Article

At most children’s hospitals, a multiday inpatient education process is the standard of care for children and teens presenting with the new onset of type 1 diabetes. Seattle Children’s Kate Ness, MD, MSCI, and members of the Endocrinology and Diabetes team believed there was a better solution. In late 2019, shortly before the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, they opened the Outpatient New Onset Diabetes Program. The results have been dramatic.

Kate Ness, MD, MSCI, Seattle Children’s Endocrinology and Diabetes team

Dr. Ness witnessed the positive effects of outpatient diabetes education during her fellowship training at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. When she arrived at Seattle Children’s in 2009, “it came as a surprise to me to see that we were keeping kids in the hospital for three days, primarily for educational purposes. We know that not all of our patients medically need an inpatient hospital bed, and there is literature that supports outpatient education being as safe and effective as inpatient education.”

Being diagnosed with diabetes is a life-changing event for children and families, and the sheer volume of new information — counting carbohydrates, calculating insulin doses, persuading a child to have their finger poked and to get an injection — to say nothing of the emotional rollercoaster, can be overwhelming.

When Joy Briggs, RN, MBA, MSN, was offered the opportunity to become the practice manager for the New Onset Outpatient Diabetes program in 2018, she jumped at the chance to make a difference for children like her son. Read full post »

From the On the Pulse blog of Seattle Children’s, by Ashley Speller

Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have teamed up with clinicians at Seattle Children’s to identify and evaluate the best urologic management for newborns and young children with spina bifida in a nationwide study called Urologic Management to Preserve Initial REnal function (UMPIRE).

Launched in 2014, the multisite, multiyear UMPIRE program aims to increase the understanding of kidney, bladder health and function, which are closely linked, in the early years. It also brings together a unique collaboration of doctors and nurses from more than 20 clinics across the country, including Seattle Children’s Urology Program, which has been ranked among the top 10 pediatric urology programs in the United States for the past three years by U.S. News & World Report. Read full post »

From Seattle Children’s On the Pulse

From an early age, Seth Maharry has been an active kid. He started playing soccer at age 4, joined Little League at 5 and by the time he was 9, Seth earned a spot on a club team in Gig Harbor, Washington, where he played soccer year-round. During a tournament in Portland, Oregon, Seth started to complain about the pain in his hip.

“We figured he’d just been playing soccer all weekend,” said his mom Nora. “We saw the physical therapist and they said everything was fine, but it continued to get worse and worse.”

Seth’s parents decided to take Seth to the doctor but were told it was just growing pains, though it was clear to Nora that this was something far more serious.

“That was our battle for a year and a half,” Nora explained. “My heart just ached because I knew what we were being told was not right.”

When the family’s insurance changed, Seth’s parents decided to make an appointment at Seattle Children’s South Clinic in Federal Way.

Read full post »

Last May, Seattle Children’s launched Generation REACH, a multifaceted initiative based on the simple yet transformative premise that child health always includes mental health.

Read full post »

Seattle Children’s Research Institute is investing $45 million in the new Invent at Seattle Children’s Postdoctoral Scholars Program that will prepare scholars for careers in biotech or academia. The program will provide mentorship, education and financial support for 10 postdoctoral scholars per year to help them create new “discovered here” cellular, gene or protein therapeutics that ultimately advance to clinical trials for children. Seattle Children’s Foundation has pledged to raise an additional $10 million for the program.

Read full post »

Around 1 in 10 people will have a seizure in their lifetime. Not every person who has a seizure goes on to develop a seizure disorder; sometimes it’s an isolated event. But even if a child only has a single seizure in their lifetime, it can be extraordinarily alarming for them and their family. “I have had families describe the experience as frightening, confusing, or even traumatizing,” says Dr. Priya Monrad, pediatric epileptologist and director of Inpatient Neurosciences at Seattle Children’s Hospital.

Read full post »

Seattle Children’s Therapeutics has opened a new study that will evaluate the safety and feasibility of CAR T-cell immunotherapy in patients with bone cancer. The ENLIGHTen-01 study is approved for patients ages 15 to 30 years old who have refractory or progressive osteosarcoma. It is Seattle Children’s first study of CAR T-cell therapy for this patient population.

Read full post »

Did you know that most cancer patients in their 20s should be referred to a pediatric cancer center for treatment rather than an adult one? Yet the pediatric oncologists at Seattle Children’s routinely talk to new patients who initially were sent to an adult cancer program because they were over 18 years old.

Read full post »

Dr. Evelyn Hsu, Seattle Children’s division chief of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, calls liver transplantation a miracle. “You take a kid who is basically right at the edge, almost dying. You grab them back from the jaws of death and give them a liver transplant, and they are essentially restored to life.” Her vision is to move every child off the transplant list with a 100 percent survival rate so they can live their best life. (Read: “We’re Not Just Transplanting Organs, We’re Transplanting Lives,” an incredible story about the Hurtado family and their four children who have maple syrup urine disease.)

Read full post »

Seattle Children’s is excited to welcome Dr. Hannibal Person to the Gastroenterology and Hepatology team. With expertise in general psychiatry, child and adolescent psychiatry, and pediatric gastroenterology, his focus is on building an interdisciplinary program at Seattle Children’s to help children suffering from chronic gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation and pain.

Read full post »