Pediatric Imaging and current Chair of the Commission on Pediatric Radiology for the American College of Radiology . A fierce advocate for global outreach, she’s helped establish observerships and pediatric radiology training programs in underserved regions around the world.
“There are over a billion children globally who lack access to imaging,” she noted. “That’s something we can and must work to change.”
Dr. Bulas encourages the next generation of healthcare professionals to remain open to possibility.
“I never imagined I’d be doing this. When I started, fetal imaging didn’t even exist. But if you stay curious and committed, your career will take you to places you never dreamed.”
With decades of expertise and an unwavering dedication to children and families, Dr. Dorothy Bulas has shaped the field of pediatric radiology one image, one patient and one breakthrough at a time.
Dr. Marius George Linguraru honored with IEEE EMBS Distinguished Service Award
Dr. Marius George Linguraru accepts the IEEE EMBS Distinguished Service Award in Copenhagen, honoring his global impact in pediatric AI and dedication to advancing children’s health through innovation.
Marius George Linguraru, DPhil, MA, MSc, Connor Family Professor and Endowed Chair in Research and Innovation at Children’s National Hospital, has received the prestigious Distinguished Service Award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS). IEEE is the world’s largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity with over 486,000 members in more than 190 countries. This honor recognizes his “unwavering dedication to service, mentorship and scientific excellence” and notes that “his distinguished contributions have strengthened the society and expanded EMBS’s global reach.”
At Children’s National, Dr. Linguraru leads groundbreaking artificial intelligence (AI) research initiatives focused on transforming pediatric care. His work provides non-invasive, accessible solutions for early detection and treatment of complex childhood diseases, giving vulnerable children everywhere a better chance of healthier lives.
Through the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation and other interdisciplinary collaborations, Dr. Linguraru and his team develop AI tools that support clinicians in diagnosing and monitoring conditions ranging from rare genetic disorders to endemic heart diseases and critical pediatric cancers. His dedication to innovation has placed Children’s National at the forefront of AI-powered global pediatric health care.
“IEEE EMBS has been a professional home throughout my career, and this award holds special personal significance,” Dr. Linguraru shared. “It has been incredibly fulfilling to contribute to the organization while also advancing our mission at Children’s National, to create and translate technologies that improve care for children and families around the world.”
In addition to his leadership at Children’s National, Dr. Linguraru holds faculty appointments as Professor of Radiology and Pediatrics at George Washington University. He also co-founded PediaMetrix Inc., a company focused on improving pediatric health through AI innovation, and serves as the president of the Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention (MICCAI) Society.
Dr. Linguraru’s commitment to service has been reflected in his numerous leadership roles within IEEE EMBS, including Chair of the Technical Committee for Biomedical Imaging and Image Processing, General Chair of the IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging (ISBI) 2019, and Distinguished Lecturer of the society. His contributions have inspired colleagues and future leaders across the field.
His work has earned widespread recognition, including the Excellence in Engineering Award at the UK Houses of Parliament and media features in The Economist, The Washington Post, and The Times (London). Yet it is his dedication to improving the lives of children that remains at the heart of his mission.
“I am deeply grateful to my colleagues and collaborators, both at Children’s National and around the world, who share this vision of using AI technology to make a real difference in pediatric health,” said Dr. Linguraru. “This award is not only a personal honor but a recognition of the incredible work we do together to create a healthier future for children everywhere.”
Transarterial embolization offers hope for infants with hemimegalencephaly
A new study from Children’s National Hospital reveals how a minimally invasive procedure is transforming care for infants with hemimegalencephaly and medically refractory seizures, offering seizure relief with fewer surgical risks.
Until recently, families of infants with hemimegalencephaly and medically refractory seizures had few treatment options, almost all involved major brain surgery such as hemispherectomy, to remove or disconnect the affected portion of the brain. These procedures, while sometimes effective, carry high risks in very young infants due to the fragility of their developing brains and invasive nature of the surgery.
Now, specialists from the Hemimegalencephaly Program at Children’s National Hospital have pioneered a minimally invasive alternative. Leveraging the combined expertise of a multidisciplinary team — spanning neurology, neurointerventional radiology, prenatal pediatrics, neonatology, neurogenetics and neurodevelopmental pediatrics, neuropsychology and neurosurgery — they have developed a technique that induces controlled, targeted strokes in the affected hemisphere using transarterial embolization (TAE). This approach mimics the effect of surgery by reducing seizure activity, without the need for open brain procedures.
This novel strategy is the focus of a new study led by Monica Pearl, MD, director of the Neurointerventional Radiology Program. The research represents the largest retrospective review of its kind, examining 41 TAE procedures performed over an 11-year span in 13 infants under three months of age.
The results are promising: 73% of patients achieved Engel Class I seizure outcomes at follow-up, suggesting that with careful technique and patient selection, TAE may provide meaningful seizure control with fewer perioperative risks than traditional surgery. The study also highlights the technical complexity of the procedure, early complications and the critical role of evolving protocols in ensuring patient safety.
