Department of Pediatrics In the News

“The pediatric recommendations have often seemed to be merely an extension of adult-focused recommendations, which may be confusing for those in pediatric practice. It is also likely that prevention of cardiovascular disease that occurs in adulthood is not top of mind for pediatric clinicians,” according to Stephen Daniels, [professor and chair, Department of Pediatrics] of University of Colorado School of Medicine and [pediatrician-in-chief and L. Joseph Butterfield Chair of Pediatrics] Children's Hospital Colorado in Aurora.

Lula Lubchenco, MD, was a pioneering pediatrician in Colorado, where she developed protocols and tools used in delivery rooms around the world to categorize newborns and determine the risk of health complications. Dr. Lubchenco’s research insights and the use of her Lulagram chart helped shape the field of neonatology. She began publishing her research on the relationship between birth weight and gestational age in newborns. In this research, she developed a chart that allowed clinicians to plot a baby’s birth weight against its gestational age – this chart became known as the “Lulagram.” Additionally, one of her essential research studies was the follow-up of infants born prematurely due to mothers with Rh incompatibility. Her work helped obstetricians develop protocols that led to the prevention of Rh sensitization in mothers.

Proceeds from the Be Beautiful Be Yourself Fashion Show support the important work of GLOBAL and GLOBAL’s affiliates, including a team of over 400 scientists working on breakthrough life-saving research at the Linda Crnic Institute for Down Syndrome and the CU Alzheimer’s & Cognition Center, and a dream team of medical professionals providing excellent medical care to over 2,500 patients from 33 states and 10 countries at the Anna and John J. Sie Center at Children’s Hospital Colorado.

Marisa Stahl, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics, Section of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition at the University of Colorado School of Medicine is first author on new research finding solid evidence backing the need for universal screening for celiac disease in all children nationwide, to protect their health and safety. Seven additional faculty from the Department of Pediatrics contributed to the study.

Coauthor Kelly Knupp, pediatric epileptologist at Children's Hospital Colorado, sat down with NeurologyLive® in an interview to discuss the types of studies that were included in the review. Knupp, who also serves as a pediatric neurologist, and professor of pediatrics and neurology at University of Colorado, talked about how effective fenfluramine was in reducing generalized tonic-clonic seizures, citing data from the review.

“These new pediatric-focused sleep labs can perform a whole factor more sleep studies on children who need it than before,” says Stephen Hawkins, MD, associate program director of the sleep fellowship program at Children’s Hospital Colorado and co-director of the diploma program with Reddy. “It’s not exaggerating to say we’ve provided better access to pediatric sleep care and a network of providers who are more comfortable, if not confident, in providing pediatric sleep care.”

The study “is a technical feat,” says neurophysiologist Darleen Sandoval [professor of pediatrics, Section of Nutrition] of the University of Colorado School of Medicine. The scientists were able to observe and manipulate the AP and NTS neurons in living animals, which is “something that very few people could do,” she says.

While we're making progress, 1 in 10 high school kids have vaped in the last month, contributing to the ongoing youth vaping crisis. Robin Deterding, MD, professor of pediatrics and head, Section of Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine at CU School of Medicine and director of the Breathing Institute at Children's Hospital Colorado, explains the impacts she's seen on patients.

“These results support ravulizumab as a long-term treatment for people with [atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome] aHUS,” Bradley P. Dixon, professor of pediatrics and medicine and head of the renal section of the department of pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, and colleagues wrote in Kidney Medicine.

Satish K. Garg, professor of medicine and pediatrics at the Barbara Davis Center for Diabetes, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, said the findings revealed how CGM can benefit all adults with type 2 diabetes.

The identification of these two populations of neurons is the paper’s key contribution, says Allison Shapiro, a specialist in neurodevelopment at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora who was not involved in the research. It fits in with the anecdotal idea that there are two types of fullness: one that is anticipatory and another that arises in response to eating. “Based on what they’ve found, it appears that this specific region of the hypothalamus is responsible for both, which is pretty cool.”

