Summer 2019

As we move into summer, we embrace the longer days and find our routine more like that of the children we serve — busy all day long! Since we last connected with you, we have celebrated the reopening of our front doors and the dedication of the Carell Family Balcony. As you read this issue, we eagerly anticipate the moving of our pediatric cardiac patients onto the first floor of our expansion and plan for the internal program transitions that will occur in other vacated spaces. We are excited about how this new space enables our ongoing efforts to advance and create programs to meet the needs of our patients and families.

The foundation of our daily work is built upon excellence in clinical care, discovery, innovation and training. Being part of an academic medical center allows us to bring discovery and innovation to the bedside every day, as well as create novel programs that are possible because of multidisciplinary collaborations that do not occur in other settings. One long-standing partnership that showcases this special collaboration is the relationship between Children’s Hospital, Vanderbilt Eye Institute (VEI) and the Tennessee Lions Clubs.

For over 25 years, the VEI Tennessee Lions Pediatric Eye Center has served children from across our state and region in the delivery of comprehensive eye care as well as in the development of novel programs. This team routinely incorporates the latest technologies, such as telemedicine, to bring eye care to communities that do not have access to pediatric ophthalmologists. We are thrilled to highlight a unique partnership between our pediatric oncology, interventional radiology and eye center teams in the development of a vision-saving treatment that delivers chemotherapy directly into pediatric eye tumors.

We also have been a pioneer in neonatology for almost 60 years through the work of our clinicians and trainees as they continually advance treatment strategies for babies through laboratory, clinical and quality improvement discovery. We share this work through the stories of two families impacted by cooling therapy, a treatment for babies who have low oxygen levels at birth, that first started as a research trial then moved to routine care. Our neonatology team is the only clinical trial site in Tennessee participating in research to further improve and refine this treatment.

While we have the ability to do these great things in the discovery space, we also are able to bring together clinical experts when disease or injury is present. As a pediatric trauma center, we see accidents that range from simple to extreme. Our pediatric surgical teams have ready access to experts in certain anatomical areas, such as the hand, to facilitate repairs that return function and enable dreams to be fulfilled.

Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt is ‘more than a place’ — it is people committed to providing healing and hope. We are able to do this work because of Children’s Hospital staff like Chelsea Carter and Bonnie Parker, who are March of Dimes nurses of the year, the community partners who enable programs like Friends of Children’s Hospital, and the remarkable clinicians, investigators and trainees who turn discovery into treatments.

Sincerely,

Luke Gregory, FACHE
Chief Executive Officer

Meg Rush, MD, MMHC
Chief of Staff and Executive Medical Director

John W. Brock III, MD
Senior Vice President of Pediatric Surgical Services, Monroe Carell Jr. Professor and Surgeon-in-Chief

Steven Webber, MBChB, MRCP
Pediatrician-in-Chief, Chair of the Department of Pediatrics and James C. Overall Professor