University of Colorado Department of Pediatrics

Welcome to the July edition of the Department of Pediatrics Newsletter. Here you will find a sampling of all the amazing activity happening within the Department of Pediatrics and at Children’s Hospital Colorado. Enjoy reading and best wishes to all for a safe and happy Fourth of July holiday!

CHCO Rises in U.S. News Rankings

For the 12th time, U.S. News & World Report has compiled its list of the very best Children’s Hospitals and specialty programs for pediatric care and treatment. Once again, the Department of Pediatrics has been ranked in all eight of the pediatric medicine specific specialties evaluated by U.S. News, including five programs ranked in the top 10 nationally. In addition, Children’s Hospital Colorado was named to the “Honor Roll” as among the top 10 hospitals in the nation. Here’s a look at how our programs and CHCO have performed in these rankings over the last several years:

These rankings reflect the deep commitment to and passion for our mission to improve the health of children through high-quality patient care, education, research and advocacy; as held by all Department of Pediatrics faculty, trainees and staff and by our Children’s Hospital Colorado colleagues. Thanks to everyone for your service to our mission and congratulations on this well-deserved national recognition.

New Boettcher Foundation Awardee

Congratulations to Jean Mulcahy Levy, MD (Assistant Professor, Section of Hematology, Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplantation, Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders) for being a named a 2018 “Boettcher Investigator” and a recipient of the Webb-Waring Biomedical Research Award from the Boettcher Foundation. These prestigious awards support the work of promising, early stage biomedical researchers at Colorado universities. Boettcher Investigators receive $235,000 per year for three years to help establish research programs to become competitive for major awards from federal agencies and private sources.

Dr. Mulcahy Levy’s research project, titled “New therapy development for pediatric brain tumors,” is focused on autophagy, a multi-step process that cancer can use to survive. The ability to inhibit autophagy and sensitize tumor cells to metabolic stress is a promising avenue for cancer therapy. Her goal is to improve survival of kids with brain tumors by first, finding which step of the authophagy process should be blocked to kill the most tumor cells, then identifying which brain tumors depend most on autophagy to survive, and finally, to determine if a specific genetic mutation found in some pediatric brain tumors can identify patients who will most benefit from autophagy directed treatments.

Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Award

The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation has awarded Melanie Green, MD (Assistant Professor, Section of Pediatric Endocrinology) a 2018 Clinical Scientist Development Award. This 3-year, $495,000 grant is designed to provide mentored research funding to early-career physician-scientist faculty to enable their successful transition to independent research careers. 

Dr. Green’s research is focused on developing new prevention and treatment options for metabolic disease in polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS). PCOS affects 10-15% of U.S. women and is increasing in prevalence. Among girls with PCOS, by age 15 years, more than half will have hepatic steatosis, signs of pre-diabetes and vascular remodeling. Dr. Green’s research project, titled “Use of essential amino acid supplementation to decrease metabolic disease in high risk obese girls with polycystic ovarian syndrome,” aims to a provide safe and well tolerated therapeutic option to treat PCOS related hepatic steatosis and mitigate the risk of associated severe co-morbidities. Congratulations Dr. Green.

Pediatrics Spring Poster Session Astonishes

The 2018 Annual Spring Pediatric Research Poster Session was held On June 11th in the Children’s Hospital Colorado Conference Center. 93 posters highlighting the recent and ongoing clinical, translational and basic research activities of the Department’s trainees – including residents, fellows, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows – were presented. Posters submissions from 21 residents and 27 fellows were evaluated by judges from the Committee on Education and the Children’s Hospital Research Institute.

Winners of the Resident Poster Awards are:

1st place – Jay Watson, MD, Mentor: Jesse Davidson, MD, MPH (Section of Pediatric Cardiology).

Project Title: Intestinal Fatty Acid Binding Protein, Early Feeding Outcomes, and Signs of Necrotizing Enterocolitis in Infants Undergoing Cardiopulmonary Bypass.

2nd place – Alicia White, MD, Mentor: Paul Rozance, MD (Section of Neonatology).

Project Title: Chronic IGF1 Infusions Increase Pancreatic Insulin Concentrations but Not Beta-Cell Mass in Fetal Sheep.

3rd place – Amy Rumack, MD, Mentor: Rakesh Mistry, MD (Section of Pediatric Emergency Medicine).

Project Title: Outpatient Antibiotic Treatment for Community Acquired Pneumonia in the Pediatric Emergency Department.

Winners and Honorable Mentions of the Fellow Poster Awards are:

1st Year Fellows:

Winner – Jillian Cotter, MD (Section of Pediatric Hospital Medicine). Project Title: Changes in Clostridium difficile Testing with the Introduction of a Multiplex Gastrointestinal PCR Pathogen Panel.

Honorable Mention – Melisa Tanverdi, MD (Section of Pediatric Emergency Medicine). Project Title: “I Pledge Allegiance to What?” Exploring Provider Perspectives around a Pledge to Improve Resource Stewardship.

2nd Year Fellows:

Winner – Justin Robison, DO (Section of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine). Project Title: Characterization of Cardiopulmonary Bypass Associated Acute Lung Injury in an Infant Piglet Model.

