Children’s Hospital Los Angeles has added four Xenex Germ-Zapping Robots to its team. Each uses UV-C light to disinfect rooms and destroy pathogens, including Clostridium difficile, norovirus and MRSA.
Researchers at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles have received an $8.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to conduct research to improve HIV care and prevention in a study focusing on Black, Latino and multiracial gay and bisexual young men – a group at the highest risk for contracting HIV.
A life-changing event for a Los Angeles family has resulted in their funding an endowment to support The Kort Family Foundation Brain and Spinal Cord Tumor Research Program in the Division of Neurosurgery at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
Cardiologists from Children’s Hospital Los Angeles successfully implanted a Melody Transcatheter Pulmonary Valve in child actor Max Page, the boy who made headlines playing mini Darth Vader in a 2011 Super Bowl ad for Volkswagen. On Tuesday, Sept. 1, Max will have a procedure at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles to replace his pacemaker pulse generator. It will be his second operation in 34 days.
Sports medicine specialists from the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles Children’s Orthopaedic Center administered baseline concussion tests to 98 athletes from the Los Angeles Kings High School Hockey League on Saturday, August 22 at the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles Valencia Outpatient Center.
The NIH has awarded $5.7M for a multicenter study to evaluate the long-term outcomes of medical treatment for transgender youth. This study will provide evidence-based information on the impact, as well as safety, of hormone blockers and cross-sex hormone use in this population.
Dr. Marcy’s focus is on the emotional aspects of the new school year — the stress it causes for kids and parents. She has a model called The Six Rs of Returning to School: Rest, Routine, Responsibility, Reassure, Resist and Role Modeling. She talks about how to help children with the sudden overwhelm of transitioning from summer fun and later nights to resuming long days in the classroom and doing nightly homework. She is also an expert on kids’ socialization issues, like bullying (how parents should manage if their kid is the victim or if their kid is the bully), dealing with new teachers, adjusting to a new school.
Medulloblastoma, the most commonly occurring malignant brain tumor in children, can be classified into four subgroups—each with a different risk profile requiring subgroup-specific therapy. Currently, subgroup determination is done after surgical removal of the tumor.
Pasadena Magazine’s annual Top Doctors issue has recognized 85 physicians with privileges to practice at Children's Hospital Los Angeles. Many of the honorees are members of the Children's Hospital Los Angeles Medical Group and are academically affiliated with the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California.
Researchers at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and The Saban Research Institute of CHLA created a dynamic functional mouse model for lung injury repair, a tool that will help scientists explain the origins of lung disease and provide a system by which new therapies can be identified and tested.
Looking at measurements of the vertebrae – the series of small bones that make up the spinal column – in newborn children, investigators at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles found that differences between the sexes are present at birth.
Researchers in the Division of Hematology, Oncology and Blood & Marrow Transplantation at CHLA have shown greatly improved outcomes in using stem cell transplantation to treat patients with a serious but very rare form of chronic blood cancer called juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML).
Johanna Olson, MD, and her colleagues at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, provide care for the largest number of transyouth in the U.S. and have enrolled 101 patients in a study to determine the safety and efficacy of treatment that helps patients bring their bodies into closer alignment with their gender of identity.
The Board of Trustees at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) has announced that Paul S. Viviano, currently the chief executive officer for the University of California, San Diego Health System and associate vice chancellor for UC San Diego Health Sciences, will serve as the organization’s new president and chief executive officer beginning Aug. 24, 2015. Viviano will be a member of the hospital’s Board of Trustees and will succeed Richard D. Cordova, FACHE, who previously announced his approaching retirement last December.
Beginning today, CHLA’s renowned specialists will staff Providence Tarzana’s Pediatrics Department inpatient unit as well as its pediatric and neonatal intensive care units – known as the PICU and NICU. Staff will be available 24 hours a day, allowing families access to high-quality specialty care for their children, closer to home.
