Transformational Pediatrics

Whether regular or irregular, the causes of constipation in children can be broad and difficult to diagnose. The BRICK (Bowel Retraining in Constipated Kids) clinic is a special clinic within the Division of Gastroenterology at Children’s Mercy Hospital dedicated to the care of children with constipation and encopresis. BRICK clinic director Kacie Kaufman will discuss the care children receive at...

A newly FDA approved procedure has the power to save children from a painful cornea transplant. Keratoconus presents in about 1:2000, with a high prevalence in the Down Syndrome population. The disease causes the cornea to become thin and bulge. Corneal crosslinking improves the connections among the membranes of the cornea by a factor of four, preventing the need for a cornea transplant. Erin Sta...

For kids with cancer, the treatment that cures them can also kill them. Through the Genomic and Ontogeny Linked Dose Individualization and Clinical Optimization for Kids (GOLDILOKs) program, doctors can find a treatment not too big, not too small, but just right. Listen as Dr. Jaz Tolbert explains that by finding the perfect dose, doctors can improve treatment outcomes and decrease treatment-relat...

Could jaw surgery help you sleep better? This interdisciplinary clinic at Children's Mercy brings in orthodontics, sleep medicine and plastic surgery and focuses on a surgical orthodontic treatment of obstructive sleep apnea and other jaw deformities. Hear Dr. Michael Lypka detail jaw surgeries from airway obstruction in the neonate to definitive jaw surgery in the adolescent.

In Ewing Sarcoma patients, exosomes in the blood may be an early detector of relapse. Partnering with the University of Kansas, Glenson Samuel, MD created a chip that could detect and analyze these exosomes and their proteins with minimum blood. Now, he is using that knowledge to find, and reverse, chemo-therapy-related resistance in tumor cells, making patients more responsive to therapy. Join Gl...

Gerald Woods, MD, Division Director of Hematology/Oncology/BMT, has more than 30 years experience in sickle cell treatment. Dr. Woods is currently a PI for a study of GBT-440, a new drug to treat sickle cell. Children’s Mercy is one of only two U.S. hospitals initially invited to participate in this research. Dr. Woods is leading the hospital’s participation in a Health Resources and Services Admi...

Researchers at Children’s Mercy have developed Astrolabe, software for predicting a patient’s response to medications using whole genome sequencing. When used with a newly developed, low cost sequencing method, the software can identify the pharmacogenetics profile of each patient, enabling physicians to tailor medication selection to the patient’s DNA. Join Neil Miller, Director of Informatics an...

Minimally invasive interventional radiology services, including angiography, vascular malformations, and tumor ablations, boast lower costs, fewer complications and faster recovery times compared to open surgery. However, 65 percent of patients are entirely familiar with interventional radiology (IR) with 54 percent of medical students “unclear” of IR duties. Join Brenton D. Reading, MD, with the...

Research shows that the most common cancer treatments can result in damage to the heart or vascular system. Children’s Mercy is now one of only a few pediatric hospitals in the world offering a Cardio-Oncology Program to address cancer treatment-related cardiotoxicity. In one appointment, patients will receive evaluation and expert advice from an oncologist and a cardiologist. The program provides...

Children’s Mercy is one of only a handful of programs across the nation using a unique bridging technique called Rapid Exchange of Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy (RECRRT) for children diagnosed with acute kidney injury. By consistently using RECRRT, Children’s Mercy has become proficient in the bridging technique, resulting in significantly less blood exposure and therapy downtime for these...

The Children's Mercy Diabetes Center is making a change to the way it cares for the 250 to 300 type 1 and 2 diabetes patients newly diagnosed each year, transitioning them from inpatient to outpatient treatment. Patients over 5 years old and their families will receive the education and training needed to maintain healthy blood glucose levels in three outpatient visits over the course of 1 month....

Children and adolescents diagnosed with cancer face months to years of chemotherapy, sometimes including radiation and surgery. These life-altering disruptions place demands on children, teens and their parents. The diagnosis is usually stunning and unwelcome, followed rapidly by tests, treatments and lots of information. Yet helping children, teens and families cope with this unexpected and unwel...