Authors from Children’s National include Monica Pearl, MD, Tayyba Anwar, MD, Shani Israel, BS, Lindsay Ruffini, CPNP, CPNP-AC, CPNP-PC, Panagiotis Kratimenos, MD, PhD, Kyle Spagnolo, DO, Wei-Liang Chen, MD, Madison Berl, PhD, William D. Gaillard, MD, Tammy N. Tsuchida, MD, PhD and Chima Oluigbo, MD
To learn more about the clinical outcomes and evolving protocols behind this approach, you can read the full study, Transarterial embolization for infants under 3 months of age with refractory seizures due to hemimegalencephaly: complication analysis and evolution of treatment strategy, in the Journal of Neurointerventional Surgery.
REI Week 2025 empowers the future in pediatric research and innovation
Children’s National Hospital hosted its fifteenth annual Research, Education and Innovation Week from March 31–April 4, 2025, bringing together clinicians, scientists, educators and innovators from across the institution to celebrate discovery and collaboration. This year’s theme, “Empowering the Future in Pediatric Research and Innovation with Equity, Technology and a Global Reach,” served as a call to action for advancing science that improves child health both locally and around the world.
Each day of the week-long event featured thought-provoking lectures — now available to watch — dynamic panel discussions, interactive workshops and vibrant poster sessions, all highlighting the diverse and interdisciplinary work taking place across Children’s National.
Centering the patient and the planet
REI Week began on Monday with a powerful keynote lecture from Lynn R. Goldman, MD, MS, MPH, Michael and Lori Milken dean of the Milken Institute School of Public Health at the George Washington University. In her talk, “Children: Uniquely vulnerable to climate-related threats,” Dr. Goldman underscored the urgent need to protect children from the environmental hazards of a changing climate and to integrate climate science into pediatric care and advocacy.
At mid-morning, Mary-Anne “Annie” Hartley, MD, PhD, MPH, director of the LiGHT Laboratory at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, introduced the “MOOVE” platform — Massive Open Online Validation and Evaluation of clinical LLMs. Her talk demonstrated how artificial intelligence, when rigorously validated, has the potential to transform clinical decision-making and global health equity.
Monday’s final keynote, “Zinc and childhood diarrhea,” was presented by Christopher Duggan, MD, MPH, director of the Division of Nutrition at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Duggan highlighted the global health impact of zinc supplementation in reducing childhood mortality — a reminder that simple, evidence-based interventions can save millions of lives.
In that first day, the first poster session of the week showcased projects in adolescent medicine, global health, infectious diseases, oncology and more. The session reflected the full breadth of research taking place across Children’s National.
Ambroise Wonkam, MD, PhD, professor of genetic medicine at Johns Hopkins University, then delivered Tuesday’s Global Health Keynote Lecture, “Harnessing our common African genomes to improve health and equity globally.” His work affirmed that inclusive genomics is key to building a healthier world.
Later, the Global Health Initiative event and GCAF Faculty Seminar encouraged attendees to pursue collaborative opportunities at home and abroad, reflecting the growing global footprint of Children’s National research programs.
Transforming education and care delivery
On Wednesday, Larrie Greenberg, MD, professor emeritus of pediatrics, kicked off the day with a Grand Rounds keynote on educational transformation: “Shouldn’t teachers be more collaborative with their learners?” He followed with a CAPE workshop exploring the effectiveness of case-based learning.
The Nursing Sponsored Keynote Lecture by Vincent Guilamo-Ramos, PhD, MPH, LCSW, ANP-BC, PMHNP-BC, FAAN, explored “Redesigning the U.S. broken health system.” He offered an urgent and inspiring call to reimagine pediatric care by addressing social determinants of health.
In the Jill Joseph Grand Rounds Lecture, Deena J. Chisolm, PhD, director of the Center for Child Health Equity at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, challenged attendees to move beyond dialogue into action in her talk, “Health equity: A scream to a whisper?,” reminding researchers and clinicians that advocacy and equity must be foundational to care.
The day continued with a poster session spotlighting medical education, neonatology, urology and neuroscience, among other fields.
Posters and pathways to progress
Throughout the week, poster sessions highlighted cutting-edge work across dozens of pediatric disciplines. These sessions gave attendees the opportunity to engage directly with investigators and reflect on the shared mission of discovery across multiple disciplines, including:
- Neuroscience and Neuroprotection – Novel approaches to brain injury treatment and neurodevelopmental disorders.
- Genetics and Precision Medicine – Advances in understanding genetic predisposition and innovative therapies.
- Health Disparities and Global Health – Strategies to bridge gaps in pediatric healthcare access worldwide.
- Innovative Technology in Pediatrics – Breakthroughs in AI, bioinformatics and medical device development.
