Children's Hospital of Michigan Foundation Supports Advances in Pediatric Heart Research

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 2, 2016
Contact: Leslie Fleming
248-539-5517
Leslie.Fleming@chmfoundation.org

DETROIT – February 2, 2016 Twelve year old Karolynn Bishop recently got an award for outstanding leadership at Fountain Elementary in Roseville. Eleven years ago, she had a heart transplant at Children’s Hospital of Michigan (CHM). She wanted to give back so she organized a fundraiser for Children’s Hospital of Michigan Foundation (CHMF). Her principal wanted to recognize her because of the amazing way she turned her own challenge into a way to do good for other children.

As recently as 1984, heart transplants for children were an extremely risky and rare procedure. Due to medical research, new techniques and drugs have been found for safer, more effective transplant results. Karolynn is a living example of how pediatric research has helped save lives. Yet, as important as medical research is for children, funding remains a challenge. Funding through governmental and industry sources for pediatric medical research, including children’s heart conditions is a fraction of that for adults.

February is heart awareness month and Children’s Hospital of Michigan Foundation wants to bring awareness to children’s heart conditions.

According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), congenital heart defects (CHD), the most common type of pediatric heart condition, affect nearly one percent or 40,000 births per year in the United States. About 25 percent of babies with a CHD have a critical CHD requiring surgery or other procedures in the first year of life. Although the CDC does not track the number of adults with CDC’s they site a 2010 study estimating about one million children and another one million adults live with CHD’s.

Today, CHMF is leading the way in southeastern Michigan in funding a new generation of pediatric heart research to help more children in the future. Examples include:

• Infants born with certain complex heart defects are very fragile during their first year of life and may need frequent adjustments in their medical care. Some are waiting for surgery or to receive a heart transplant. Richard Humes, M.D., chief of pediatric cardiology at CHM and professor of pediatrics at Wayne State University (WSU), is researching an innovative home monitoring system using computer and smart phone technology to help families detect and communicate any worsening health conditions early so that cardiac specialists can intervene quickly. CHMF is funding the development of the necessary educational components for families and the technology platform for home monitoring.

• Many children with congenital heart conditions require complex open heart surgeries or the insertion of stents to achieve normal blood flow. New technology—customized 3D heart models—is helping cardiac specialists to treat these patients. Using a patient’s CT scans, a detailed, customized model can be made of the patient’s heart and aorta allowing physicians to plan and practice complicated cardiac interventions. In 2014, a teenager with a large, complex aortic aneurysm was the first patient at CHM and the first in the state to benefit from the creation of such a model. Since then, custom cardiac models have been made for several patients prior to their open heart surgery and stenting procedures at CHM. Daisuke Kobayashi, M.D., an interventional cardiologist at CHM, and Henry L. Walters, III, M.D., chief of cardiovascular surgery and professor of surgery at WSU have received a CHMF grant to evaluate the benefits and best use of this innovation for future open heart and trans catheter (stenting) patients.

• Thomas Forbes, M.D., director of the cardiac catheterization lab and assistant professor of pediatrics at WSU, is co-founder of an initiative to evaluate and improve pediatric catheterizations—the Congenital Cardiovascular Interventional Study Consortium (CCISC). The goal of this new organization is to “improve outcomes and reduce adverse events” for young congenital heart disease patients by sharing detailed, risk-stratified catheterization data from 28 hospitals worldwide. Dr. Forbes explains that by studying the complication rate for certain conditions and procedures, physicians may change the way they treat some patients. In addition to regular data distribution, participating physicians conduct regular conference calls and hold group meetings to discuss cases and the reduction of complications. Dr. Forbes credits CHMF for being instrumental in the development of CCISC; he expects this collaboration to double in size by summer 2016.