2015 Grant Awards

Hematology/Oncology – Clarissa Karlsson – $390

Funding to purchase teaching tools and supplies for pilot study. Study would use Incentive Spirometry (IS) which is a device used to measure how deeply one can inhale, combatting ACS (acute chest syndrome) in sickle cell children.

General Surgery – Katherine Worst, CPNP-AC – $450

Funds for printing educational pamphlets for families for the most common surgical procedures performed at Children’s National Hospital. By providing these pamphlets, the goal is to increase patient satisfaction and compliance to treatment regime pre and postoperatively.

Neurodevelopment Pediatrics and Neurogenetics – Cathy Scheiner, MD – $957

Funds to purchase Battelle Development Screener Kit and Test in English & Spanish to assess neurodevelopment problems and address with families.

Perioperative – Astorio Edwards, MHA & Andrea-Ewing Thomas, MSN – $968

Purchase 1 isolation surgical gear cart to provide convenient access to personal protective equipment (PPE).

Department of Trauma & Burn Grouping: – Sally Wilson – $1,000

Funds to purchase the “Period of Purple Crying” materials to educate and prevent abusive head injury trauma for families and caregivers with discharged infants of the NICU and inpatient care units. The PURPLE program has been translated into ten languages and includes closed captioning for the hearing impaired.

Physical Therapy – Anne Conway, Clinical Program Mng Of PT/OT – $1,614

Funds to print educational materials for patients having posterior spinal fusion surgery to treat curvature of the spine.

Psychology & Behavioral Health – Amanda Hastings, Psychologist – $2,100

Funds to purchase books for families of young patients with developmental or mental health issues.

Genetics & Metabolism – Omar Ayyub,Research Post-Doc Fellow – $2,229

Funds to develop prototype device for Point-of-Care testing of ammonia levels in patients with urea cycle disorders.

Center for Surgical Care – Lourdes Rocha & Liz Anderson, Child Life Spec. – $2,500

Fund supplies such as stress balls, bubbles, stickers and chapstick for surgical patients to encourage positive coping techniques and to promote a child-friendly environment.

Hospitalist Medicine – Mariam Bloom, MD – $2,500

Funding to build a website for an online community of patients with complex/chronic illness and parents families that are cared for by the HELP Care Team to share resources and information.

Pulmonary & Sleep Medicine – Perez, Geovanny Perez, MD – $3,549

Funding to take advantage of existing Objet 3-D printer by printing and creating anatomically accurate children tracheo-bronchial tree atlas models for flexible bronchoscopy training. Using models, pulmonary physicians will be trained prior to performing on a child, decreasing the rate of complications and anesthetic time.

Hematology/Oncology – Alexandra Hollman, MSW & Lisa Thaniel, DSW & Barbara Speller Brown, DNP – $3,882

Fund workshop materials for patient/family education for sickle cell patients who are transitioning from childhood to adolescents or adulthood.

Pain Medicine – Angela Fletcher, PSYD – $4,000

Fund workshop and at home materials and evaluation for teens diagnosed with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS). Program will be a 6-week structured group therapy to improve the POTS patients’ quality of life.

Oncology – Katie Olson, PSYD & Steven Hardy, PhD – $4,413

Funds to develop a brief, computerized assessment service using the NIH Toolbox Cognitive Battery Test to screen for common cognitive problems in patients with leukemia or a brain tumor.

Hearing & Speech – Laura Ball, PhD – $5,000

Provide funding for Ntrainer equipment to help sucking response in premature infants as well training of using Ntrainer.

Surgical Care Unit – Jillian Rekart, RN – $5,153

Funds to purchase blanket warming cabinet that is able to hold and evenly warm approximately twenty blankets to serve post-surgery, ICU and Burn patients during transfers.

Psychology & Behavioral Health – Michael Ruiz – $5,257

Funding for 1) certification of a crisis prevention and intervention trainer, with a specialty in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). 2) obtaining educational materials, a color printer, and a communicative assistive device to help communicate better with our ASD patient population.

Children’s Research Institute (CRI) Grouping: – Steve Zeichner, MD, PhD – $6,975

Funding to help conduct a pilot study to either confirm or refute the hypothesis that there are microbial biomarkers present in the rectum that could be useful for the development of a microbial biomarker test for appendicitis.

Neurodevelopment Pediatrics – Myra Cleary, DNP, CPNP – $8,166

Funds for laptops & software to provide electronic screening tools to assess behavior problems/mental illness, allowing instantaneous scoring, and electronically–generated reports that can be given to parents as well as primary care physicians and/or schools, if directed.