The adolescent sports population is especially prone to knee ligament injuries with the increased specialized sport participation, overuse and suspected sedentary elementary years preceding highly active adolescent sports participation. The Center for Sports Medicine at Children’s Mercy is one of the nation’s leading sports medicine programs offering a comprehensive model of care from sideline tra...

Eating disorders can be physically, emotionally and socially devastating for patients and are difficult for families of those affected. This disorder is the third most chronic condition in adolescents, after obesity and asthma. Recently the AAP published a clinical report addressing the interaction between obesity prevention and eating disorders. Adolescents can misinterpret what ‘healthy eating’...

Chiari malformations, cerebellar tissue through the foramen magnum into the cervical canal, may clinically present in categories of pain-occipital/cervical (worsened with valsalva, cough, sneeze, or exertion), complications of syringomyelia (scoliosis, myelopathy), direct brainstem compression (e.g. nystagmus, strabismus, emesis, imbalance, auditory, swallowing/aspiration, and central apnea), as w...

Each year 13,000 to 15,000 extremely premature infants develop severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). Despite major advances in neonatal intensive care and improved survival of infants born very prematurely BPD rates have not decreased over the last decade. While there are several reasons for this, a lack of understanding of the various paths to this disease, and the absence of personalized ther...

It is important to understand the difference between cardiac and non-cardiac causes of syncope. The cause of syncope can be identified in about 50 percent of patients by history and physical alone. Both past medical history and the history of the event are vital. Cardiogenic Syncope can be life threatening. It generally requires specialized evaluation (echocardiogram, exercise stress test) and tre...

As one of the larger inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) programs in the nation, the Children’s Mercy Kansas City Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology cares for 550 to 600 patients and their families on an ongoing basis. A unique component to the program is the parent engagement. The IBD program has been recognized as a leader in parent engagement through ImproveCareNow and other national organizat...

A marrow or cord blood transplant could be the best treatment option, and for some patients, offer the only potential cure, when facing life-threatening diseases. A FACT accredited (Foundation of the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy) program and a National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) unrelated and cord blood donor center, Children’s Mercy Kansas City is a leader in research and the treatment of r...

When a child is sent home from the hospital after a serious injury or illness, the ongoing medical care for that child can be overwhelming for parents. Home Care services provide a smooth transition to home and assists parents in accessing the required ongoing care ordered by a physician. Andrea Toomay, Children’s Mercy Home Care, joins us to discuss the pediatric home care services and the value...

Children with heart conditions are at increased risk for life-threatening blood clots according to a statement from the American Heart Association. Pediatric hematologists and cardiologists at Children’s Mercy are leading a multidisciplinary effort to reduce risk of clots in this fragile population of patients. Michael Silvey, DO is here to explain that the goal of treatment is to reduce clotting...

SuPAR (soluble urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor) has been shown to be a promising biomarker in its ability to predict the development of chronic kidney disease in adults years earlier than traditional risk factors. Darcy Weidemann, MD, pediatric nephrologist at Children’s Mercy is leading the largest North American study ever conducted to look at whether suPAR may be helpful to predic...

Managing chronic pain in the pediatric patient can be a challenge, not only for the patient, but for their caregivers. The introduction to biobehavioral and congestive behavioral pain management strategies can help patients cope with the everyday pain. Dustin Wallace, PhD, started the Comfort Ability workshop, led by staff psychologists from Children’s Mercy. This one day interactive workshop has...

Only about 100 infants are diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in the U.S. each year. Most of these babies respond to chemotherapy treatment at first, but go on to relapse and die of the disease. Dr. Erin Guest and colleagues at Children’s Mercy are performing genomics research to uncover the reasons why leukemia in infants becomes resistant to treatment. Dr. Guest is also leading a...

Although a commonly recognized condition in adults, herniated nucleus pulposus (HNP) is often an unrecognized cause of back and leg pain in the pediatric/adolescent population. This often leads to a delay in diagnosis and/or inappropriate treatment. HNP is distinct from a "bulged disc", an MRI finding often cited as a cause of pediatric /adolescent back pain. With HNP, patients generally have some...