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Seattle Children’s welcomes your feedback, comments and questions. Please email us at DocFeedback@seattlechildrens.org to communicate directly with Children’s leadership.
Visit Seattle Children’s Resources for Healthcare Professionals.
Phone: 206-987-5031
Laurel.hopkins@seattlechildrens.org
Phone: 908-304-5748
Jen.mueller@seattlechildrens.org
Phone: 206-987-6455
Patricia.kilburn@seattlechildrens.org
Phone: 206-987-5221
Namita Singh
Dr. Namita Singh, physician, Seattle Children’s: IBD is a multifactorial chronic disease. It is due to the overly active immune response to gastrointestinal (GI) enteric bacteria in genetically susceptible individuals, triggered by environmental factors. More than 200 genetic loci have been identified as playing a role in IBD, with some (i.e., NOD2) being associated with more progressive disease. Using our understanding of the inflammatory pathways affected in IBD, newer medications have been developed targeting these various pathways. The enteric bacteria, or GI microbiome, is known to be very different in IBD — with less diversity — than in healthy non-IBD patients. There has been an increase in IBD incidence worldwide over the past decade, suggesting a large impact in environmental factors rather than genomic shifts. For example, immigrants from countries with a lower prevalence of IBD assume a much higher risk when they immigrate to the United States, and their children even more so. The fastest-growing population is the pediatric Crohn’s disease population, and we are seeing IBD in very young patients as well.
Seattle Children’s South Clinic in Federal Way recently expanded its IBD Center to offer the same full array of services available at Seattle Children’s main hospital in Seattle, with the exception of surgery.
South Sound residents now have convenient access to a dedicated infusion center with private rooms (including rapid infusion), intestinal ultrasound and X-rays and blood draws in the laboratory. The IBD team serving South Clinic includes GI physician Dr. Namita Singh, dietitians and social workers. Patients will soon also be able to have a telemedicine visit with a clinical psychologist. There is currently capacity at the South Clinic’s IBD Center to serve new families.
Provider-to-Provider consultation line: 206-987-7777 or 877-985-4637, option 4 (toll free)
Deepti Gupta
Dr. Deepti Gupta is now offering a full range of dermatology laser services at our North Clinic in Everett, making it easier for families in the North Puget Sound region to receive skin treatments close to home rather than traveling to Seattle.
North Clinic services now include pulse dye laser 595 nm, treating hemangiomas, keloids, scars, spider angiomas, port wine stains, capillary malformations, striae distensae (stretch marks), telangiectasias, warts and more, and Nd-Yag multi nm, Alexandrite 755 nm and CO2 10,600 nm, treating café au lait macules, epidermal nevi, hirsutism/hypertrichosis, Neva of Ota, scars, keloids, venous malformations and vascular malformations. The North Clinic also provides Botox injections for hyperhidrosis, and in early summer will begin offering in-office excisions.
Provider-to-Provider consultation line: 206-987-7777 or 877-985-4637, option 4 (toll free)
Seattle Children’s encourages area providers with patients who are unable to control their bowels after standard interventions to consider the Bowel Management Treatment Program. Space is available for this one-week intensive program that is held several times a year at Seattle Children’s main campus. Providers can refer patients or request a provider-to-provider consult by calling 206-987-1240 (option 4). Families can also self-refer.
We also invite area healthcare providers to recommend the same patients to check out the national Youth Rally Camp being held in Seattle this year from July 8 to July 13.
Seattle Children’s Reconstructive Pelvic Medicine (RPM) Program, a national leader in caring for children with a range of colorectal and other problems of the pelvic area, was recently recognized in a Pediatrics Nationwide article for being one of the few programs in the United States to offer the type of comprehensive and integrated program that best serves patients. Dr. Caitlin Smith and Dr. Paul Merguerian are co-directors of the program.
The following CME Events are being held this month:On May 2, Dr. Nancy Nelson will be presenting on “Constipation and Abdominal Pain” in Yakima. For more information, please contact Physician Liaison Kenton McAllister at kenton.mcallister@seattlechildrens.org.
On May 20, Dr. Kyle Nagle will be presenting on “Concussion Update and Review” in Everett. For more information, please contact Physician Liaison Jen Mueller at jen.mueller@seattlechildrens.org.
On May 21, Dr. Salaam Sallaam will be presenting on “Cardiology – Kawasaki Disease” in Wenatchee. For more information please contact Physician Liaison Kenton McAllister at kenton.mcallister@seattlechildrens.org.
On March 28, two Seattle Children’s providers and two community-based providers were honored as 2019 recipients of the Richard A. Molteni Award for Professionalism and Quality and the Elizabeth Thomas Award for Advanced Practice Providers. Winners included Dr. Sheryl Morelli, Dr. Cora Breuner, Susie Paeth, ARNP, and Megan Spangler, ARNP.
Research and discoveries at Seattle Children’s shed light on brain development and new immunotherapy approaches for pediatric cancers.
Brain Research: New Clues to the Cause of Seizures. Doctors at Seattle Children’s were able to examine live brain tissue immediately after a child’s surgery. They hoped to find clues as to what activity caused by the HCN1 gene mutation might be contributing to a young boy’s life-threatening seizures. Read more in Scientists Find Clues to Rare Mutation Hours After Toddler’s Brain Surgery.
Research: New Immunotherapy Approaches for Pediatric Cancers. At Seattle Children’s, Dr. Katie Albert leads a team studying CAR T-cell therapy for solid non-CNS tumors in the STRIvE-01 trial. “Immunotherapy is moving at an accelerated pace, but just getting started for solid tumors,” said Albert. A main goal for pediatric cancer is the ability to treat it with immunotherapy only. “This is critically important for children with cancer because the long-term toxicities of chemotherapy and radiation are profound,” said Dr. Michael Jensen, director of the Ben Towne Center for Childhood Cancer at Seattle Children’s Research Institute. Read more in Oncology Times.
Brain Development and the Importance of Microglia. A Seattle Children’s doctor made an unexpected discovery about the importance of microglia cells to brain development, which make up just 10% of brain cells but appear to be critical to guiding brain development. Read the story in the Atlantic Monthly.
Seattle Children’s holds Grand Rounds every Thursday in the hospital’s Wright Auditorium from 8 to 9 a.m. Area providers are welcome to attend. For more information or to view our full upcoming schedule, click here. Past Grand Rounds can be found in our video library.
The month ahead:
May 2, 2019: Family Investment in Youth Sport and Consequences for Child Well-Being. Emily Kroshus, ScD, MPH, Research Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics at UW and Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development at Seattle Children’s.
May 9, 2019: Cutaneous Manifestations of Primary Immunodeficiency Disorders. William E. Pierson Allergy Lecture. Thomas Fleisher, MD, Scientist Emeritus, Department of Laboratory Medicine, NIH Clinical Center and Executive Vice President, American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.
May 16, 2019: Serendipity – Adventures in Translational Research. Tapper Surgery Lecture. Jessica Kandel, MD; Mary Campau Ryerson, Professor of Surgery, Surgeon-in-Chief at University of Chicago Medicine Corner Children’s Hospital and Chief, Section of Pediatric Surgery.
Seattle Children's complies with applicable federal and other civil rights laws and does not discriminate, exclude people or treat them differently based on race, color, religion (creed), sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin (ancestry), age, disability, or any other status protected by applicable federal, state or local law. Financial assistance for medically necessary services is based on family income and hospital resources and is provided to children under age 21 whose primary residence is in Washington, Alaska, Montana or Idaho.
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