Blood and Marrow Transplantation – Hema Dave, MD & Kirsten Williams, MD – $8,207

Invasive fungal infections are a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in patients undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant. Funding to identify patients at risk for therapeutic failure which will translate into improved treatment outcomes by maximizing drug efficacy and minimizing adverse drug events.

NICU – Judith Campbell, RNC, LBCLC – $8,736

To meet the increased needs of breastfeeding moms, funding to purchase 8 hospital grade lactation pumps and stands for patient’s mothers and for employee lounge.

Center for Neuroscience – Joshua Corbin, PhD – $9,202

Funds to purchase equipment for neuroscience research to enhance ability to record electrical brain activity in animal models – allowing to better treat a variety of neurological disorders such as spina bifida, autism and brain abnormalities.

Critical Care Medicine – Tessie October, MD, MPH – $11,312

Funding for production of two videos for parents of children in the PICU. The videos will offer guidelines to working through the process of making critical decisions. Videos will feature both physicians and parents and have Spanish subtitles . Extended family as well as parents can access the videos through the Get Well Network and YouTube.

Cardiology – Anita Krishnan, MD & Mary Donofrio, MD – $11,540

Funds to purchase of a portable ECG machine for a research study. Research will assess whether fetal ECG can be used to identify markers of cardiac injury associated with an increased risk of perinatal morbidity and mortality among fetuses of pre-gestational diabetic mothers.

Neurology – Sandra Cushner-Weinstein – $15,000

Brainy Camps of Children’s National is a consortium of condition specific, residential summer camps and services for children with chronic health conditions. Funding to support an IRB-approved study to understand how condition specific camp participation promotes resiliency and health management in order to develop interventions that can be used in hospital settings.

Volunteer Services – Katie Watts – $15,000

Fund Dr. Bears closet in times of special needs. Goal is to provide comfort items and essentials to families of patients. In addition, Dr. Bear’s closet funds such needs as hotel accommodations, transportation and funeral arrangements.

Respiratory Care – Kathleen Regan – $15,450

Funds to purchase back-up equipment for ventilator dependent children to transition from the ICU to home or a care facility, or, when they return to Children’s National. Equipment can be reused after properly cleaned.

Diagnostic Imaging & Radiology – Iordanis Evangelou, DPHIL – $19,954

Funding for software, computer and printer to allow adding MR Spectroscopy quantification data with MRI data, allowing better monitoring of biochemical changes in tumors, stroke, epilepsy, metabolic disorders, infections, neurodegenerative diseases, as well as studying metabolic changes in normal and abnormal brain development.

Cardiac Surgery – Dilip Nath, MD & Laura Olivieri, MD & Alex Krieger, MD & Lillian Su, MD – $21,303

Funding to develop a software tool and display platform which will provided physicians, nurses, families and patients a way to take a virtual tour into the interior of the heart of patients with a congenital heart disease, allowing review of intra-cardiac details from multiple vantage points.

Critical Care Medicine – Ashley Seims, MD & Jamie Schwartz, MD & Vanessa Madrigal, MD – $27,734

Funds to purchase a C-MAC indirect video laryngoscope, for intubations, dedicated to the PICU.

Cardiology – Jeffrey Moak, MD – $28,630

Purchase advanced testing equipment essential to providing state-of-the art care in the CADE Clinic to patients with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS)

Sheikh Zayed Inst (SZI) – Axel Krieger, PhD & Justin Opfermann, Ms & Peter Kim, MD, PhD – $30,182

Funds to purchase a highly dexterous Robotic laparoscope for minimally invasive surgeries to use with the existing Children’s National-developed Smart Tool Anastomosis Robot (STAR) system.

Genetic Medicine – Ariel Badger & Juan Cabrera-Luque, PhD – $33,840

Funds to purchase NGC Quest 10 Plus chromatography system to purify proteins needed to develop an at-home monitoring device for patients with PKU.

Rheumatology – Hemalatha Srinivasalu, MD – $35,000

Funds to purchase of Musculoskeletal ultrasound equipment to provide immediate bedside imaging of Rheumatology patient’s affected tissue. This ultrasound device is valuable for diagnosis and management without radiation exposure or the need for sedation.

Total Awards – $352,201

Two researchers looking at test results

Grants awarded by the Founders Auxiliary Board have inspired change and transformative advances in diverse areas of service throughout the hospital. Past awards have supported research, child wellness initiatives such as concussion prevention, immunizations, cutting-edge equipment and technology, pediatric surgical robots, professional development, and educational support.