Michael Allen Pulsipher, MD, will join the Children’s Center for Cancer and Blood Diseases and the Division of Hematology, Oncology and Blood and Marrow Transplantation at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles as head of the Section of Blood and Marrow Transplantation (BMT) and as BMT clinical research chair, effective July 1, 2015. In addition, Pulsipher will be a professor of Pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) and a Member of the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center.
A team of neonatologists at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles investigated the use of robot-assisted telemedicine in performing bedside rounds and directing daily care for infants with mild-to-moderate disease. This is the first published report of using telemedicine for patient rounds in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
Lynda Boone Fetter and Arnold “Arnie” Kleiner have been elected co-chairs of the Board of Trustees of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, succeeding outgoing Board Co-chairs Cathy Siegel Weiss and Ted Samuels.
Investigators at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles are providing new hope for babies with short bowel syndrome (SBS) by developing a novel model of SBS in zebrafish, described in a paper published online on June 18 by the American Journal of Physiology-Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology.
In a finding that furthers the understanding of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), researchers from Children’s Hospital Los Angeles discovered two locations where a single difference in HIV’s genetic code altered the way the virus infected the cell, thereby influencing the progression of the disease.
Researchers at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles have demonstrated that adolescents and young adults with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) have significantly increased amounts of abdominal fat tissue, placing them at greater risk for harmful conditions linked to obesity, including cardiovascular disease (CVD).
On Friday, May 22, an 18-member team of physicians and nurses from Children's Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) and Keck Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) led an international collaboration to separate a pair of six-month-old conjoined Haitian twins, the first such operation ever performed on Haitian soil. James Stein, associate chief of surgery at Children's Hospital, was lead surgeon during the rare medical procedure.
On Friday, May 22, an 18-member team of physicians and nurses from Children's Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) and Keck Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) led an international collaboration to separate a pair of six-month-old conjoined Haitian twins, the first such operation ever performed on Haitian soil.
Ranked No. 1 in California and among the top 10 nationally, CHLA is once again named to the prestigious Honor Roll in the U.S. News & World Report survey of the nation’s best children’s hospitals.
Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) opened the doors of its new outpatient care center in Encino today. The pediatric medical facility, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles – Encino, will be staffed by physicians who are Board-certified in pediatric specialties and subspecialties, including hematology-oncology, nephrology, neurology, orthopaedics, pediatric surgery and urology.
Studying zebrafish, investigators at The Saban Research Institute and the Heart Institute of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles discovered a new source for cells that can develop into coronary vessels and have identified the signaling protein, a chemokine called CXCL12, which guides this process.
Parents of patients treated at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles can download a free app called ImageInbox on their smartphones, which allows them to receive imaging files or to request the files be sent directly to another caregiver. CHLA is the first clinical site to offer the app, which is now available for free to any patient.
Researchers found that the presence of a few remaining leukemia cells, called minimal residual disease (MRD), at the end of induction chemotherapy was not predictive of risk or outcome in children with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). This opens the possibility for patients with T-cell ALL who have MRD to achieve complete remission without undergoing intensified cancer treatments and their associated toxicities.
Researchers have made an important step toward finding a target in the fight against drug-resistant neuroblastoma (NBL), the most common solid malignancy found, outside of the skull, in children.
Mental health. It’s a term we most often associate with adults and balancing high-stress jobs with an enjoyable lifestyle. But what exactly does “mental health” mean for infants and families? We talked to Marian E. Williams, PhD, director of the Stein Tikun Olam Infant-Family Mental Health Initiative at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles to learn more about this often “taboo” topic.
Children with hemophilia A require three to four infusions each week to prevent bleeding episodes, chronic pain and joint damage. A new, extended therapy combines recombinant factor VIII with a fusion protein that allows the molecule to remain in the circulation longer – translating into a need for less frequent treatment.