Melanie Cree, [associate professor of pediatrics at University of Colorado School of Medicine and] a pediatric endocrinologist [and director, Multi-Disciplinary PCOS Clinic] at Children’s Hospital Colorado, is one physician looking into this question. Working with her colleagues, she conducted a randomized trial testing semaglutide, the ingredient in Novo Nordisk’s Rybelsus and Wegovy, in women and adolescents with polycystic ovary syndrome, or PCOS.

Our team makes innovative research a top priority every day. Now, the Colorado Child Health Research Institute has created a campus-wide research partnership that enables more than 500 physician scientists, PhDs, nurse scientists and other investigators to collaborate across disciplines to make research discoveries that will have a broad impact on human health from childhood to adulthood.

Dedicated to finding innovative ways to improve healthcare processes and transform safety standards, Becker's Hospital Review honored the best patient safety experts to know in 2024. Lalit Bajaj, MD, Chief Quality Officer, was recognized for his work at Children's Colorado

After 2-year-old Willow's parents got the call from Melanie Everitt, MD, Director of Pediatric Heart Transplant, about her options for a heart transplant, they were on a plane moving their family of eight to Colorado within weeks. Despite Willow's ultra rare condition, Everitt thought she would be a good fit for a heart transplant, unlike any other expert the family spoke to.

“These results suggest that CGM can play a crucial role in enhancing health outcomes for all diabetes patients, regardless of their treatment regimen,” lead study author Satish Garg, professor [and Satish K. Gang and Simla Garg Barbara Davis Center Young Adult Clinic Endowed Chair] and founder of the Barbara Davis Center for Diabetes at the University of Colorado, said in a press release.

“Aplastic anemia is a rare diagnosis,” said Taizo Nakano, Pediatric Hematologist at Children’s [and associate professor of pediatrics and Taru Hays, MD Endowed Chair in Pediatric Hematology at CU School of Medicine].
 
Eventually, Laura McLaughlin [assistant professor of pediatrics at CU School of Medicine] enlisted Aubrie’s grandmother to help out. She was a match with Aubrie and was able to participate in a clinical trial that pulled immune cells from her and placed them in Aubrie.

The fact that girls battle hormonal and insulin-related conditions like PCOS, which the medications are proving to be able to treat, is one reason they are being prescribed more, according to Melanie Cree, Sophia’s doctor, [associate professor of pediatrics at CU School of Medicine,] and a pediatric endocrinologist [and director, Multi-Disciplinary PCOS Clinic] at Children’s Hospital Colorado.

At the 84th American Diabetes Association Scientific Sessions, Halis Akturk, associate professor of medicine and pediatrics at the Barbara Davis Center for Diabetes at the University of Colorado, led a session titled “The Highs and Lows of Cannabis Use in Diabetes—Behavioral and Psychosocial Considerations.”

“Medical advances happen faster here because we’ve broken down silos and embraced an intentional culture of multi-disciplinary collaboration and teamwork, which enables discovery to thrive,” said Ronald J. Sokol, [distinguished professor of pediatrics, director, Colorado Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute and assistant vice chancellor for clinical and translational science at CU School of Medicine and] inaugural chief scientific officer of the Institute and the Bruce and Bev Wagner Family Endowed Chair for Child Health Research, in a statement.

Maya Bunik, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and chair of the section on breastfeeding for the American Academy of Pediatrics, worries that parents may be too quick to opt for surgery, and thinks the procedure may be overused — understandable, she adds, because “everybody wants to do whatever they can for their babies, and breastfeeding is a challenging part of babyhood.”

GEN’s Sarah Tilyou spoke with senior author Glenn T. Furuta, a professor of pediatrics [, The Arnold Silverman, MD Endowed Chair in Digestive Health and head, Section of Gastroenterology and Hepatology] at University of Colorado School of Medicine and the section chief of pediatric gastroenterology at Children’s Hospital Colorado, in Aurora, about the guideline and its implications for GI practice.

Experts in gastroenterology, hepatology and nutrition have released new guidelines on childhood eosinophilic gastrointestinal disorders. Glenn Furuta, MD, Director of the Gastrointestinal Eosinophilic Diseases Program, explains more about what prompted the update and why it's important for treating kids.

