Chair's Initiatives

Making an Impact

More than a decade ago, the Department of Pediatrics at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) began the Chair’s Initiatives to establish new models of care in pediatrics and tackle some of the most daunting challenges in healthcare.

The program provides internal grants to support innovation, improvement and collaboration throughout and beyond Children’s Hospital. The Chair’s Initiatives program was started in 2006 by Alan R. Cohen, MD, then-physician-in-chief and Chair of the Department of Pediatrics, and Alison Marx, Operating Officer for the Department of Pediatrics. Today, the program continues under the guidance of Joseph W. St. Geme III, MD, who joined CHOP in 2013 as Chairman of Department of Pediatrics and Physician-in-chief of the Hospital.

It takes a team

Participants in the Chair’s Initiatives have included physicians, nurses, researchers, quality improvement advisors, data analysts, engineers, social workers, genetic counselors and others within many specialties and across many disciplines. These individuals provide an unflagging willingness to work diligently and collaboratively to move their initiatives forward and to find solutions to complex challenges.

The program represents an excellent opportunity for donors interested in helping incredibly bright, motivated teams quickly bring change that truly benefits patients and families and sustain their efforts to create lasting impact. For more information about how you can make a gift, visit Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Foundation or call 267-426-5332.

Chair’s Initiatives awardees and key contacts

Since its inception, the Chair’s Initiatives program has helped 39 teams turn great ideas into reality. Reflecting the Hospital’s commitment to patient safety, we have chosen Initiatives focused on innovation, safety and quality of care.

Each initiative is given seed funding for two years. Ten Initiatives were funded in Round 1; six in Round 2; six in Round 3; five in Round 4; six in Round 5; six in Round 6; seven in Round 7; seven in Round 8; and five are currently underway in Round 9.

Round 9

A-START (Adolescent Specialized Treatment and Recovery Team)

Awardees: Krishna White, MD, MPH; Christina Herrera, MD, MSHP; Terri Randall, MD         

Building Early Autism Diagnostic Capacity in Primary Care: A Model for Specialty and Primary Care Collaboration

Awardees: Amanda Bennett, MD, MPH; Judith Miller, PhD

CHOP Outreach Center for Expertise in Pediatric Emergency Readiness and Training (ExPERT)

Awardees: Khoon-Yen Tay, MD; John Erbayri, MS, NRP, CHSE; Grace Good BSN, MA, RN, CHSE; Mary Haggerty, DO; Theresa Walls, MD, MPH; Megan Lavoie, MD

Firearm Safety in Clinical Care

Awardees: Dorothy Novick, MD; Joel Fein, MD, MPH

Establishing a Comprehensive Pediatric Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia (HHT) Clinical and Research Program

Awardees: Alexandra Borst, MD; Lauren Beslow, MD, MSCE; Allison Britt, LCGC; Elizabeth Goldmuntz, MD

For more information about the Chair's Initiative or to contact the awardees, please contact Alison Marx.

Round 8

A Coaching Program to Support Development of Skills to Advance CHOP’s Clinical and Education Missions

Awardees: Jay Mehta, MD, MSEd, Tash Kaur, MD, Anna Weiss, MD, MSEd, Dorene Balmer, PhD, Don Boyer, MD, MSEd, Daniel West, MD

Building an Infrastructure to Address Racial Disparities in Treatment and Outcomes in Children with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes

Awardees: Terri Lipman, PhD, CRNP, FAAN, Steven Willi, MD, Colin Hawkes, MD, PhD

Developing the Infrastructure for a CHOP Center of Diagnostic Excellence

Awardees: Irit R. Rasooly, MD MSCE, Richard Scarfone MD, Sanjiv Mehta, MD, Jillian Schaffer, MD, Monica Prieto, MD, Trenya Garner, Andrea Colfer, RN, Avram Mack, MD, Ursula Nawab, MD, Kathy Shaw, MD MSCE

Family Connects – Identification and Provision of Social Resources through a Novel Needs Assessment and Allocation Program in the CHOP Emergency Department

Awardees: Lauren VonHoltz, MD, MPH, Danielle Cullen, MD, MPH, MSHP, Ashlee Murray, MD, MPH, Maria Quidgley-Martin, MD, Amanda Nomie, MSN, RN, CPEN, Kimberly Anderson, BSN, RN, CPEN, Karen White, LCSW

Addressing URiM Faculty Retention via The Formation of a Faculty Ombuds Team: The Leadership Accountability Team

Awardees: Nicole Washington, MD, Angela Ellison, MD, MSCE

Resilience after Infant Substance Exposure: NFP-RISE, Compassionate, integrated care for infants with substance exposure

Awardees: Barbara H. Chaiyachati, MD,PhD, Cindy W. Christian, MD, Meredith Matone, DrPH, Andrea F. Duncan, MD, MS

Sleep in Primary and Specialty Care Services (Sleep PASS): A Model for Enhancing Primary Care Specialty Care Integration, Collaboration, Patient Outcomes, and Health Equity

Awardees: Ariel A. Williamson, PhD, DBSM; Alexander G. Fiks, MD, MSCE; James P. Guevara, MD, MPH