Honorable Mention – Alexandria Wiersma, MD (Section of Pediatric Emergency Medicine). Project Title: Improving Pain Control in Pediatric Patients with Suspected Extremity Fractures.

3rd Year Fellows:

Winner – Jaime Moore, MD (Section of Pediatric Nutrition). Project Title: Prevalence of iron deficiency without anemia in children 6 months through 2 years with mild to moderate malnutrition Dietary and prebiotic modulation of Clostridium difficile disease.

Honorable Mention – Keith Hazleton, MD, PhD (Section of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition). Project Title: Dietary and prebiotic modulation of Clostridium difficile disease.

Congratulations to all the poster session winners and participants. Your hard work as investigators in pediatric research demonstrates your commitment to academic career development and to advancing scientific discovery toward improving child health in Colorado and beyond.

American Heart Association Award

Kudos to Jesse Davidson, MD (Assistant Professor, Section of Pediatric Cardiology) on his 2018 Innovative Project Award from the American Heart Association titled “Pulmonary Vascular Growth in Infants with Single Ventricle Heart Disease (SVHD): Deep Phenotyping and Biomarker Development.” 

Dr. Davidson’s 2-year, $200,000 grant aims to identify novel biomarkers and biologic pathways associated with poor early pulmonary vascular development and post-operative hypoxemia. The goal is to improve diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for children with SVHD, a common and severe form of congenital heart disease.

Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition Consumes DDW

Digestive Disease Week® (DDW), the world’s premier academic meeting dedicated the advancement of gastroenterology science and medicine, was held in Washington, D.C. June 2nd to June 5th. Sponsored by the major academic societies dedicated to the fields of gastroenterology, hepatology, endoscopy and GI surgery, DDW gathered over 14,000 professionals for original lectures, poster presentations and oral abstract presentations. 

Faculty, fellows, and research staff from the Digestive Health Institute and the Section of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, contributed 21 invited speaker lectures and oral abstracts and multiple poster presentations over the four-day conference. Congratulations to all the DDW participants for their success in advancing gastroenterology patient care through research, education, and quality improvement. Our scholarly contributions to internationally recognized meetings like DDW further advance our programmatic reputation, that is a key component of the U.S. New & World Report annual ranking of Children’s Hospitals and subspecialty programs.

Faculty Interest Group Updates

The Department of Pediatrics has well-organized Interest Groups focused on the career development needs of faculty with appointments at the Instructor, Senior Instructor, and Assistant Professor levels (Junior Faculty Interest Group – JFIG) and PhD faculty (PhD Interest Group – PhDIG).

On May 21st, the Department hosted the annual Instructor/Senior Instructor Reception with a presentation and discussion focused on building high functioning inter-professional teams. Special thanks to our presenter, Ryan Simmons (Children’s Hospital Colorado, Director of Talent Development), and discussion facilitators Audrey Blakeley-Smith, PhD (Associate Professor, Section of Developmental Pediatrics) and Joe Grubenhoff, MD (Associate Professor, Section of Pediatric Emergency Medicine).

The PhD Interest Group held its first annual Wine & Shine social event on June 21st at the Aurora Hyatt. The event provided an opportunity for PhD faculty to meet one another and learn about the various academic and research projects being conducted across the Anschutz campus.

For information on future JFIG and PhDIG events and meetings, please contact Rhonda Buckner in the Office Academic Affairs (rhonda.buckner@childrenscolorado.org).

CHCO/DOP Women Crush Colfax Marathon!

Teams from Children’s Hospital Colorado (team “Colfax Speed Warriors”) and the CU Anschutz Medical Campus (team “CU Anschutz Fantastic Female Faculty”) finished first and second respectively in the Colfax Marathon Women’s Corporate Relay event held May 20th on the streets of Denver and Aurora. The Fantastic Female team included Department of Pediatrics faculty, Emily Bates, PhD (Assistant Professor, Section of Developmental Biology) and Lori Sussel, PhD (Professor and Research Director, Barbara Davis Center). With their one-two finish, the teams combined to contributed $4,500 to the Children’s Hospital Colorado Foundation. Congratulations and thank you to all the runners.

Swim to Fight Pediatric Cancer in Colorado

As highlighted last month, Swim Across America (SAA) is coming to Denver on August 26th, 2018 and hosted at Chatfield Reservoir. All funds raised by SAA Denver will benefit pediatric cancer research and clinical trials at Children’s Hospital Colorado’s Center for Cancer & Blood Disorders. To join Team Children’s Colorado, go to www.swimacrossamerica.org/Denver and register with Team Children’s Colorado for the Denver Open Water Swim. For additional information on joining the Team or volunteering, please contact Elizabeth Nowak (elizabeth.nowak@childrenscolorado.org).

As always, for these and other exciting Department of Pediatrics news stories, please visit our Pediatrics News web page.

Sincerely,

Stephen R. Daniels, MD, PhD
Professor and Chair
Department of Pediatrics | University of Colorado School of Medicine
Pediatrician-in-Chief | Children’s Hospital Colorado