Newswise — Cardinal Health recently donated $1 million to Nationwide Children’s Hospital to help advance the work and research of its Tissue Engineering Program.
“Cardinal Health has been a corporate partner of Nationwide Children’s for more than 25 years, supporting vital hospital programs and services,” said Steve Allen, MD, chief executive officer of Nationwide Children’s. “We appreciate Cardinal Health’s long-standing commitment and unwavering support of the work we do and the children and families we serve. We thank them for standing with us at the forefront of pediatric health care and research.”
“We are incredibly gratified to support research that will transform the lives of children and lead to other breakthroughs in medicine,” said George Barrett, chairman and chief executive officer of Cardinal Health and also a member of Nationwide Children’s board. “We are proud to partner with Nationwide Children’s Hospital in this important pediatric work that will have a significant impact in our community and around the country.”
Tissue engineering is the process by which the child’s own cells are used to ‘grow’ new tissue or organs for repair of congenital defects, or defects that are present at birth. Christopher Breuer, MD, and Toshiharu Shinoka, MD, PhD, co-directors of the Tissue Engineering Program at Nationwide Children’s who came to the hospital from Yale University last year, were the first in the world to tissue engineer blood vessels and implant them in human infants for repair of congenital heart defects.
“The fundamental problem faced by surgeons caring for children with congenital anomalies is the lack of sufficient tissue for reconstruction that is capable of growth,” said Dr. Breuer, also the director for Tissue Engineering in The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center’s Center for Regenerative Medicine and Cell Based Therapies. “The method we’ve developed holds the incredibly exciting potential to completely change how we care for our patients.”
Drs. Breuer and Shinoka have approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to conduct the first human clinical trial in the country to investigate the safety and effectiveness of this method.
About Cardinal HealthHeadquartered in Dublin, Ohio, Cardinal Health is a $101 billion healthcare services company that improves the cost-effectiveness of healthcare. As the business behind healthcare, Cardinal Health helps pharmacies, hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, clinical laboratories and physician offices focus on patient care while reducing costs, enhancing efficiency and improving quality. Cardinal Health is an essential link in the healthcare supply chain, providing pharmaceuticals and medical products and services to more than 100,000 points of care locations each day and is also the industry-leading, direct-to-home medical supplies distributor. The company is a leading manufacturer of medical and surgical products, including gloves, surgical apparel and fluid management products. In addition, the company operates the nation’s largest network of radio pharmacies that dispense products to aid in the early diagnosis and treatment of disease. Ranked #19 on the Fortune 500, Cardinal Health employs more than 34,000 people worldwide. More information about the company may be found at cardinalhealth.com and @CardinalHealth on Twitter.
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