Honoring excellence across Children’s National
The REI Week 2025 Awards Ceremony celebrated outstanding contributions in research, mentorship, education and innovation. The winners in each category were:
POSTER SESSION AWARDS
Basic & Translational Research
Faculty: Benjamin Liu, PhD
“Genetic Conservation and Diversity of SARS-CoV-2 Envelope Gene Across Variants of Concern”
Faculty: Steve Hui, PhD
“Brain Metabolites in Neonates of Mothers with COVID-19 Infection During Pregnancy”
Faculty: Raj Shekhar, PhD
“StrepApp: Deep Learning-Based Identification of Group A Streptococcal (GAS) Pharyngitis”
Post docs/Fellows/Residents: Dae-young Kim, PhD
“mhGPT: A Lightweight Domain-Specific Language Model for Mental Health Analysis”
Post docs/Fellows/Residents: Leandros Boukas, MD, PhD
“De Novo Variant Identification From Duo Long-Read Sequencing: Improving Equitable Variant Interpretation for Diverse Family Structures”
Staff: Naseem Maghzian
“Adoptive T Lymphocyte Administration for Chronic Norovirus Treatment in Immunocompromised Hosts (ATLANTIC)”
Graduate Students: Abigail Haffey
“Synergistic Integration of TCR and CAR T Cell Platforms for Enhanced Adoptive Immunotherapy in Brain Tumors”
High School/Undergraduate Students: Medha Pappula
“An ADHD Diagnostic Interface Based on EEG Spectrograms and Deep Learning Techniques”
Clinical Research
Faculty: Folasade Ogunlesi, MD
“Poor Air Quality in Sub-Saharan Africa is Associated with Increase Health Care Utilization for Pain in Sickle Cell Disease Patients”
Faculty: Ayman Saleh, MD
“Growth Parameters and Treatment Approaches in Pediatric ADHD: Examining Differences Across Race”
Post docs/Fellows/Residents: Nicholas Dimenstein, MD, MPH
“Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) Eligibility in the Pediatric Emergency Department”
Staff: Tayla Smith, MPH
“The Public Health Impact of State-Level Abortion and Firearm Laws on Health Outcomes”
Graduate Students: Natalie Ewing
“Patterns of Bacteriuria and Antimicrobial Resistance in Patients Presenting for Primary Cloacal Repair: Is Assisted Bladder Emptying Associated with Bacteriuria?”
Graduate Students: Manuela Iglesias, MS
“Exploring the Relationship Between Child Opportunity Index and Bayley-III Scores in Young Children”
High School/Undergraduate Students: Nicholas Lohman
“Preliminary Findings: The Efficacy, Feasibility and Acceptability of Group Videoconference Cognitive Behavioral Therapy with Exposure and Response Prevention for Treating Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Among Children and Young People”
Community-Based Research
Faculty: Sharon Shih, PhD
“Assessing Pediatric Behavioral Health Access in DC using Secret Shopper Methodology”
Post docs/Fellows/Residents: Georgios Sanidas, MD
“Arrested Neuronal Maturation and Development in the Cerebellum of Preterm Infants”
Staff: Sanam Parwani
“Intersectionality of Gender and Sexuality Diversity in Autistic and Non-Autistic Individuals”
Graduate Student: Margaret Dearey
“Assessing the Burden of Period Poverty for Youth and Adolescents in Washington, DC: A Pilot Study”
Quality and Performance Improvement
Faculty: Nichole L. McCollum, MD
“A Quality Improvement Study to Increase Nurse Initiated Care from Triage and Improve Timeliness to Care”
Post docs/Fellows/Residents: Hannah Rodriguez, MD
“Reducing Unnecessary Antibiotic Use in a Level IV NICU”
Staff: Amber K. Shojaie, OTD, OTR/L
“Implementing Dynamic Axilla Splints in a Large Burn Patient”
MENTORSHIP AWARDS
Basic Science Research
Conrad Russell Y. Cruz, MD, PhD
Clinical Research
Bench to Bedside Research
Ioannis Koutroulis, MD, PhD, MBA
ELDA ARCE TEACHING SCHOLAR AWARD
SUZANNE FEETHAM NURSING RESEARCH SUPPORT AWARD
Eileen P. Engh, PhD RN
“Rare Disease Organization Lifecycle” Role in Helping Parents with Everyday Life Information Seeking and Connection (RDO-HELIX)
EXPLORATIONS IN GLOBAL HEALTH PILOT AWARDS
Launchpad Awards
Mi Ran Shin, MD, MPH
“Establishing Interdisciplinary Rehabilitation for Birth and Burn Injuries in Ethiopia”
Susan Harvey, MSN, CPNP-AC
“Implementation of Sickle Cell Pilot Program in Ndhiwa Sub County, Kenya”
Meleah Boyle, PhD, MPH
“Understanding and Addressing Environmental Sustainability to Protect the Health of the Children’s National and Global Communities”
Eiman Abdulrahman, MD
“Research Capacity Building to Improve Pediatric Emergency and Critical Care in Ethiopia”
Pilot Awards
Alexander Andrews, MD
“EEG as a Diagnostic and Prognostic Marker in Severe Pediatric Malaria, Blantyre Malawi”
Daniel Donoho, MD & Timothy Singer, MD
“Feasibility Study of a Novel Artificial Intelligence-Based Educational Platform to Improve Neurosurgical Operative Skills in Tanzania”
Hasan Syed, MD
“Bridging the Gap an Educational Needs Assessment for Pediatric Neurosurgery Training in Pakistan”
Sofia Perazzo, MD & Lamia Soghier, MD, MEd, MBA
“QI Mentorship to Improve Pediatric Screening and Follow-up in Rural Argentina”
Benjamin Liu, PhD
“AI-Empowered Real-Time Sequencing Assay for Rapid Detection of Schistosomiasis in Senegal”
Rae Mittal, MD
“Assessment and Enhancement of Proficiency in Emergency Child Neurology Topics for Post-Graduate Emergency Medicine Trainees in India”
Innovation Day ignites bold thinking
Thursday, REI Week shifted to the Children’s National Research & Innovation Campus for Innovation Day, a celebration of how bold ideas and collaborative culture can accelerate progress in pediatric medicine.
