Bridging the Gap

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Bridging the Gap Agenda - 2026

Bridging the Gap 2.0…and so the feeling grows

For the second time of asking, specialists from across CU School of Medicine gathered to focus on the topic of pediatric to adolescent transition.

With roughly 15 percent increase in attendees and a shift to a new venue there was plenty of energy in the room. Through the day attendees had an opportunity to review and hear presented some of the active research that is happening at our institutions.

Children’s Hospital Colorado (CHCO) Surgeon-In-Chief, Dr. Duncan Wilcox opened the meeting, setting the scene with the ‘Why’. Around 10 % of patients seen at CHCO were aged 16 years or older. If we do not work to transition patients out of Children’s in 10 years there will be no room to see younger, new patients. Clearly, CHCO is excellent at looking after children, but they are investing in the future of transition, to ensure their older patients have great care to go to.

Dr. Cindy Buchanan gave incredible insight to the concerns of a patient and their parents around transition; it can be a huge sense of loss as they move away from their trusted team in the pediatric environment. They can feel like they have been kicked out to an adult center that may feel scary, leading to disengagement. Big lessons for providers were:

• begin these conversations early and
• allow a patient to practice speaking without their parents
• explain that it is normal to feel nervous if you are meeting a new provider.
• Support some of the new skills needed, including understanding insurance.

An active panel discussion examining the warm hand off and its importance. With a range of specialties involved, many were highly engaged with helping this to happen. A common theme was how to try and make the transfer to an adult center as comfortable as possible whilst recognizing that the care will feel different. We must be able to reassure patients, although they will experience the hospital in a different way, the clinical care is at least as good. Pediatric providers, actively working with their adult counterparts will continue to fuel these conversations and ensure progress.

This year Bridging the Gap was delighted to welcome campus leadership, who are actively involved in developing strategy around transitional care. Dr. Sophie Liao, the ACMO for ambulatory services at UCHealth, took the stage with an eloquent presentation examining some of the differences between the way patients navigate healthcare in adult hospital when compared to CHCO. There are some important changes that we ask people to deal with, a children’s hospital will generally give wrap around care: with, for instance a call if a patient misses an appointment. In the adult world, usually if you miss 3 scheduled visits, you are removed from the clinic, requiring a new referral. It can be very challenging to find your way through a new hospital, its systems and its websites. There is active work, underway to improve this for patients and simplify some of the processes, improve communication and learn about the patient experience. Dr. Scott Laker, Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs followed this, he began with the fact that our Dean wants our center to build a nationally recognized transition program and that there is cross campus strategic work to make this happen. The selection of 3 pilot programs in neurology, pulmonology and urology underline the importance of streamlining, learning about where the system struggles, how processes and care coordination can improve and, in turn, elevate patient experience. Later in the program, Director of Ambulatory Care, Amanda Van Andel and Lindsay MacLachlan developed that theme with their overview of how they lead and seek to improve care coordination for our program. They have been instrumental in improving communication and accommodations for patients, with initiatives including the ‘Sunflower Program’ and ‘My Adaptive Plan’ to help signpost which patients may need additional resources and/or time.

There were other success stories, two, in particular, were highlighted. The team from Denver Health presented the development of their Disability Collaborative They have a pediatric complex care clinic, with multiple specialties involved as these patients age out they will have access to services such as the Adaptive Primary Care team or the Adult Down Syndrome Clinic. They receive referrals from multiple sources and have established thoughtful and effective transitions of care, a model that we are certainly learning from.

As pediatric care improvements continue, there are new conditions that require adult care. Historically, some conditions were not survivable beyond childhood. Muscular Dystrophy, is a modern day success story, with many more patients living long into adult years, this has forced the team, represented by Kelli Johnson and Hattie Foster to build a service that includes transition to adult services. One of the lessons we came away with, was the positive messaging, they offer, around transition, they even call it a graduation to adult services.

Undoubtedly, one of the most poignant and powerful messages, of the day, came from Dominic King, an adult patient who spoke powerfully about meeting providers who did not engage with his needs and people who judged him, based on their own assumptions. His proactive approach to produce his own leaflet, introducing himself was an amazing example of self-advocacy and empowerment. He literally stole the show, with many people inspired by, and learning from, his approach.

