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Pediatrics Flyer

The official newsletter of the Department of Pediatrics
February 2020 | Issue 6
SPOTLIGHT
Josh Bonkowsky, MD

Dr. Josh Bonkowsky is the chief of Pediatric Neurology and the director of the newly established Primary Children’s Center for Personalized Medicine. His undergraduate training was at Harvard University; he obtained his MD and PhD degrees at the University of California, San Diego, and did his Pediatrics and Neurology/Pediatric Neurology training at the University of Utah and Boston Children's Hospital.

Dr. Bonkowsky is engaged in both clinical and basic science studies. His clinical studies are focused on understanding the clinical features of leukodystrophies, and on the genetics of complex human neurobehavioral traits, especially language impairments. Dr. Bonkowsky's clinical research group is investigating the genetics of leukodystrophies, using both local (Utah Population Database) and national databases, to understand the genetic and medical impacts of these disorders.

Research in the Bonkowsky laboratory investigates human neurogenetic diseases, specifically diseases of basal ganglia function and white matter diseases. His group has developed zebrafish models of human language disorders (the FOXP2 gene); transgenic lines to study basal ganglia development connectivity; and a zebrafish Parkinson's disease model. In addition to basic neurodevelopmental research, his lab is generating disease models for high-throughput drug discovery.

Center for Personalized Medicine

The Primary Children’s Center for Personalized Medicine (PCCPM) is a new collaborative effort of the Department of Pediatrics and Primary Children’s Hospital. Officially launched in November 2019, the overall goal is to bring next-generation care to children today, using advanced technologies to understand a child’s unique genetic makeup and offer tailored treatments.

The PCCPM has three major areas of focus:

1. Precision Diagnosis
Major initiatives in precision diagnosis include:
  • The use of clinical rapid whole genome sequencing (rWGS). rWGS is now available, with genetic counseling, and is intended for critically ill children where a genetic diagnosis is vital (contact Josh, Sabrina Malone-Jenkins, or Rachel Palmquist). Close collaboration with the Genetics consult service has helped to make rWGS of immediate help for infants and children including in the NICU, PICU, and CICU. In addition to rWGS at Primary’s, in February 2020 rWGS will also launch at the NICU at the University of Utah Hospital.
  • Expansion of epilepsy genetic testing.
  • Development of a genetic and genomic result and sequence database for all clinical testing from Primary’s. The database will be for immediate clinical use as well as a resource for future research studies.

2. Gene Therapies and Novel Therapeutics
Major initiatives include:
  • Primary Children’s is one of only six hospitals nationwide to provide clinical gene therapy for spinal muscular atrophy, one of the most common childhood genetic conditions.
  • Clinical trials and bench work for new gene therapy and small molecule trials are underway.

3. Stem Cell, Immunologic and Regenerative Medicine
Major efforts include:
  • Clinical trials testing the use of stem cells in repairing diseased hearts and other tissues.
  • Research aimed at developing immunotherapy as a tool to fight pediatric brain tumors.

In addition to the efforts above, in early 2020 the Center will announce and launch a major, transformative effort in use and availability of whole genome sequencing for pediatric patients through a collaboration with Intermountain Precision Genomics.
DEPARTMENT CHAIR'S SUGGESTION BOX
Dr. Giardino wants to hear from you!
 
If you have any ideas or concerns you'd like to share with Dr. Giardino, please submit your comments to his suggestion box. The link can be found on the department intranet home page, or click the box below. 
GREETINGS & FAREWELLS
Welcome to the Team!
To see the new faculty and staff who joined us in January, click here .
Thanks for the Memories!
Hassan Yaish, MD - Hematology/Oncology
Dr. Hassan Yaish joined the Division of Pediatric Hematology Oncology at the University of Utah in 2003. He received his MD from Damascus University and completed his fellowship training at William Beaumont Hospital Medical Center in Royal Oak, Michigan and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA. He served as Chair of Pediatrics at King Fahad National Guard Hospital and Division Head of Pediatric Hematology Oncology at Henry Ford Hospital. Hassan has been the Medical Director of Intermountain Hemophilia and Thrombosis Treatment Center at PCH for the past 15 years. Hassan is an internationally recognized expert in bleeding disorders. He has authored over 50 peer reviewed publications, multiple book chapters and review articles, and given multiple national and international presentations and has been PI of multiple clinical trials and grants. Hassan's passion for teaching benign and malignant hematology is well known. His clinical opinion is highly valued and sought by students, residents and faculty. He gladly reviewed peripheral blood smears with anyone and would provide his unique insight and diagnosis. Dr Yaish’s fund of knowledge and insight of hematologic morphology is unmatched and is why his opinion was so highly sought and valued. He has been an outstanding educator and was inspired by those wanting to learn from him. Dr. Yaish will be missed by everyone. His jovial personality, amazing fund of knowledge, and passion for providing exceptional care to patients made him an exceptional mentor, teacher and role model. 
Octavia Haines – Project Coordinator for General Pediatrics
Octavia “Tay” Haines joined the staff of the Medical Home Portal six and half years ago, and has been a tireless advocate of good information for families of and children with special health care needs since that time. She cared deeply about getting things right, whether it was information about local service providers in the Medical Home Portal’s Utah Services Directory, or summarizing notes from the monthly Utah Children’s Care Coordination Network meetings she helped facilitate.  Tay’s background is in art and dance. She attended Stanford as an undergrad and majored in Fine Art. Before joining the Portal team, Tay worked in many nonprofit roles, including the Utah Arts Council. She looked for, and found, beauty in every situation.  We are so happy that she can continue appreciating beauty full time in her retirement.  Best wishes, Tay!
Gary Schoenwolf, PhD - Neurobiology & Anatomy, Adjunct Professor of Pediatrics
Gary Schoenwolf, PhD, helped develop and establish the Department of Pediatrics Grant Writing Workshop that’s been held spring and fall for over twenty years. Upon its initial creation, Dr. Schoenwolf worked closely with new and seasoned investigators as they developed their research aims and grant proposals. He has also mentored many Pediatric faculty over his career and was a mentor on the CHRCDA K12 Award. In 2009, the Gary Schoenwolf Mentoring Award was established in his honor. This award will continue to be made annually in the years to come to Department of Pediatrics faculty.
NEW RESPONSIBILITIES
Leila Callaway, RN - Transferred from Clinical Enterprise as a Medical Assistant to Gastroenterology as a Clinical Nurse