Only Melanie Everitt, a pediatric cardiologist and director of the Children’s Colorado heart transplant program [and professor of pediatrics at CU School of Medicine], said yes. Everitt agreed with Willow’s parents — the operation on the child’s valves wasn’t the best option. There was a good chance she would put Willow on the transplant list, pending more tests in Colorado.

An early sign that a child might develop an allergy is if they have eczema, also known as atopic dermatitis, which is a condition that causes a person’s skin to be dry and itchy. In research published in March 2024 and led by Donald Leung at National Jewish Health [and professor of pediatrics at CU School of Medicine], doctors used a special piece of tape to retrieve a skin sample from 2-month-old babies.

Led by Teri Schreiner, an associate professor of pediatrics-neurology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, the observed PK/PD profile of ocrelizumab in this pediatric population was similar to that seen in adults. In addition, no new T1-gadolinium-enhancing lesions were reported at week 12.

“It’s pervasive,” said Robin Deterding, a pediatric pulmonologist and medical director of the Breathing Institute at Children’s Hospital Colorado [and professor of pediatrics at CU School of Medicine]. “All teenagers know people who vape and use nicotine.”

With these new findings, “pediatricians can feel confident that identification of elevated BMI (≥95th percentile) continues to be an effective way to screen for increased adiposity,” Jaime Moore [assistant professor of pediatrics], and Stephen Daniels [professor and chair, Department of Pediatrics and Pediatrician-in-Chief], both of Children’s Hospital Colorado and the University of Colorado in Aurora, wrote in a commentary accompanying the study.

Ihuoma Eneli, visiting professor of pediatrics [and head, Section of Nutrition] at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, called the study carefully done and much needed, given the controversies surrounding BMI as the core measure to define obesity. “We need to take criticisms seriously and see it as an opportunity to test and retest our assumptions, as this paper has done,” she told STAT via email.

New research at the University of Colorado could point the way to changing how, and when, doctors screen for Alzheimer’s. Allison Shapiro, assistant professor of Pediatric Endocrinology at CU’s Anschutz Medical Campus, led a study that looked for biomarkers that are typically found in older adults with Alzheimer’s, in young people with diabetes – specifically people in their teens and twenties.

"How this drug works is that it binds to the t-cell and causes it to go and get re-educated. Instead of being activated and wanting to kill the cells that make insulin, it basically becomes tired and isn't responsive to the beta cells," explained Dr. Kimber Simmons, Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the Barbara Davis Center within the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

“About 67% of people with type 1 diabetes have overweight or obesity. Thus, they have some insulin resistance, and they get all of the problems that you get with type 2 diabetes,” Satish K. Garg, professor of medicine and pediatrics at the Barbara Davis Center for Diabetes, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, told Healio. “[Tirzepatide is prescribed to] help them lose weight.”

Much of Isaiah’s ability to be this active was aided by an at-home telemedicine program called Heart Chargers, created by Children’s Hospital Colorado doctor [and associate professor, Section of Cardiology at University of Colorado] Roni Jacobsen.

Dr. Melanie Cree, a pediatric endocrinologist [and director of the Multi-Disciplinary PCOS clinic] at Children’s Hospital Colorado [and associate professor at University of Colorado School of Medicine] who has been working with this class of medication in clinical trials with children for almost a decade, says the drugs have been a game-changer not just to help kids lose weight and lower blood sugar, but also to lower liver fat and improve cardiac and kidney function – “all of those conditions that go with type 2 diabetes.”

Heather De Keyser, MD '10 (associate professor, Section of Pulmonary Medicine), gives tips on how to keep your kids with asthma safe this summer in this episode of Health Watch from CBS News Colorado.

Clayman's doctor, Dr. Edward Hoffenberg, [professor, Section of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition at University of Colorado and] co-director of the IBD Center at of Children's Hospital Colorado in Aurora... says IBD cases like Clayman's are higher In young children than ever before, something that he says is concerning.

“There is nothing about this study that alarms me or would make me recommend that pregnant women stop drinking tap water,” said Patricia Braun, MD '90, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and a spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics.

“What’s new is that the AAP for the first time is explicitly saying that pregnant people with HIV who are on treatment and undetectable can be supported to breastfeed,” said Dr. Lisa Abuogi [associate professor, Section of Infectious Diseases and Epidemiology], lead author of the report and a pediatrician in Colorado who works with people with HIV during their pregnancies.