The day passed too quickly, it was packed the gems of knowledge, thoughtful learning and inspirational messages. The energetic discussion and active networking were uplifting to be a part of. The Bridging the Gap team are poised and already starting to plan the next meeting. Keep an eye, information will soon be heading your way.

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Bridging the Gap Agenda - 2025

On February 27 and 28, 2025, specialists from across UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital and Children’s Hospital Colorado (CHCO) convened in Academic Office One to discuss a growing concern among patients with lifelong diagnoses: transition of care.

"Transition of care" is the name for the space between pediatric and adult medical care. It’s a gap in which some patients fall through the cracks; patients and their families understand they have aged out of pediatric care, but getting established at an adult or specialty care clinic can be a daunting task, especially for medically complex patients and their caregivers.

Enter Dr. Daniel Wood, a transition of care specialist and Chair of Pediatric Transition at CHCO. Dr. Wood, as a urologist, often cares for patients for whom transition is a major concern. Urological anomalies including spina bifida, hypospadias, and others require careful transitions when a patient ages out of pediatric care.

But transition isn’t a worry for urological patients alone: transition will eventually become a concern for patients with diagnoses ranging from Down Syndrome to epilepsy to those who have undergone transplants. Dr. Wood is passionate about bridging the gap between pediatric and adult care, ensuring that these patients don’t get lost in the shuffle of the transition.

As Dr. Wood spoke with specialists from across CHCO and University Hospital, he realized that there were many physicians whose biggest struggle with transitioning their patients was a lack of resources—and a lack of information. Better outcomes could only be achieved when a patient's care team were up to date on the best practices and techniques for a successful transition.

So Dr. Wood began dreaming of a solution: Bridging the Gap, a conference centered around transition of care, hosting anyone who wanted to improve their team’s transition outcomes. He reached out to Dr. Eleanor Comfort, a pediatrician at UCHealth Internal Medicine Clinic at University Hospital, to help him put together the event and begin creating a foundation for transition programs across the Denver Metro Area and beyond.

With the help of a team of administrators from the Division of Urology and Department of General Internal Medicine, Drs. Wood and Comfort drafted an agenda that would include over a dozen national and international voices in ten specialties. After several months of planning and organizing, on February 27, over 80 physicians, advanced practice providers, trainees, and administrators gathered to share their clinics’ strategies for transition and to learn from the strides made by others.

The day kicked off with a multi-specialty panel of doctors focused on existing transition of care programs, including Urology, Allergy and Respiratory, Gastroenterology, Neurology, and more. After the panel, attendees kicked off the afternoon with a wide array of networking-based events like Transition Speed Dating—for adult specialists to meet their pediatric counterparts—and breakout groups. The breakout groups covered a wide variety of topics including Forming a Team, Tracking Patients, Adult Multidisciplinary Clinics, and Navigating Insurance.

One of the highlights of the in-person day of the conference was the poster presentation section. Trainees, physicians, and administrators presented posters on the innovations made in their transition of care programs; the first-place winner shared about Transition Passports, a document holding critical information about a patient’s diagnoses, treatment plan, care team, and more. Attendees asked dozens of questions about the program, requesting more information and preparing to adapt it to fit the needs of their patients. It was a truly satisfying moment for Drs. Wood and Comfort—proof that a meeting like Bridging the Gap was going to lead to better patient care and, according to ongoing research, better outcomes.

After the in-person day of the conference wrapped up, virtual Day Two began on February 28. Meeting via Zoom allowed attendees to learn from national and international experts, including Dr. Gunter de Win of Antwerp university, Belgium and Greg Ryan, founder of the One in 5000 Foundation for anorectal malformation (ARM) awareness. Day Two also made space for case discussions, allowing providers with less experience transitioning their patients to ask questions of transition of care experts. Then, for as many months as it had taken to plan, Bridging the Gap was over… for now.

As for the future? Dr. Wood hopes that Bridging the Gap isn’t just a one-time affair.

“We would love to see these conversations continue on past the conference," he says. "There will be more to come in the future, be it smaller events throughout the year or a continuation of Bridging the Gap as an annual event."

Plans are already in the works for a Second Annual Bridging the Gap conference, where we may see programs presenting on their work established as a direct result of this year’s meeting.