Joshua Cameron - Transferred from the Clinical Trials Office as a Study Coordinator to Clinical Enterprise as an Information Analyst

Carissa Gossard – Transitioned from a Customer Advocate Specialist to a Skills Trainer for Clinical Enterprise

David Regan Jackson - Transitioned from a Clinical Study Assistant to a Study Coordinator for the Clinical Trials Office

Athena Parker – Transitioned from a Practice & Patient Care Coordinator to a Marketing/Communications Specialist for General Pediatrics

Tiffany Passow - Transferred from Clinical Enterprise as a Triage Quality Analyst to the Education Enterprise as an Administrative Assistant

Stephanie Schrecengost - Transitioned from a Quality Analyst to an Information Analyst for Clinical Enterprise

Cameron Tear – Transitioned from a Study Coordinator to a Clinical Research Coordinator for the Clinical Trials Office

Cheyne Trammell – Transferred from Clinical Enterprise as an Outpatient Services Specialist to Cardiology as an Administrative Assistant

Hina Yazdani - Transitioned from a Study Coordinator to Clinical Research Coordinator for the Clinical Trials Office
ANNOUNCEMENTS
UCEER Funding Available

The Utah Center for Excellence for Ethical, Legal and Social Issues in Human Genetics (UCEER) (Jeff Botkin - PI) received an outstanding impact score of 15 from the NIH for its renewal application. The UCEER will receive an additional four years of funding from 2020 to 2024. To date, the UCEER has supported 17 faculty members and 35 students from 10 departments and six colleges at the University. The UCEER has research funds available for faculty and trainees and the center is eager to recruit additional collaborators in the Department of Pediatrics. Please contact Jeff Botkin for more information.

Early Career Development Funding Opportunity

Now accepting applications for the Intermountain Foundation at Primary Children’s Hospital Early Career Development Research Award. Preliminary applications are due on Friday, March 13 at 5:00 p.m. Detailed information and application materials can be found here. For further questions, email Heather Keenan .

IMPROVE 2020 Conference

Mark your calendars for May 18-22 for five days of transformative discussions and workshops that highlight the work being done to improve U of U Health. The conference will showcase improvement, leadership, and wellbeing. Activities include a symposium, poster fair, and various workshops. See details here.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Cystic Fibrosis Team

The Cystic Fibrosis team recently received additional grant funding from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CFF) and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC). They were accepted into the Cystic Fibrosis Learning Network (CFLN) which is under the stewardship and operational support of CFF and CCHMC. The main aims of the CFLN are to improve outcomes, advance process maturity, accelerate development and implementation of innovation and knowledge for improvement, and increase impact. Fadi Asfour, MD, MBBS, Associate Professor of Pediatrics (Pulmonology) acts as the physician leader and Anne Snuggerud, RN acts as the quality improvement leader. They work with a cystic fibrosis parent/family partner from the community and collaborate with various members of the network. The work is focused on implementing proven, evidence-based, and best practices as well as testing innovations that will result in improvement in key clinical and patient-reported outcomes.

Adam Ware, MD - Pediatric Cardiology

Dr. Adam Ware was named to be the co-director of the Quality Improvement group and a member of the executive committee of the Pediatric Acute Care Cardiology Collaborative (PAC3). PAC3 is a collection of over 30 children’s hospitals throughout the United States and Canada that are working to improve the inpatient care of children with heart disease. As the director of the QI committee he will oversee the quality improvement collaborations between PAC3 institutions. The most recent collaboration of the group focused on chest tube duration in children following cardiac surgery which resulted in a 22% decrease in chest tube duration and a 13% decrease in hospital length of stay across the participating sites.  

