I wrote the following articles published in November 2016 by the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute:
Tag: clinical research
October 2016 Writing for Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
I wrote (or edited, as noted) the following articles published in October 2016 by the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute:
Scientists Seek Mitochondrial Mechanism to Overcome Cancer Treatment Resistance
Finding of Variability in Antibiotic Prescribing Yields Improvements, Accolades
Project Aims to Automate Adverse Event Reporting in Cancer Clinical Trials
In a Teenager’s Brain, HIV Infection Could Cause Unique Damage
How to Address Four Factors That Limit Gender Equality in Academic Medicine
I noticed a CHOP-affiliated co-author, Dr. Ganetzky, listed on a piece in the journal Academic Medicine calling for action on gender equality. I approached Dr. Ganetzky with the idea for a guest blog post on the subject and worked with her to refine and edit the post for publication.
CHOP Research In the News: Ear Infection Genetics, Childhood Cancer Heredity, Vaccine Anniversary
CHOP, Penn Researchers Share Progress and Tips for Using mHealth Tools
CHOP Research In the News: Cancer Moonshot Yields Data-Sharing Initiatives, Hemophilia Surprise, Mitochondrial Medal
Mentorship in Medicine, Zebras, and Holsteins: Q&A with Elaine Zackai
September 2016 Writing for The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
I wrote the following stories published by The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute in September 2016:
Going with the Flow: How Lymphatics is Emerging as Medicine’s Newest Specialty
Pediatricians May Better Help Parents Quit Smoking With Decision Support Tool
Discovering How a Neurological ‘Pit Crew’ Keeps the Brain on Track
Scientists Identify Molecule Controlling Inflammatory Immune Response
Neuroblastoma Drug Candidates Target Key Henchmen of a Supervillain Oncogene
Fresh Hope for Treating a Rare Progressive, Lysosomal Storage Childhood Disease
CHOP Research In the News: Cancer Moonshot, Why Children Get Cancer, and a Push for Vaccination
Patients as Partners and the Legacy of Henrietta Lacks: A Q&A with David Lacks
Do Food Allergies Increase the Risk of Asthma? Key Questions From a New Study
CHOP Research In the News: Emmy Award, Kids and the Cancer Moonshot, Precision Approach to Epilepsy, Concussion Monitoring App
August 2016 Writing for The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
I wrote the following stories published in August 2016 by The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute except as otherwise indicated:
How Reformed ‘Mean Girls’ Can Help Their Classmates
Competing in ‘Olympics’ Helped Teens Retain CPR Skills
Children May Be Overtreated for Joint Pain Resulting from Infection
Positive Parenting Program Improves Bad Behavior in Preschool-Age Children
Childhood Cancer Advocates Find Strength in Numbers
Laws Limiting School Junk Food Sales and Ads Show Potential to Impact Obesity
“We’re Just Laughing About Poop”: A Clinical Research Study Experience Q&A
This article was written by our intern, Elyse Siravo, under my editorial guidance. I helped develop the concept for this Q&A as part of an initiative to improve clinical research recruitment. I sought and identified the interviewees, helped Elyse shape the questions, sat in on the interview, took the photo, and substantially edited Elyse’s written draft of the Q&A and its introduction in multiple stages.
CHOP Research In the News: Policies Protecting Children and a Portal for Parents and Teachers
Safety, Thinking, Partnerships, Motherhood: Six Key Quotes from a Physician Scientist on a Mission
Behavioral Health Prevention Efforts Prepare Kids to Learn in School
CHOP Research In the News: Allergies and Asthma, Arthritis, and Immunology of Inflammation
June and July 2016 Writing for The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
I wrote the following stories published in June and July 2016 by The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute:
Ready to Be a Healthy Adult Survivor of Childhood Cancer? Text Y/N
Microbiome Study of Inflammatory Bowel Disease Will Give the Gut a Holiday
‘Y’ Could Help Answer ‘How’ for Autism Spectrum Disorder in the Brain
Study Aims to Match Injured Children to Hospitals Best Equipped for Their Care
Time to Strengthen Parent-Pediatrician Conversations About Autism Care
CHOP Research In the News: Clinical Research in the Spotlight
Q&A: How Computer-Simulated Hospital Systems May Improve Care
CHOP Research In the News: Children’s Surgery Safety, Mentoring Award, and More
An Entrepreneurial Approach to Learning Language Grows From and Catalyzes Research
CHOP Research In the News: Big Efforts Aimed at Small Things
On Your Skin, In Your Gut, and All Around: A Microbiome Q&A
Capitalizing on the Research Potential of Mobile and Digital Technologies
How Warts Could Reveal the Immune System’s Tiny Flaws and Functions
CHOP Research In the News: Trauma, Asthma, Autism Insurance Mandates, and Sexual Health
CHOP Research In the News: New Rare Disease, FA Woodstock, Bioengineering, and Protecting Toddlers from Child Abuse
May 2016 Writing for The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
I wrote the following stories published by The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute in May 2016:
Studies Support Parent-Teen Communication to Improve Adolescent Health
Mitochondrial Medicine Pioneer Inducted to Italian Academy of Sciences
Seeking Serotonin-Connected Solutions to Heart Valve Disease
Collaborations on Language-Focused Autism Research Gain Momentum
Using Sociology to Outsmart Superbugs
CHOP Research In the News: Regulating Iron, Mother’s Dedication, Knee Troubles
CHOP Research In the News: Summer-Ready Stories about Families, Travel, and Science
April 2016 Writing for The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
I wrote the following articles published by The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute in April 2016:
Restoring Balance in the Brain After Concussion
CHOP Oncologist Appointed to Blue Ribbon Panel for National Cancer Moonshot
Teaching a Computer to See Like a Dermatologist
Study Maps Early Connectivity Networks in Newborn Babies’ Brains
CHOP Research In the News: Transgender Youth, Vaccines, and Sleep
In Bench to Bedside: Finding Research Success in Setbacks
Growing Into Healthy Relationships: A Teen Dating Violence Q&A
CHOP Research In the News: Genetic Superheroes, Excess Bone, and Secondhand Smoke
Coordinating Research with 80 Million Participants: A PCORnet Q&A
Hakon Hakonarson Honored for Excellence in Research Mentoring
CHOP Research In the News: Plastic Bronchitis, Baby BMI, Voice at the Vatican
March 2016 Writing for The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
I wrote the following stories published by The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute in March 2016, except as otherwise indicated:
CPR for Children Gets Smarter
In this story, I explored a body of research on improvements to in-hospital CPR that CHOP clinician-researchers had been at work on for more than a decade, but that had been under-reported within the CHOP community. Coincidentally, I discovered the story just as the investigators were preparing to be awarded a major NIH grant that put several pieces of their program’s work together, so I was able to announce the grant through this feature article.