It recognizes that routinely prescribed drugs can reduce the risk of transmitting HIV via breast milk to less than 1%, said Lisa Abuogi, a pediatric HIV expert (and associate professor) at the University of Colorado and lead author of the report. “The medications are so good now and the benefits for mom and baby are so important that we are at a point where it is important to engage in shared decision-making,” Abuogi said.

In this physician profile, we spoke with Edwin Liu, MD, a [professor and] pediatric gastroenterologist and director of the Colorado Center for Celiac Disease at Children’s Hospital Colorado. Dr Liu also serves as Taplin Endowed Chair for Celiac Disease and is a founding member of the Society for the Study of Celiac Disease and board member for the International Society for the Study of Celiac Disease.

An asthma medication that thousands of people rely upon, including children, hasn’t been available in pharmacies across Colorado since the beginning of the year. Now, doctors at Children’s Hospital Colorado are beginning to see the impacts from its loss. “They discontinued Flovent,” said Monica Federico, the medical director of the Asthma Program at Children’s Colorado [and associate professor of pediatrics at CU School of Medicine].

The dedication of our participants and the follow-up and completion of surveys, despite occurring during the pandemic, allowed for a very comprehensive study," said Marisa Stahl, MD, [assistant professor,] gastroenterologist at Children's Colorado and primary author of the study.

“We have a handful of things we know work,” O’Leary said, “but there’s always room for more.” In the videos, O’Leary, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and chair of the AAP’s Committee on Infectious Diseases, explains how “boot camp translation” helped the researchers leverage the participation of clinical and nonclinical staff, parents and teens at six pediatric practices in three Colorado counties to increase their HPV vaccination rates.

“We are about to enter into a different world of healthcare because of the obesity epidemic in young people,” Allison Shapiro, PhD, assistant professor of pediatrics and endocrinology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora, said in a news release.

It was a school day afternoon when Blaise learned his diagnosis. He came to find out that his parents had received a call from the doctor that day. Soon after, the family had a telehealth appointment with Teri Schreiner, a pediatric neurologist who specializes in neuroimmunology [associate professor of pediatrics at CU School of Medicine] and the study’s lead pediatric researcher.

GLP-1 agonists improve insulin resistance and lead to weight loss, so it makes sense that they also improve PCOS symptoms, added Melanie Cree, director of the multidisciplinary PCOS Clinic at Children’s Hospital Colorado. “It is completely being used now with no evidence because the [obstetrics] field knows that if you have 5% weight loss in these individuals with PCOS, you will improve fertility,” she said.

"We are now seeing the trickle-down effect of patients not being able to manage their asthma day-to-day," said Monica Federico, MD, pulmonologist at Children's Colorado [and associate professor of pediatrics at CU School of Medicine].

"We were given limited notice on the production changes and insurance coverage for these inhalers which so many children use," said Catherine Clark, PCNS-BC, nurse specialist at the Children's Colorado Health Pavilion [and instructor, Section of General Academic Pediatrics, CU School of Medicine].

“The neighborhoods right around our hospital definitely are disproportionately impacted by these social determinants. We see many children with more severe asthma coming from those neighborhoods. Children are not impacted equally across our city, and so it’s important to figure out what is driving that,” said Emily Skeen, pediatric pulmonologist with Children’s Hospital Colorado and fellow at University of Colorado School of Medicine, in a press release.

“I think so often our birthing individuals with substance use disorders were often treated disrespectfully and noncentral to the care of their own infants after birth,” said Sunah Hwang, who founded CHoSEN and is a neonatologist at Children’s Hospital Colorado [and associate professor of pediatrics at CU School of Medicine]. “I think what ‘eat, sleep, console’ and CHoSEN QIC [the group’s quality improvement collaborative] really did was change the paradigm in terms of what is the role of the birthing individual in that birth hospital care of the baby.”

According to [Bill] Anderson, who's also a[n associate] professor of pediatric allergy and immunology at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus, climate change has slowly extended allergy season over time. “What we're seeing is that because of these warmer temperatures, the allergy season is starting earlier each year and lasting a little bit longer,” he says.

