Newswise — LOS ANGELES – The Margie and Robert E. Petersen Foundation has announced it will make a $2.5 million unrestricted gift to support The Vision Center at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) in its efforts to advance medical teaching techniques, increase infrastructure for groundbreaking research and use cutting-edge video technology to reach more patients in less time.
“We are honored by the continued generosity of the Petersen Foundation,” says Henri Ford, MD, MHA, vice president and chief of surgery at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. “This gift is a direct investment in both the present and future of the patients and families who trust Children’s Hospital Los Angeles for their care.”
“Mr. and Mrs. Petersen believed strongly that every child deserves the opportunity to reach his or her full potential,” says GiGi Carleton, president of the Margie and Robert E. Petersen Foundation. “This gift from the Petersen Foundation supports the nation’s largest pediatric ophthalmology program in its efforts to do the same—pioneering treatments that help children see, and contributing to their best possible quality of life.”
The Vision Center at CHLA is an international referral center for children with complex eye diseases. It comprises leading experts in virtually every pediatric ophthalmologic subspecialty. With additional resources, CHLA will be able to train more physicians, enhance existing space for treatment and care for children virtually—in the case of children with complex eye diseases, a quicker response can mean the difference between saving their eyesight and facing a lifetime of blindness.
“This generous gift will empower innovative solutions that propel the hospital’s mission to create hope and build healthier futures,” says Thomas Lee, MD, division head of The Vision Center at CHLA. “We will now be able to train a new generation of doctors, discover new treatments and extend our reach beyond hospital walls, allowing us to meet the vital needs of more children who seek our care and expertise.”
The Petersen Foundation’s gift will help the center grow in three distinct areas:
• Education – Allowing the Center to produce and add video lectures to a growing online database that uses the “flipped classroom” model – that is, rather than students learning about various techniques for the first time when they show up at the hospital, they can view the videos first and then practice in person under the guidance of expert faculty.• Research – Expanding physical space and providing equipment for researchers— like disease modeling experts David Cobrinik, MD, PhD, Mark Borchert, MD, and Jennifer Aparicio, PhD, who use patient-derived stem cells to replicate tissue from hereditary eye diseases. Doing this gives the scientists an opportunity to study the tissue in the lab, helping to identify the most effective treatment and prevention techniques for a patient’s specific mutation.• Telemedicine – Broadening The Vision Center’s existing pilot telehealth program, which allows patients to meet virtually with optometrists and opthalmologists from several remote sites throughout Southern California. Equipping partner community clinics with ultra-high definition (or “4K”) video streaming carts will allow CHLA physicians to provide accurate consultation with more patients and medical staff, and doctors also can be brought in for further management and assessment in triage situations.
“Advancing these key areas of The Vision Center will directly affect the lives of children today as well as drive innovation that allows us to make an impact on their future,” says Dr. Lee. “Furthermore, all these can be scaled to other divisions within CHLA, so the gift from the Petersen Foundation not only helps children who are at risk of going blind, it may eventually benefit other patients throughout the hospital.”
The late Margie Petersen, a former CHLA regent and board of trustee member, and her late husband Robert, founder and chairman of Petersen Publishing Co., were longtime supporters of the hospital. Most recently, the foundation helped CHLA open the new Petersen Foundation Rehabilitation Center in April 2015. The center is one of the largest acute pediatric rehabilitation centers in the country.
About Children's Hospital Los Angeles Children's Hospital Los Angeles has been named the best children’s hospital in California and among the top 10 in the nation for clinical excellence with its selection to the prestigious U.S. News & World Report Honor Roll. Children’s Hospital is home to The Saban Research Institute, one of the largest and most productive pediatric research facilities in the United States. Children’s Hospital is also one of America's premier teaching hospitals through its affiliation since 1932 with the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California.
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