On March 17, Washington moved to the next phase of COVID-19 vaccination (Phase 1B, Tier 2), which means people who are 16 years and older with certain chronic conditions or disabilities are now eligible to receive the vaccine. Seattle Children’s will continue to serve as a community vaccination site and will offer vaccines through our public portal to all eligible members of the public, as supplies permit.
We are contacting our current patients ages 16 to 21 with certain chronic conditions or disabilities who meet the DOH vaccine eligibility criteria to offer a vaccine appointment. Read full post »
Tumaini Coker, MD, MBA, took on a new role as Seattle Children’s division chief of general pediatrics in January 2021.
A lot of people don’t know exactly what Seattle Children’s General Pediatrics division is. Can you tell us about its purpose and makeup?
Dr. Tumaini Coker
Dr. Coker: We are a group of nearly 60 faculty in academic general pediatrics. We are clinicians, educators, researchers and advocates. Our faculty members practice primary care pediatrics and teach students and residents across multiple clinical sites, such as Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic, Harborview Pediatric Clinics and UW Neighborhood clinics, to name a few. Faculty investigators conduct research across a wide range of topics that impact child and family health and wellness, from autism, to concussion in young athletes, to environmental health. In addition to our clinical and research programs, we have multiple fellowship training programs, including our newest fellowship in Child Health Equity Research, and fellowships in pediatric injury research, health services and quality of care research, child abuse medicine and sports medicine. Read full post »
When Dr. Shaquita Bell started working at Seattle Children’s Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic (OBCC) as a resident in 2006, she felt like she’d been transported back to her home in Minneapolis.
“I identify as Black and Native (my dad is Black and my mom is Cherokee), and I wanted to work in a place where I could see myself and my family reflected, serving a community like the one I came from,” Shaquita says, “I found that at OBCC.”
When Dr. Ben Danielson left Children’s in November, Shaquita was appointed OBCC interim medical director. InHouse asked her about the recent leadership change, how she is addressing racism in healthcare and the future of OBCC. Read full post »
Seattle Children’s is vaccinating individuals who are eligible under Washington state’s Phase 1-A, priority groups 1 and 2, including:
- All workers at risk in healthcare settings except those who belong to another health system that is offering the vaccine.
- Community members who are eligible under state guidelines, when vaccine supplies permit.
Testing update
As of March 3, Seattle Children’s has tested 26,879 patients. 734 have tested positive or inconclusive, for a positivity rate of 2.7%. Approximately half of all positive patients are asymptomptic.
Seattle Children’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) moved on March 1, 2021, to a newly remodeled, state-of-the-art facility occupying the whole fourth floor of the hospital’s Forest A section. Careful planning for the expanded space included listening to input from providers, staff and families who have used the NICU to create a family-friendly environment of care.
The NICU is designed to create a healing environment and empower parents to participate in their baby’s care both at the hospital and in preparation for discharge.
“Our new NICU space is built on a philosophy of family engagement,” says NICU director Lori Chudnofsky. “We’re focusing more robustly than ever on helping families to be involved in their baby’s care in every way possible, like holding their baby, kangaroo care, participating in provider rounds and care conferences, and finding a quiet space for self-care without leaving the NICU.” Read full post »
A new study published in JAMA Network Open shows that providing cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) as part of a collaborative care model for youth who have experienced persistent post-concussive symptoms (PPCS) offers a promising treatment to alleviate symptoms and improve functioning.
Every year, an estimated 1.1 to 1.9 million youth suffer a sports-related concussion. Between 20% and 30% of those experience symptoms that last more than 30 days, including mental health challenges such as depression or anxiety. Yet there is a lack of high-quality evidence to guide best practices for the treatment of PPCS in the pediatric population. Read full post »
To better serve the Tri-Cities and surrounding region, Seattle Children’s Tri-Cities Clinic is moving to a larger, more centrally located clinic location opening March 11, 2021, in Kennewick, WA. The clinic will continue to offer the same pediatric specialties, with more room to help meet the growing need for specialty pediatric care in the region.
The new clinic in Kennewick will open Thursday, March 11, 2021, and will replace the clinic in Richland, WA, which will close for good at the end of the day on Thursday, March 4, 2021.
New Clinic Address: 8232 W. Grandridge Blvd., Kennewick, WA 99336 (near Costco)
Clinic and Appointments: 509-582-1700
Provider to Provider Line: 206-987-7777
Online: seattlechildrens.org/tri-cities Read full post »
Prediabetes Diagnosis and Treatment in Children and Adolescents and New Onset Diabetes Education Update (CME Category 2)
March 23, from 6 to 7 p.m. (virtual)
Presented by Grace Kim, MD, and Kate Ness, MD, MSCI; Endocrinology and Diabetes Department
RSVP by March 22 to physician.relations@seattlechildrens.org
Learn more.
Read full post »
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Bristol Myers Squibb’s Breyanzi, a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy used to treat adults with certain types of large B-cell lymphoma who have not responded to or who have relapsed after standard treatments.
The approval was supported by research at Seattle Children’s, including the CAR T-cell product, patient product manufacturing for Juno Therapeutics’ TRANSCEND trial and data from the Pediatric Leukemia Adoptive Therapy (PLAT-02) clinical trial.
Read more: “Cancer Research at Seattle Children’s Contributes to FDA Approval of CAR T-Cell Immunotherapy Treatment for Adults with Relapsed or Refractory Large B-Cell Lymphoma,” in On the Pulse, Feb. 8, 2021.
March 4: Pets as Pests. Margaret Fisher, MD, Medical Director, Unterberg Children’s Hospital Chair, Department of Pediatrics, Monmouth Medical Center.
March 11: Not Your Routine Vaccines, Not Your Routine Circumstances: Promoting COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance in These Extraordinary Times. Shaquita Bell, MD, Clinical Associate Professor, Pediatrics, UW; Medical Director, Center for Diversity and Health Equity, Seattle Children’s. Douglas Opel, MD, MPH, Associate Professor, Division of Bioethics, Department of Pediatrics; Associate Professor, Division of General Pediatrics, Department of Pediatrics; Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Bioethics and Humanities, University of Washington School of Medicine, Director of Clinical Ethics; Vice-Chair, Ethics Committee, Seattle Children’s. Read full post »