Providers recognize it can be easier said than done for teenagers to get all of the necessary nutrients they need through diet alone. Rochelle Cason-Wilkerson, MD, nutritionist, provides important information on how teens' needs change as they develop and how to incorporate vitamins into their diet.

Aline Maddux, associate professor of pediatrics [Section of Critical Care Medicine] in the pediatrics intensive care unit, is a part of Cartier’s medical team. “His heart stopped beating. We tried to revive it, and there was fear that he might not survive this,” Maddux said.

“When determining if a patient needs a daily controller medication, such as inhaled corticosteroids, it is important to classify the severity of a patient’s asthma,” says William Anderson of Children’s Hospital Colorado….Anderson, an associate professor of pediatric allergy at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, says this helps in determining whether they need a daily controller therapy.

In a retrospective chart review, IV ketamine led to in a 50% reduction in pain at discharge, with “nearly two-thirds” of patients having no recurrence within 30 days, lead investigator Scott Rosenthal, [instructor/fellow of pediatrics, Section of Neurology] from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, noted. Rosenthal reported the findings (Abstract S20.010) on April 15 at the American Academy of Neurology 2024 annual meeting.

When the task force began its meta-analysis to find the new pediatric sepsis criteria, the team “wanted to understand the settings where this work was done,” explained Halden Scott, an associate professor of pediatrics at Children’s Hospital of Colorado, University of Colorado, School of Medicine, in Aurora, and a task force member. “We looked at whether the countries were classified as lower income, lower middle income, upper middle income or high income following the World Bank classification system.”

Due to structural racism, Black and Latin populations have been exposed to more particulate air pollution, Stephanie Johannes, an allergy and immunology fellow at Children’s Hospital Colorado, said during her presentation.

“The ‘oops’ babies on Ozempic and Wegovy are happening all over the place,” Melanie Cree-Green, [associate professor of pediatrics, Section of Endocrinology and] director of the polycystic ovary syndrome clinic at Children’s Hospital Colorado in Aurora, told the news outlet. “It’s very exciting, but it's a bit scary because we’re moving forward without all the data.”

Three sleep experts – a neurology physician with expertise in pediatrics, a psychologist [Terry Katz, PhD, senior instructor, Section of Developmental Pediatrics] and a pediatric nurse practitioner – who are working together to help neurodiverse kids, including those on the autism spectrum, get better sleep.

[Chief Medical Officers David Brumbaugh, MD, associate professor, Section of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition and Michael DiStefano, MD, associate professor, Section of Emergency Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, CU School of Medicine] highlighted by this list champion patient safety, uphold rigorous quality standards, act as liaisons between leadership teams and medical staff, manage risk, and much more. These CMOs are drivers of continuous improvement, and their efforts have helped garner numerous quality and safety accolades for their respective organizations.

David M. Higgins, a pediatrician at the University of Colorado and Children’s Hospital Colorado, sees patients and also conducts research — but “not the type of research that’s done in the laboratory with beakers and things like that,” as he puts it. Rather, his focus is on health services research, including the study of vaccine delivery, public access to vaccines, and vaccine hesitancy.

“As of July 29, 2023, Vaccine Safety Datalink surveillance found just 16.2% of pregnant people aged 18 to 49 years had received a COVID-19 booster vaccine, with only 8.3% of Black pregnant people and 9.6% of Latino pregnant people vaccinated during pregnancy,” Joshua T. B. Williams, assistant professor in the department of pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and Ambulatory Care Services at Denver Health and Hospitals, and colleagues wrote.

Dr. Jaime Moore (assistant professor, Section of Nutrition, CU School of Medicine) with Children's Hospital Colorado disagreed.

"The heart attacks, stroke, kidney failure and dialysis, amputations, infections, these things that really represent significant cost savings especially if we intervene earlier. For adolescent girls who develop Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, PCOS is strongly linked to obesity and is the number one cause of infertility in the world. We would be preventing the cost of invitro fertilization."