Brandy Salmon, PhD, associate vice president of Innovation and Partnerships at Virginia Tech, opened the day with “The Alchemy of Innovation,” focusing on how institutions can build a culture that fuels transformative partnerships.
A multidisciplinary panel discussion moderated by Nathan Kuppermann, MD, MPH, and Catherine Bollard, MBChB, MD, featured Nehal Mehta, MD, Julia Finkel, MD, Kevin Cleary, PhD, Ioannis Koutroulis, MD, PhD, MBA, Francesca Joseph, MD and Patrick Hanley, PhD, who shared how innovation can be advanced and promoted, especially as a core institutional priority.
A shared vision for the future
REI Week 2025 reaffirmed the values that define Children’s National: a commitment to excellence, collaboration and equity in pediatric research and care. As discoveries continue to emerge from our hospital and our research campuses, the connections built and ideas sparked during this week will help shape the future of pediatric health — locally and globally.
By elevating voices from the bedside to the bench, with the support of the executive sponsors Nathan Kuppermann, MD, MBChB, Catherine Bollard, MBChB, MD, Kerstin Hildebrandt, MSHS, Linda Talley, MS, RN, NE-BC and David Wessel, MD, REI Week demonstrated that we must embrace the community in all aspects of our work. Because we know that there are answers we can only get from the patients that we serve—and we need to be their voice.
Research, Education & Innovation Week will be back next year on April 13-17, 2026.
AI for good: Children’s National wins global competitions for measuring brain tumors
Meet the winners (left to right): Syed M. Anwar, Ph.D., M.S., principal investigator at Children’s National; Daniel Capellan Martin, M.Sc., Polytechnic University of Madrid; Abhijeet Parida, data scientist at Children’s National; and Austin Tapp, Ph.D., postdoctoral research fellow at Children’s National.
Using an award-winning artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm developed at Children’s National Hospital, researchers ranked first in the world in the Brain Tumor Segmentation-Africa (BraTS-Africa) challenge for their approach to identifying different parts of deadly gliomas. The details of their innovative method were recently published on arXiv, a curated research-sharing platform.
“Technology can bridge the gap in healthcare between high- and low-resource countries,” said Marius George Linguraru, D.Phil., M.A., M.Sc., the Connor Family Professor in Research and Innovation and principal investigator in the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation (SZI). “By tailoring methods we created at our hospital to fit the needs of specific regions, such as sub-Saharan Africa, our research helps improve medical imaging and diagnosis in challenging environments.”
Dr. Linguraru was the program chair of the International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention (MICCAI) 2024 in Marrakesh, Morocco, the leading global meeting on AI in medical imaging.
Children’s National leads the way
Gliomas are a type of brain tumor with a high death rate and are especially difficult to diagnose in low- and middle-income countries. Given the increased need in Africa, researchers worldwide came together in Morocco to compete over the best way to accurately detect and measure tumors using MRI data and AI.
By applying advanced machine-learning techniques, the researchers adapted tools initially designed for well-resourced settings to work in countries with far fewer.
The study focused on transfer learning, a process in which an AI model is trained in advance on a large number of brain tumor images and then adjusted to work with smaller sets of new data. In this case, the models were adapted to work with local sub-Saharan African data using a strategy to combine different models’ strengths.
When tested, the approach achieved impressive accuracy scores. The Children’s National team, which included a colleague from the Polytechnic University of Madrid, ranked first in the BraTS-Africa 2024 challenge for identifying different parts of gliomas.
“To make the method widely available, the winning algorithm is shared online for others to use and improve upon,” Dr. Linguraru said. “My favorite part of these competitions is how they highlight the way innovation and collaboration can reduce global healthcare inequalities.”
