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News from Children's Memorial Hospital Research Center Expands In August, Children’s Memorial began work on a $24-million addition to the Children’s Research Center, the main laboratory of Children’s Memorial Institute for Education and Research. The 5-story addition to the Children’s Research Center will add 52,000 square feet of laboratory space to the existing 70,000 square-foot building. The institute’s laboratories are also located in the main hospital building and in the Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. Since the Children’s Research Center opened in 1995, Children’s Memorial has experienced tremendous growth in both its research and clinical enterprises. External funding for research at Children’s Memorial has almost tripled since the original laboratory opened in 1995, growing from $6.4 million in 1996 to $18 million in 2002. Almost two thirds of funding is from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other federal agencies. Children’s Memorial is ranked eighth nationally among all hospital-based pediatric research programs funded by the NIH. Children’s Memorial’s Falk Brain Tumor Center was the country’s only new institution to be accepted this year into the prestigious Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium. As a member, Children’s Memorial will be able to offer the newest brain tumor therapies available in the U.S. Through consortium-developed clinical research, patients will gain access to free brain tumor medication, while the hospital will get reimbursement from the National Cancer Institute. The Falk Brain Tumor Center was chosen for its high patient volume, multidisciplinary clinical expertise, and state-of-the-art treatments. Early Onset Seizure Programs This year, Children’s Memorial became one of the sites recruiting patients for a 5-year multi-institutional study to address a very important clinical question—Do early seizures associated with high fever cause brain damage and intractable epilepsy in some patients? The study also will investigate the impact viruses of the nervous system have on brain injury and complex seizures later in life. Doug Nordli, MD, Director of Epilepsy Center, and Leon Epstein, MD, Head of Neurology Division, will play key roles in this cutting-edge research, funded by the NIH. The neurology team also presented at the American Academy of Neurology the hospital’s successful implementation of “best practices” guidelines for managing children with unprovoked seizures at the recently established New Onset Seizure Clinic. Since the clinic’s inauguration, children brought to the emergency department for their first seizure are less likely to be held unnecessarily for observation, be admitted, or undergo needless tests. Waiting time to see a neurologist also is reduced significantly. Five years since the first liver transplant performed at Children’s Memorial, the Siragusa Transplantation Center has become the third largest pediatric liver transplant program in the nation, performing 35 liver transplants last year. Sarwark’s AAP Appointment John F. Sarwark, MD, Acting Head of the Division of Orthopaedic Surgery at Children’s Memorial, was appointed to a 2-year term as Chair of the Section on Orthopaedics of the American Academy of Pediatrics. The section advocates and educates the professional and lay public about issues in pediatric orthopaedics by developing policy statements, manuals and informational materials. Sarwark is also a professor of surgery at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. More than half of Children’s Memorial faculty are active in the national and Illinois chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Division Leadership Several outstanding physicians were recruited in the past year, and 4 changes in the hospital’s division leadership were made. Division of Endocrinology: Donald Zimmerman, MD, has joined Children’s Memorial to head the division. Zimmerman comes from the Mayo Medical School where he was a professor of pediatrics, served as a consultant in the Department of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine and chaired the Division of Pediatric Endocrinology and Metabolism. Division of Hematology/Oncology: Morris Kletzel, MD, succeeded Sharon Murphy, MD, who stepped down as Division Head after 14 years. Kletzel joined Children’s Memorial in 1991, and most recently served as the Director of the Children’s Memorial Stem Cell Transplant Program. Division of Urology: William E. Kaplan, MD, was named Interim Head, succeeding Casimir Firlit, MD. Division of Immunology/Rheumatology: Marisa Klein-Gitelman, MD, has stepped in as Interim Division Head for Lauren Pachman, MD, who is now the Interim Head of the program on pathogenesis at the Children’s Memorial Institute for Education and Research.
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