“Since it’s common for there to be long delays before diagnosis of CNO, it is important to start an effective treatment promptly,” Katherine D. Nowicki, of Children’s Hospital Colorado, [and assistant professor of pediatrics at CU School of Medicine] Aurora, Colorado, told attendees. “While we have guidance on which treatments to use, it remains unclear which patients are most likely to respond to NSAIDs and which patients will require a second-line treatment.”

Caregivers want to make well-educated decisions when it comes to their kids, which can sometimes lead to concerns when it comes to vaccination. Sean O' Leary, MD, infectious disease specialist [and professor of pediatrics at University of Colorado School of Medicine], breaks down some ways you can respond to common vaccine concerns.

These results indicate a favorable safety and tolerability profile with potential for use over multiple years of treatment, David M. Fleischer, associate professor of pediatrics [and head, Section of Allergy and Immunology at CU School of Medicine], Children’s Hospital Colorado, and colleagues wrote. “The only current options for peanut immunotherapy are oral immunotherapy and now omalizumab,” Fleischer told Healio.

“It’s almost impossible to avoid reactions and live in the real world,” said BJ Lanser, a pediatric allergy specialist at National Jewish Health in Denver [and associate professor of pediatrics at CU School of Medicine]. “That peace of mind and knowledge of the protection that is there is obviously of significant benefit to many.”

Most providers working in birthing facilities don’t know that the law changed, though, and they may still report families based solely on a drug test, said Christine Gold, a pediatric hospitalist at University of Colorado Hospital [and associate professor of pediatrics at CU School of Medicine].

“Heart block is an interruption in the flow of electricity through the heart,” said Dr. Dustin Nash, a cardiologist [and assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine]. “The upper chamber of the heart is usually in charge of how fast the heart beats. It looks like there was a blockage of that signal.”

“Just finding an association with gut bacteria composition does not mean it will have impacts on health,” said Noel Mueller, a visiting associate professor, [Section of Nutrition] in the department of pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and department of epidemiology at the Colorado School of Public Health in Aurora. “The next step is to home in on these species and see whether or not they have links with cardiovascular and inflammatory diseases that have been linked to socioeconomic disadvantage.”

Adequate sleep is a bedrock of a child’s physical and mental health, said Jill Kaar, an associate professor of pediatrics [and director of Research Outcomes in Children's Surgery] at the University of Colorado's Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, Colorado. “Everything starts with sleep,” said Kaar, a maternal and child health epidemiologist.

The product is also a reality check for researchers in high-income countries, says Terry Fry, an immunologist and paediatric oncologist [and director of the Gates Institute] at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Denver, who has advised the researchers involved in setting up ImmunoACT. “It lights a little fire under all of us to look at the cost of making CAR-T cells, even in places like the United States.”

“It’s a pretty miserable disease,” said Sean O’Leary, a professor of pediatric infectious diseases specialist [and director, Colorado Children's Outcomes Network] at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

Ultrasound already is showing evidence of the benefits of current treatment approaches for pediatric EoE, including dietary changes or swallowed topical corticosteroids such as budesonide or fluticasone, said Calies Menard-Katcher, MD, a pediatric gastroenterologist at Children’s Hospital Colorado, in Aurora, who was not involved in the study. “They showed that wall thickness decreased once kids went into remission,” she said. “This provides evidence for structural improvements with treatment in the pediatric population.”

With her rheumatoid arthritis (RA) Research Program award, Dr. Elena Hsieh (associate professor of pediatrics, Section of Allergy and Immunology) will focus on the immunological determinants that drive the conversion from “at risk” rheumatoid arthritis to symptomatic RA.

Acute respiratory tract illnesses represent one of the most common reasons for being evaluated in an acute care setting, especially in pediatrics, and these visits have traditionally resulted in excessive antibiotic prescribing, despite the etiology of the infection mostly being viral,” said Suchitra Rao, associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and associate medical director of infection prevention and control at Children’s Hospital Colorado, Aurora, Colorado. 

A study at University of Colorado’s Gates Institute on the Anschutz Medical Campus is looking at CAR-T in adult patients with acute lymphocytic leukemia, a cancer of the blood and bone marrow, whose first round of chemotherapy either failed or gave a disappointing response that suggests it won’t work for long, executive director Terry Fry, MD, said.