Seeing the Impact of a Decade of Genomics Discoveries
This story looks back on the first decade of accomplishments of a center that was established as one of the largest research investments at CHOP at the time. I pursued the story initially due to Dr. Hakonarson’s recognition on the Thomson Reuters “highly cited” list but broadened its focus once I realized that his center’s tenth anniversary was approaching.
A Molecular Balancing Act to Fight Autoimmune Disease and Cancer
I found out about one new grant Dr. Hancock had received. To my surprise, when I met with him for an interview, he mentioned that he had received notice on the same day of another award to study the same molecules but for an opposite effect. It was completely fascinating! This molecular biology story turned out to be one of the most popular articles in our Bench to Bedside publication that month, despite the relative obscurity of its focus.
Concussions’ Unpredictability Underscores Need for Follow-Up Care
Using Doctors’ Certification Requirements to Increase HPV Vaccination
CHOP Honors Distinguished Research Trainees on Poster Day
CHOP Research In the News: DNA Scrunching, Video Games, Smart Drugs
CHOP Research In the News: Obesity, PTSD, and Alice in Wonderland
Staying Safe in the Sun: A Sun Protection Q&A
CHOP’s Foerderer Awards Support Novel Biomedical Research Studies
A Week in the Life of the Research Navigator
For this guest blog post written by Katherine Yang-Iott, I initially proposed the concept of hosting a blog post about Katherine’s new role, approached Katherine, and worked with her to develop a “day in the life” concept into a “week in the life” post. My role included guiding her in how to think about writing the piece through contributing multiple phases of editing to shape the final product.
New CHOP Study to Understand Risk of Hospital Readmission
Originally published in Bench to Bedside, the CHOP Research monthly publication
I composed this original article based on an interview with the investigator.
Excerpt:
One in 20 infants is admitted to the hospital during the first year of life. As frightening as it may be for families to have a child whose health condition requires hospitalization, in too many cases the experience gets worse when a relapse or problem managing the condition after discharge means their child must be re-admitted later. Babies born prematurely are among the groups of children are at highest risk of hospital readmission.
With a new grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), researchers at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia are working to reduce the need for pediatric readmissions by taking a population-level look at clinical factors, and an up-close look at familial and social factors, that send high-risk groups of children back to the hospital.
“The long-term goal is to take this information and develop real-time predictions,” said study leader Scott Lorch, MD, MSCE, director of the Center for Perinatal and Pediatric Health Disparities Research at CHOP and associate professor of pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. “We are looking for things that can be fed back to the clinical team to say, based on these factors, this patient has a higher than usual risk of readmission.”
CHOP-led Consortium Focuses on Patient-Reported Outcomes
Originally published in Bench to Bedside, the CHOP Research monthly publication
I composed this original article based on an interview with the investigators.
Excerpt:
“How tired do you feel?” a doctor asks a child with a chronic disease. Or, “How well are you managing stress?”
The answers to questions like these are even more important, from many patients’ and families’ perspectives, than the particular numerical result of their lab test results.
But the answers are less useful to doctors than they could be. Doctors do not have validated tools to use such patient-reported outcomes to track progress managing a condition over time in the same way they can compare results of blood tests over time. In clinical research, they are unable to compare the answers across patients to ultimately show an experimental drug meaningfully improves fatigue or other patient-reported measures.
“Our vision is that patient-reported outcomes become like lab tests,” said Christopher Forrest, MD, PhD, a pediatrician and researcher at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and professor of pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. “Soon doctors will use patient-reported outcomes to monitor patients’ clinical care in the same way they use lab tests or X-rays.”
Dr. Forrest and colleagues at CHOP and partner institutions received a new grant from the National Institutes of Health to advance the science of patient-reported outcome measures to one day achieve that vision.
Rachel Ewing 