The big picture
Children’s National researchers consistently lead global events using AI and advanced imaging to tackle complex healthcare challenges. In 2023, the team won a global contest to measure pediatric brain tumors at the MICCAI 2023 Conference. This year’s success in the BraTS-Africa challenge builds on this knowledge base and expands its use to adult gliomas.
At the Radiological Society of North America 2024 annual meeting, which drew 50,000 attendees, Zhifan Jiang, Ph.D., a staff scientist in the Precision Medical Imaging Lab at SZI, also won the Cum Laude Award for his scientific poster on applying AI to radiological images to predict severe outcomes for children with brain tumors caused by neurofibromatosis type 1.
“These achievements show how our science is leading the world in using AI for good,” Dr. Linguraru said. “Every day, we’re building on our knowledge of advanced imaging, brain tumors and AI to improve the diagnosis, measurement and treatment of deadly tumors — on a global scale.”
Children’s National in the News: 2024
In 2024, Children’s National Hospital continued to make remarkable strides across diverse areas of pediatric medicine, from groundbreaking technological innovations to critical health advocacy. The following compilation showcases ten significant stories that demonstrate the breadth and depth of the hospital’s impact, as featured in major national news outlets including NBC Nightly News, CNN, The Washington Post, The New York Times, NPR, The Today Show, Healio, and POLITICO. Delve into our 2024 news highlights for more.
1. World’s smallest pacemaker gives new hope to babies with heart defects
Charles Berul, M.D., and a patient family talk about the pill-sized pacemaker that saved the life of Abby, an infant born with deadly heart defects. (NBC Nightly News)
2. ‘A $10 death trip’: Fentanyl is killing teens. Meet one fighting for his life
Sivabalaji Kaliamurthy, M.D., addiction psychiatrist and director of the Addictions Program, spoke to CNN about the impact of drug addiction on teen health and the lack of resources available to treat opioid use disorder. (CNN)
3. Health panel urges interventions for children and teens with high BMI
Susma Vaidya, M.D., M.P.H., associate medical director of the IDEAL Clinic, shared her concerns about childhood obesity treatment recommendations issued today by a leading panel of independent U.S. health experts. (The Washington Post)
4. An Rx for food? Doctor’s offices offer groceries to those in need
Shideh Majidi, M.D., M.S.C.S., and Emily Frymark, clinical dietitian, spoke about how the food pharmacy, created in partnership with the Capital Area Food Bank, benefits patients with diabetes and other chronic conditions. (The Washington Post)
5. First patient begins newly approved sickle cell gene therapy
Kendric Cromer, a 12-year-old boy being treated at Children’s National Hospital, became the first person in the world with sickle cell disease to begin a commercially approved gene therapy that may cure the condition. “This is a big effort,” says David Jacobsohn, M.D., ScM, M.B.A. (The New York Times)
6. ‘We created this problem’: A pediatric surgeon on how gun violence affects children
Mikael Petrosyan, M.D., associate chief of General and Thoracic Surgery, discusses the stress medical staff face when treating young victims of gun violence. (NPR)
7. 7th grade boy rings bell after final round of chemotherapy
Landon, an 11-year-old patient, rang the bell at Children’s National Hospital with family, friends, doctors and nurses cheering after finishing his final round of chemotherapy. (The Today Show)
8. Study: One in three adolescents experience ‘period poverty’
Monika Goyal, M.D., M.S.C.E., pediatric emergency medicine specialist and co-director of the Center for Translational Research, emphasized the need for awareness in addressing period poverty in teenagers and young adults. (Healio)
9. The AI assurance labs are coming
Kolaleh Eskandanian, Ph.D., M.B.A., P.M.P., vice president and chief innovation officer, participates in a panel discussion covering AI data collection, associated risks, reliance and other topics related to artificial intelligence. (POLITICO)
10. First day of a ‘new life’ for a boy with sickle cell
Children’s National patient Kendric Cromer, 12, became one of the first children ever to be treated with a newly approved gene therapy that will free him from the sickle cell disease that has stolen his childhood. (The New York Times)
The best of 2024 from Innovation District
2024 marked another groundbreaking year for Children’s National Hospital, showcasing remarkable advances across the spectrum of pediatric medicine, research and healthcare innovation. From pioneering surgical procedures to breakthrough artificial intelligence applications, the institution continued to push the boundaries of what’s possible in children’s healthcare. Read on for our list of the most popular articles we published on Innovation District in 2024.
1. Prenatal COVID exposure associated with changes in newborn brain
A study led by researchers at Children’s National Hospital showed that babies born during the COVID-19 pandemic have differences in the size of certain structures in the brain, compared to infants born before the pandemic. The findings suggest that exposure to the coronavirus and being pregnant during the pandemic could play a role in shaping infant brain development.
(3 min. read)
2. Children’s National Hospital again ranked among the best in the nation by U.S. News & World Report
Children’s National Hospital was ranked as a top hospital in the nation by the U.S. News & World Report 2024-25 Best Children’s Hospitals annual rankings. This marks the eighth straight year Children’s National has made the Honor Roll list. The Honor Roll is a distinction awarded to only 10 children’s hospitals nationwide.