Crystal has had ventricular septal defect, a hole in her heart, since birth. The diagnosis brought her family to Children's Colorado to await a lifesaving heart transplant. “It was so critical that we got a heart as soon as we could for her that was compatible for her body," said Melanie Everitt, MD, Director of Pediatric Heart Transplant (and professor of pediatrics, Section of Cardiology). A year later, Crystal received her heart and is now back home.

Millions worldwide live with type 1 diabetes, and for most the diagnosis came as a shock, following mysterious symptoms such as thirst and weight loss. But diabetes specialists have long known that certain blood tests can foretell the disease years earlier. That has left the field wrestling with a difficult question: Should healthy children get these blood tests, and would knowing about incipient diabetes help them?

One project, in Germany, screened tens of thousands of children and tracked those who tested positive. It found that among 118 who progressed to full-blown diabetes, the rate of DKA was just 2.5%.

Many experts agree the once popular “cry it out” method is not ideal for helping an infant get to sleep. “It’s generally not a method we use or recommend with families,” said Katherine Wesley, a pediatric sleep psychologist with Children’s Hospital Colorado [and assistant professor of pediatrics at CU School of Medicine]. Wesley recommends responding quickly to an infant’s cry until they are at least six months old.

Pediatrician Stephen Daniels, of University of Colorado School of Medicine and Children’s Hospital Colorado, said that an amblyopia-cardiometabolic link would be “hard to explain from a mechanism standpoint.” He suggested that a “third factor (perhaps the intrauterine environment) influences both outcomes (amblyopia and cardiometabolic dysfunction), but this would be very speculative,” he told MedPage Today in an email.

“It’s basically really good news,” said Sean O’Leary, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and a pediatric infectious diseases specialist at Children’s Hospital Colorado. “In some clinical trials we see some level of effectiveness … but then when it’s rolled out in the real world, for any number of potential reasons, things don’t work out as well as they had in the clinical trials.”

According to Dr. Aaina Kochhar (assistant professor of pediatrics, Section of Genetics and Metabolism, University of Colorado School of Medicine) with Children's Hospital Colorado, PPA2 does not have a cure, but once diagnosed, it is more easy to manage.

David Higgins, MD, MPH, MS (instructor/research fellow, Section of General Academic Pediatrics): I am a pediatrician and preventive medicine physician, and I have anxiously watched measles cases rise worldwide while vaccination rates have dropped since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic due to disruptions in vaccine access and the spread of vaccine misinformation.

“Years ago, we thought these hearts were fragile and needed sheltering,” said Dr. Diana Tsen, a pediatric cardiologist with Children’s Hospital Colorado who cares for patients at UCHealth Pediatric Heart and Vascular Clinic in Steamboat Springs. “But now, we encourage those with congenital heart defects not to live in a bubble. We want them to lead normal lives, enjoy sports and grow into healthy adults.”

"The biggest takeaway from the long-term study of Viaskin for the treatment of peanut allergy is the continued data that show the high safety profile of the treatment, making it an attractive future treatment option for patients, families, and clinicians," David M. Fleischer, MD, director, Allergy and Immunology Center, Children's Hospital Colorado, and study author told Contemporary Pediatrics.

When the task force began its meta-analysis to find the new pediatric sepsis criteria, the team “wanted to understand the settings where this work was done,” explained Halden Scott, MD, MSCS, an associate professor of pediatrics at Children’s Hospital of Colorado, University of Colorado, School of Medicine, in Aurora, and a task force member. “We looked at whether the countries were classified as lower income, lower middle income, upper middle income or high income following the World Bank classification system.”

Diagnostic stewardship, along with targeted prevention efforts and a testing and treatment clinical care pathway, reduced hospital-onset cases of Clostridioides difficile by more than 50% in a children’s hospital, researchers reported. 

Source: Cotter JM, et al. Pediatrics. 2024;doi:10.1542/peds.2023-061981.

“Ear infections are by far the most common reason that children in the U.S. are prescribed antibiotics,” Holly M. Frost, senior director of the Center for Health Systems Research at Denver Health [and associate professor of pediatrics at CU School of Medicine], told Healio. “By the time a child is 5 years old, 80% of them will have had at least one ear infection, and a quarter of them will have had three or more.”