SCHOLARLY ACTIVITY
Division of Infectious Diseases Publications

Infectious Diseases was quite prolific in their publishing endeavors last year. Click here for a list of 2019 publications with links to the articles.

Recognize Someone for a Job Well Done!
The department has a new online tool you can use to show appreciation for other members of Pediatrics and recognize them for exemplifying the PROMISE behavior standards: People Centered, Respect, Ownership, Making a Difference, Innovation, Safety, and Excellence.

Recognitions will be published in an upcoming issue of the newsletter. Please note: if a submitter's name is not given, we will not publish the comment.  However, the submitter's name will remain anonymous in the newsletter.
 
The link to the recognition form can be found on the department intranet home page, or click the box below.
This Month's Recognition

Leigh Fredericks Administration/Clinical Enterprise
Recognized for People Centered
" Leigh is always encouraging and supportive to her employees and coworkers. When you have a problem, work-related or not, she is always willing to listen with kindness and help you figure out how to solve the problem. She always boosts your confidence if you're feeling less capable and she is always there to 'go to bat' for you. We are ALL lucky to have her in our organization."

Mike Yocom Information Services
Recognized for Excellence
"Mike Yocom has always been so prompt with my requests regarding IT issues. He is awesome at following up and making sure things are working great so that I can do my job."

IN THE NEWS
Read the story of Jace Cowperthwaite and the role that Nikki Mihalopoulos, MD, MPH, Chief of the Division of Adolescent Medicine, and the University of Utah Transgender Health Program played in his transition.

Dr. Pavia advises that we use caution, not fear, in approaching coronavirus.

On January 21, 2020, Intermountain Healthcare officially announced that they will be opening a second Primary Children's Hospital location in Lehi, UT.
WELLNESS

One in four adults experiences mental illness each year and an estimated 18% of the US adult population have an anxiety disorder. And yet we’re loath to talk about mental health at work. Mental illness is a challenge, but it is not a weakness. Along with employee assistance programs, conversation and education are fundamental if our goal is to increase understanding and reduce the stigma around mental health. Not only does failure to acknowledge an employee’s mental health hurt productivity, professional relationships, and the bottom line ($17-$44 billion is lost to depression each year), r esearch has found that feeling authentic and open at work leads to better employee performance, engagement, and retention. Read the full Harvard Business Review article here.

PROMISE STANDARD OF THE MONTH
In order to advance our goal of being recognized as a world-class institution, University of Utah Health has developed behavior standards for employees to use to guide their actions and measure their performance. The behaviors that exemplify each of the standards directly relate to U of U Health's core values of compassion, trust, collaboration, responsibility, diversity, integrity, and quality. We highlight a standard each month to remind us of our individual responsibility to meet and uphold these benchmarks.
I is for Innovation

Regardless of one's position in the Department of Pediatrics, everyone has opportunities to be innovative. Whether it is to increase efficiency, make a change that will allow for the service of a greater population, or find a solution to a constant issue that arises on a day-to-day basis, innovation plays a role in growth and movement forward. Some ways to enhance innovation include asking questions to better understand why changes are important and what the benefits will be, expressing ideas with courage, approaching change with an open mind, taking the opportunity to find new solutions, and sharing information, ideas, expertise and concern. A well thought out idea plus implementation of that idea leads to innovation.
One example of innovation in the department:
The CF team utilizes a very sophisticated white board in their clinic to capture the dynamic multidisciplinary care offered to each patient. The board also captures imaging, labs or research studies that are simultaneously planned with the clinic visit. The CF team created custom-made magnets to visually communicate the type of visit, nutritional grade and name of provider seeing the patient. Using the magnets as a simple, visual communication has aided clinic flow and assisted with facilitating patient care. Anne Snuggerud, RN explains, "Since our clinic has up to 8 different specialties on a given day, the board helps us stay on track, prevent downtime, and not miss important tasks. Each provider just has to look at the board to know the plan. The board acts as a snapshot of the patient and a to-do list for the visit. The magnets give an instant picture of the kind of visit, needed labs/imaging, which provider will be seeing the patient, and the patient’s nutritional status.” 
Check out these resources:

Innovation doesn't have to be a big idea that changes the whole organization; in fact, most of the time it's not. This video by U of U Health discusses the everyday ways we can be innovative.

15 of the world’s leading innovation experts to give their definition of “innovation.” The variety in their responses may surprise you.

One key to innovation is the willingness to try something, refine what doesn't work, and then try again until you're successful. Tom Wujec presents some surprisingly deep research into the "marshmallow problem"--a simple team-building exercise that involves dry spaghetti, one yard of tape, and a marshmallow. Who can build the tallest tower with these ingredients? And why does a surprising group always beat the average?
Pediatrics Flyer committee members: Brandy Harman (Chair), Amy Amann, Pamela Carpenter, Leigh Fredericks, Melanie Gauci, Ashly Medlyn, and Colby Townsend