(2 min. read)
3. Children’s National performs first ever HIFU procedure on patient with cerebral palsy
In January 2023, a team of multidisciplinary doctors performed the first case in the world of using bilateral high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) pallidotomy on Jesus, a 22-year-old patient with dyskinetic cerebral palsy. The procedure is part of a clinical trial led by Chima Oluigbo, M.D., pediatric neurosurgeon at Children’s National Hospital.
(3 min. read)
4. Novel ultrasound device gets FDA breakthrough designation with Children’s National support
A novel ultrasound device developed by Bloom Standard received the Food and Drug Administration’s valued breakthrough device designation with the help of Children’s National Hospital. The device that enables autonomous, hands-free ultrasound scans to be performed anywhere, by any user.
(2 min. read)
5. First-of-its-kind pilot study on the impacts of Lyme disease in pregnancy and infant development
Understanding the effects of Lyme disease on the developing fetal brain is essential to ensure timely prenatal and postnatal treatments to protect the fetus and newborn. In response to this need, Children’s National Hospital is leading a pilot study to establish the groundwork needed for a larger study to determine the effect of in utero exposure to Lyme disease on pregnancy and early childhood neurodevelopmental outcomes.
(3 min. read)
6. Earliest hybrid HLHS heart surgery kids thrive 5 years later
Five years ago, Cayden was born 6 weeks early weighing less than four pounds and at risk of dying from her critical congenital heart disease. Today, she’s a happy five-year-old. Early diagnosis of her hypoplastic right ventricle, double inlet left ventricle and critical coarctation of the aorta allowed for the team at Children’s National Hospital to create a careful plan for safe delivery and to offer an innovative hybrid HLHS surgical approach at the hospital within 24 hours after she was born.
(1 min. read)
7. Wayne J. Franklin, M.D., F.A.C.C., named senior vice president of the Children’s National Heart Center
Children’s National Hospital appointed Wayne J. Franklin, M.D., F.A.C.C., as the new senior vice president (SVP) of the Children’s National Heart Center. In this role, Dr. Franklin oversees the full spectrum of heart care services including cardiac imaging and diagnostics, interventional cardiology, electrophysiology, cardiac anesthesia, cardiac surgery and cardiac intensive care.
(2 min. read)
8. Artificial – and accelerated – intelligence: endless applications to expand health equity
By pioneering artificial intelligence (AI) innovation programs at Children’s National Hospital, Marius George Linguraru, D.Phil., M.A., M.Sc., and the AI experts he leads are ensuring patients and families benefit from a coming wave of technological advances. The team is teaching AI to interpret complex data that could otherwise overwhelm clinicians.
(4 min. read)
9. Evidence review: Maternal mental conditions drive climbing death rate in U.S.
Painting a sobering picture, a research team led by Children’s National Hospital culled years of data demonstrating that maternal mental illness is an under-recognized contributor to the death of new mothers. They called for urgent action to address this public health crisis.
(3 min. read)
10. Nathan Kuppermann, M.D., M.P.H., named chief academic officer and chair of Pediatrics
Children’s National Hospital appointed Nathan Kuppermann, M.D., M.P.H., as its new executive vice president, chief academic officer and chair of Pediatrics. In this role, Dr. Kuppermann oversees research, education and innovation for the Children’s National Research Institute as well as academic and administrative leadership in the Department of Pediatrics at George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Services.
(2 min. read)
11. First global clinical trial achieves promising results for hypochondroplasia
Researchers from Children’s National Hospital presented findings from the first clinical trial of the medication vosoritide for children with hypochondroplasia – a rare genetic growth disorder. During the phase 2 trial, researchers found vosoritide increased the growth rate in children with hypochondroplasia, allowing them to grow on average an extra 1.8 cm per year.
(2 min. read)
12. Pioneering research center aims to revolutionize prenatal and neonatal health
Since its establishment in July 2023, the Center for Prenatal, Neonatal & Maternal Health Research at Children’s National Hospital has gained recognition through high-impact scientific publications, featuring noteworthy studies exploring the early phases of human development.
(3 min. read)
Children’s National again ranked among the best in the nation by U.S. News & World Report
Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., was ranked as a top hospital in the nation by the U.S. News & World Report 2024-25 Best Children’s Hospitals annual rankings. This marks the eighth straight year Children’s National has made the Honor Roll list. The Honor Roll is a distinction awarded to only 10 children’s hospitals nationwide.
This year, U.S. News ended ordinal rankings on its Honor Roll. Instead of assigning a numerical rank from 1 to 10, all hospitals on the Honor Roll will be recognized as having attained the highest standards of care in the nation.
In addition, Children’s National tied for #1 pediatric hospital in the Mid-Atlantic region, which includes New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia, West Virginia and Virginia. It’s also best in the Mid-Atlantic in Neonatology.