For Shelley Miyamoto, MD, there were two reasons to become a cardiologist: The mentors she encountered during residency who inspired her and the physiology of the heart.

Kevin Messacar, a pediatric infectious diseases expert at Children’s Hospital Colorado and another co-author of the January 2022 commentary, agrees. "The decoupling of AFM and the potential of AFM returning with an EV-D68 spike, I don't think anyone can predict at this point," Messacar told Ars. Instead of trying to predict, he said, it's better to prepare.

“She didn’t think she could get the help to ever feel better and get the care she needed,” said Talynn’s mom, Elise. “But Dr. Sweeney [assistant clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine]  and her gymnastics clinic changed all of that.”

Children’s Hospital Colorado is announcing its recent acceptance into the Pediatric Heart Network, a collective of leading hospitals working to improve outcomes and quality of life for children – and more recently adults – with heart disease. The hospital’s Heart Institute will become one of nine clinical research centers across North America selected to be a part of this national network.

The first author of the study was Suchitra Rao, MD, University of Colorado School of Medicine and Colorado Children's Hospital. Their findings have so far uncovered a few clues to long COVID risk. For instance, about 45% of the children who developed long COVID experienced COVID-19 symptoms rather than symptomless infections (15%). Other factors include older age, more severe initial COVID-19 infection, the number of different organ systems initially affected, underlying medical conditions and higher weight.

The new review suggested that 10 to 20 percent of children in the United States who had Covid developed long Covid. However, Suchitra Rao, a pediatric infectious disease expert at Children’s Hospital Colorado [and associate professor of pediatrics at CU School of Medicine] and co-author on the paper, acknowledged that there are “lots of caveats” with the prevalence estimates used to arrive at that number.

Nearly two dozen cardiology leaders across the nation are making career moves, including at Children's Colorado. Shelley Miyamoto, MD is now the Jack Cooper Millisor Chair of Pediatric Cardiology and co-director of the Heart Institute.

“Over the past 10 to 15 years, the outcomes of IBD have changed a bit and with those have come some increasing costs of care,” Brad David Constant, assistant professor of pediatric gastroenterology at [CU School of Medicine and] Children’s Hospital Colorado, said at the Crohn’s & Colitis Congress. “These costs of care have been met by the payers and insurance companies to try and make sure that we are not having unnecessary costs in utilization of these medications.”

Steven Federico, a pediatrician and chief of government and community affairs at Denver Health [and associate professor of pediatrics at CU School of Medicine], said the hospital has reached out to state and federal agencies for help. “I think it’s been an unheeded call so far in terms of who’s going to be responsible for the health care of this population,” Federico told NBC News. “In the meantime, it falls on safety net hospitals like Denver Health.”

Another pediatrician getting ready to work the late shift in the emergency room, Kristi Rodrigues, [associate professor of pediatrics at CU School of Medicine] said she worries about what care migrants will be able to access once they leave the ER. The hospital is required to cover anyone who comes in for emergency care, regardless of their immigration status or ability to pay, but Rodrigues worries that patients won’t be able to have checkups or get medication for illnesses that are sometimes life-threatening.

“This is an exciting time for sickle cell … and this has radically changed our conversations that we have with patients,” said Chris McKinney, a hematologist at Children’s Hospital Colorado in Aurora who specializes in caring for patients with the disease. “We’re very relieved to be able to have additional options for our patients who have struggled for a long, long time with very few good options for over 30 years.”

Barry H. Rumack, MD, professor emeritus of emergency medicine and pediatrics, received the Prince Mahidol Award for 2023 in a ceremony in Bangkok, Thailand, last month. Each year, two Prince Mahidol Awards are given to individuals or institutes who have demonstrated outstanding and exemplary contributions to advancing the world's medical and public health services. Barry was recognized in the public health category for his work on an antidote to paracetamol toxicity, which results in liver failure, and for pioneering the use of Poisindex as a poison information database.

Co-author Professor David Olds of the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, said, "The women in this study were facing profound adversities. The trial showed that the relatively small investment for these nurse visits can lead to big changes because the benefits are the most pronounced where the needs are the greatest."