Here at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, transgender issues are not new. Our Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine has been supporting the health of transgender youth for nearly 20 years. While many are becoming more familiar with the subject now, there is still great opportunity to advance understanding in the community. In this post, Johanna Olson, MD, medical director of the Center for Transyouth Health and Development at CHLA, gives answers to questions that many are asking, including what the term ‘transgender’ means, what the transition process includes, and services that are available for transyouth.
Johanna Olson, MD, is a pediatrician specializing in adolescent medicine at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles where she directs the Center for Transyouth Health and Development. In an effort to increase knowledge about the transgender experience, Olson frequently speaks to media on the topic.
Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) announced Thursday the grand opening and dedication of the Margie and Robert E. Petersen Foundation Rehabilitation Center honoring the couple’s two late sons, Bobby and Richie Petersen, who died in a 1975 plane crash. Late last month patients and staff moved in to the new 22,000-square-foot, safari-themed facility.
Michael Neely, MD, a pediatric infectious diseases specialist at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, helps explain the facts about measles, and how parents can prevent further outbreak. MD, a pediatric infectious diseases specialist at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, helps explain the facts about measles, how parents can prevent further outbreak, and what CHLA can do to help prevent infection and to treat those who have already been infected.
Leaders from Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) and the National Center for Maternal and Child Health (NCMCH), Mongolia’s flagship pediatric medical facility, marked 20 years of institutional collaboration Tuesday with a special “telemedicine” program and celebration honoring past accomplishments and outlining future efforts to better the health care of Mongolian children.
Characterizing associations between socioeconomic factors and children’s brain development, a team of investigators reports correlative links between family income and brain structure. Relationships between the brain and family income were strongest in the lowest end of the economic range – suggesting that interventional policies aimed at these children may have the largest societal impact.
A team of investigators at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and the University of Southern California have developed the first fully implantable micropacemaker designed for use in a fetus with complete heart block. The investigators anticipate the first human use of the device in the near future.
Researchers have found a powerful relationship between prenatal polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) exposure and disturbances in parts of the brain that support information processing and behavioral control.
Investigators have demonstrated that MR imaging of the liver is more accurate than liver biopsy in determining total body iron balance in patients with sickle cell disease and other disorders requiring blood transfusion therapy. This discovery follows the researchers earlier work in pioneering techniques to use MRI to noninvasively measure liver iron.
By uncovering the mechanism by which fibrous tissue cells in the lung multiply, researchers at The Saban Research Institute of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA), along with colleagues in Mexico and Canada, have identified a promising new approach for the treatment of pulmonary fibrosis.
When a person has cancer that spreads to the bone and bone marrow, the tissue becomes increasingly fragile, often leading to increased bone resorption. In a surprising discovery, investigators at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles reported that when neuroblastoma (NB) cells metastasize to the bone, there initially occurs an increase in bone deposition, not resorption. This process is driven by a chemical messenger called VEGFA.
As the new chair of the American College of Healthcare Executives, Richard D. Cordova urges his peers to adapt and lead through heath care industry change.
Philanthropists Gene P. and Mindy Stein, through the Tikun Olam Foundation, have made a $1 million gift to establish the Stein Tikun Olam Infant-Family Mental Health Initiative at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA).
PTSD. Four letters we immediately associate with soldiers and horrific wartime tragedies. But unfortunately, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can affect anyone who has experienced a traumatic event—including children with serious medical diagnoses. To learn more about this devastating disorder in kids, we talked to Jeffrey I. Gold, PhD, director of the Pediatric Pain Management Clinic at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA).
Children’s Hospital Los Angeles announced today that it will make an institutional commitment of $50 million to expand its Center for Personalized Medicine. This investment in leading-edge research and innovation will help unlock the human genome’s potential with the goal of making diagnoses more effective, therapies more targeted and health care more personalized for children. The Children’s Hospital Los Angeles Board of Trustees recently approved the investment in the Center, to be disbursed over the next five years. The institution will seek an additional $50 million in philanthropic funding from the community to support the translation of research outcomes in the lab into bedside care for infants, children and adolescents.