For the fourteenth straight year, Children’s National ranked in 10 specialty services. New this year, U.S. News included behavioral health as a service line in the rankings. Since it’s the first year, there are no ordinal rankings for behavioral health, but the Children’s National program was named one of the top 50 programs in the country.
“In my first year here, I witnessed what makes Children’s National so special — our commitment to collaboration, empowering one another, and charting a bold path forward for pediatric care,” said Michelle Riley-Brown, MHA, FACHE, president and chief executive officer of Children’s National. “I’m proud U.S. News again recognized Children’s National as one of the top in the nation and the highest-ranked pediatric hospital in D.C., Maryland and Virginia. Together, we’ll continue to push the boundaries of care, research and innovation to make a difference for those who matter most — the kids.”
The annual rankings are the most comprehensive source of quality-related information on U.S. pediatric hospitals and recognizes the nation’s top 50 pediatric hospitals based on a scoring system developed by U.S. News.
“For nearly two decades, U.S. News has published Best Children’s Hospitals to empower the parents and caregivers of children with complex medical needs,” said Ben Harder, chief of health analysis and managing editor at U.S. News. “Children’s hospitals appearing on the U.S. News Honor Roll have a track record of delivering unparalleled specialized care.”
The bulk of the score for each specialty service is based on quality and outcomes data. The process includes a survey of relevant specialists across the country, who are asked to list hospitals they believe provide the best care for patients with the most complex conditions.
The Children’s National specialty services that U.S. News ranked in the top 10 nationally are:
- Neonatology (No. 2), led by Billie Lou Short, M.D.
- Neurology and Neurosurgery (No. 5), led by William D. Gaillard, M.D., and Robert F. Keating, M.D.
- Cancer (No. 5), led by Eugene Hwang, M.D.
- Diabetes and Endocrinology (No. 7), led by Andrew Dauber, M.D., MMSc.
- Gastroenterology and GI surgery (No. 8), led by Ian Leibowitz, M.D., Marc Levitt, M.D., Anthony Sandler, M.D., and Timothy Kane, M.D.
- Nephrology (No. 8), led by Marva Moxey-Mims, M.D.
- Orthopedics (No. 9), led by Matthew Oetgen, M.D., M.B.A.
The other four specialties ranked among the top 50 are Behavioral Health, Cardiology and Heart Surgery, Pulmonology and Lung Surgery, and Urology.
In the news: The future of patient care and access
“It is a market failure that we are dealing with – a lack of incentives leading to a stagnation in innovation with respect to small markets, such as pediatrics. Children’s National Hospital and our partners in other children’s hospitals in the country play a critical role in making noise and sending a message that children should not be an afterthought.”
Hear more from Kolaleh Eskandanian, Ph.D., M.B.A., during her recent appearance at POLITICO. As vice president and chief innovation officer at Children’s National and Alliance for Pediatric Device Innovation principal investigator, Dr. Eskandanian shared her approach to engaging with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to advance artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologies for pediatric healthcare. To date, she noted, the FDA has authorized 950 healthcare-related technologies enabled with AI and machine learning.
Transforming pediatric care: How AI is driving the next medical revolution
The future of healthcare is unfolding before scientists and clinicians: Doctors are assisted by virtual scribes trained by artificial intelligence. Algorithms are reading MRIs. Smartphones are helping to detect strep throat. Machines diagnose children without access to care.
These and dozens of other artificial intelligence (AI) applications are being tested to enhance pediatric healthcare, and many were on display at the 2nd annual Children’s National Hospital-Virginia Tech Symposium on AI for Pediatric Health at the Children’s National Research & Innovation Campus.
Some highlights from the daylong conversation about the future of pediatric medicine, augmented by AI and generative AI models capable of producing new and critical content:
- Marius George Linguraru, D.Phil., M.A., M.Sc., the Connor Family Professor in Research and Innovation and principal investigator in the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation: “Children are just not mini-adults. In pediatric care, we train pediatric specialists because kids die from different diseases than those that kill adults. Children also suffer from very impactful and rare conditions. If we train pediatric specialists well, we have to train AI algorithms in the same fashion.”
- Rowland Illing, M.D., Ph.D., chief medical officer and director of global healthcare and nonprofits at Amazon Web Services: “In a short period of time, the complexity of the models available is astounding. Generative AI, just like AI, can impact outcomes at every step of the patient pathway, including the clinical workflow, care management and patient engagement. By creating a specific use case with generative AI, every step can be optimized to be smarter, which ultimately leads to improved patient care and outcomes.”
- Children’s National Chief Academic Officer Nathan Kuppermann, M.D., M.P.H.: “AI in pediatric health is not just about identifying rare diseases. Its potential includes all aspects of clinical care, clinical operations, education and research. It has the potential to help educators enhance the novelty and impact of their methods and advance research with powerful tools to gather and analyze data.”
- Alda Mizaku, vice president and chief data and artificial intelligence officer at Children’s National: “What excites me most about our future is the endless possibilities. We can use AI and data to uncover many things: rare diseases, operational efficiencies, time-saving and cost-saving solutions. This has to be done in a responsible way, and we must look at what some of the guardrails need to be.”
Throughout the day, expert panels offered insights into regulatory pathways to deploy AI in pediatric drugs and devices. The Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Science and Engineering Laboratories also provided guidance on collaborative tools for improving the representation of children and perinatal patients in AI-powered medical devices.
Moving the field forward
Early adopters of AI at Children’s National shared applications already under investigation, including efforts to segment and measure brain tumors on imaging, weigh the risk of strep throat with a smartphone camera and detect rheumatic heart disease with portable technology and an algorithm.
Dr. Linguraru, an expert in healthcare AI, said that artificial intelligence is no longer a hypothetical technology but is already remaking the healthcare system. “AI is here. What matters now is how we use it and how we train doctors to use it well,” he said.
The big picture
Through growing partnerships, Children’s National experts are teaming up with researchers at Virginia Tech on a series of AI-driven projects aimed at advancing pediatric health, including programs to rethink privacy in federated learning, forecast emergency department surges, extract clinical variables from documents to predict sepsis risks, identify rare genetic syndromes in children, and predict single-cell responses to genetic perturbations in pediatric developmental disorders.
Naren Ramakrishnan, Ph.D., director of the Sanghani Center at Virginia Tech and the Thomas L. Phillips Professor in the College of Engineering, said the partnership between the two academic centers is changing healthcare already and will continue to as the organizations offer future seed grants to support innovation in cardiology, neuroscience and oncology. “The roots have borne fruit,” he said.
Expanding team innovates to take on pediatric brain tumors
Cheng-Chia “Fred” Wu, M.D., Ph.D., joins the team at the campus as an assistant professor at Virginia Tech’s Fralin Biomedical Research Institute. Image credit: Fralin Biomedical Research Institute.
Experience, talent and technology are coming together at the Children’s National Research & Innovation Campus to solve the complex challenges of treating pediatric brain tumors through a growing partnership between Children’s National Hospital and Virginia Tech.
Cheng-Chia “Fred” Wu, M.D., Ph.D., joins the team at the campus as an assistant professor at Virginia Tech’s Fralin Biomedical Research Institute. He hopes to improve treatment for pediatric brain tumors and other cancers by leveraging technological advances in focused ultrasound and studying how this modality can be combined with other novel therapies. Children’s National physicians and scientists are collaborating with Virginia Tech scientists to develop these new approaches.
Why we’re excited
Catherine Bollard, M.D., M.B.Ch.B., director of the Center for Cancer and Immunology Research and interim chief academic officer at Children’s National, said collaborations — including the partnership between Children’s National and Virginia Tech — are essential to solving formidable scientific challenges.
“We are thrilled to be working with Dr. Wu to develop cutting-edge therapeutics for pediatric brain tumors,” Dr. Bollard said. “With Dr. Wu’s experience and the talents of our team at Children’s National, I have great hope that we will be able to combine our novel technologies and therapies to provide tremendous breakthroughs for treating pediatric patients with brain tumors.”
Before joining Virginia Tech, Dr. Wu was an assistant professor of radiation oncology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York, where he treated pediatric cancers and central nervous system malignancies.
“Partnering with Children’s National connects us to a world-class clinical trial institute that has been a pioneer in treating brain tumors with focused ultrasound technology, and this presents a unique opportunity to help children and families struggling with cancer,” Dr. Wu said. “I can’t wait to see where this takes us.”
Dr. Wu played a key role in the Initiative for Drug Delivery Innovation for Childhood Brain Tumors at Columbia, developing a bench-to-bedside platform to facilitate the translation of promising technologies for targeted drug delivery in children with brain tumors.
Within three years, the team demonstrated the safety and feasibility of using focused ultrasound in the brainstem and adding radiation in preclinical models. They then opened two clinical trials for kids with relapsed diffuse midline glioma, an aggressive and difficult-to-treat brain tumor that occurs in the brain stem, thalamus and spinal cord.
What’s ahead
Dr. Wu will be involved in a wide range of research touching both organizations, including veterinary medicine and biomedical engineering at Virginia Tech.
Michael Friedlander, Ph.D., executive director of the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at Virginia Tech Carilion and vice president for health sciences and technology at Virginia Tech, welcomed Dr. Wu’s experience as a pediatric radiation oncologist, translational physician-scientist and clinical trialist who has led an innovative drug delivery program.
“He is armed with a unique set of skills to identify promising new technology and implement it in areas of great need for treatment of pediatric cancers,” Dr. Friedlander said. “We are absolutely delighted to have Dr. Wu as part of the team. He represents a powerful new part of the strong partnership between Virginia Tech and Children’s National Hospital for addressing pediatric brain cancer.”