Round 7

Adolescent Mobile Health Unit

Awardees: Marne Castillo, PhD, and team

Leveraging the Baldrige Performance Excellence Framework to Embed Evidenced Based Management Practices in Ambulatory Operations and Improve Patient Access to Care

Awardees: April M. Taylor, Melissa Muego, MD, Ashwini Reddy, MD, Flaura Winston, MD PhD, Larry Barnes, Maryann Chilkatowsky, Lynsey Cecere, Lena Leff, Zakiya Devine, James Won, PhD, Miriam Stewart, MD, Amy Kratchman, Gina Zappacosta, Lisa Biggs, Eli Lourie, Kate Fuller

Communicating and Connecting Mental Health Needs of Patients

Awardees: Jeremy Esposito MD MSEd, Joel Fein MD MPH, Stephanie Doupnik MD MSHP, Wendy Wallace DO, Erin Perry LCSW, Jami Young PhD, Stephen Soffer PhD, Jason Lewis PhD

Debriefing: Broken Down and Rebuilt

Awardees: Eron Friedlaender MD, MPH, Pamela Fazzio MD, Trish Janoff RN, Dawn DeBrocco PsyD, Heather Wolfe MD, Summer Elshenawy MD, Mary Haggerty DO, Theresa O’Connor RN, Shobha Natarajan MD, Maryam Naim MD, Meghan Galligan MD, Christina McClam MD

Endocrine Late Effects after Cancer Therapy (ELECT) Program

Awardees: Sogol Mostoufi-Moab, MD, MSCEColin P Hawkes, MD, PhD

Pulmonary and Allergy Personalized Asthma (PAPA) Clinic

Awardees: Sigrid DaVeiga, MD, Jeffrey M. Ewig, MD

Doctor-to-Doctor Teledermatology: Leading the Way in High-Quality Pediatric Telemedicine

Awardees: Aditi Murthy, MD, Patrick McMahon, MD, Kristen Danley, MD

Round 6

Comprehensive Cancer Predisposition and Surveillance Program

Awardees: Garrett M. Brodeur, MD; Jennifer M. Kalish, MD, PhD

Community Health Worker Initiative: Enhanced Care Management for Complex Patients

Awardees: Colin Hawkes, MD; Terri Lipman, PhD, CRNP; Leigh Wilson, MSW

Center for Sepsis Excellence

Awardees: Fran Balamuth, MD, PhD; Julie Fitzgerald, MD, PhD; Scott Weiss, MD, MSCE

Integrated Multi-disciplinary Hemophagocytic Syndromes Team of Excellence

Awardees: David Teachey, MD

Epidermolysis Bullosa Multidisciplinary Clinic

Awardees: Marissa Perman, MD

Integrating Lupus Care

Awardees: Jon (Sandy) Burnham, MD, MSCE

Round 5

An Integrative and Educational Pediatric Genomics Initiative

Awardees: Līvija Medne, MS, LCGC; Ian Krantz, MD

Multidisciplinary Intervention Navigation Team (MINT) for Pediatric to Adult Care Transfers

Awardees: Sophia Jan, MD, MSHP
Key Contacts: Adam Greenberg, MSN, CRNP; Dava Szalda, MD, MSHP; Symme Trachtenberg, MSW, LSW

Fostering Healthcare Coordination of Children in Foster Care

Awardees: Kristine Fortin, MD, MPH; Philip Scribano, DO, MSCE
Key Contacts: Judy Dawson, RN, BSN

PATTERNS: Predictive Analytic Technology To Eliminate Repeat No Shows

Awardees: Marie Gleason, MD, FAAP, FACC; Robert Grundmeier, MD; Hallum Hurt, MD; Ritu Verma, MBChB
Key Contacts: Lauren Tanzer, MBA, MS; April Taylor, MS, MHA

Developing a Hospital Wide Fertility Preservation Program

Awardees: Claire Carlson, RN, BSN; Jill Ginsberg, MD

iAPP: Integrating Apps in Pediatric Practice

Awardees: Alex Fiks, MD, MSCE; Linda Fleisher, PhD, MPH; Flaura Winston, MD, PhD

Round 4

COMEDO: A Computerized System to Assess Acne and Develop Appropriate Treatment Recommendations

Awardees: Elena Bernardis, PhD; Albert Yan, MD, FAAP, FAAD

Enhancing Providers Ability to Respond Effectively to Peer Bullying and Victimization

Awardees: Stephen Leff, PhD

Thrombosis Prevention and Treatment in Cardiac Patients

Awardees: Therese Giglia, MD, FACC, FAAP, SCCM; Leslie Raffini, MD

Development and Evaluation of THRIVE (Texting, Health Resources to Inform, MotiVate and Engage)

Awardees: Lisa Schwartz, PhD
Key Contacts: Lamia Barakat, PhD; Chris Bonafide, MD, MSCE

Identification, Remediation, and Prevention of a Chronic Glucocorticoid Therapy Adverse Effects

Awardees: Jon (Sandy) Burnham, MD, MSCE; Robert Grundmeier, MD

Round 3

A Shared Decision-Making Portal for Pediatric Chronic Illness

Awardees: Alexander Fiks, MD, MSCE; Robert Grundmeier, MD

Assuring Quality and Patient Safety at CHOP Community Pediatric Programs

Awardees: Jan Boswinkel, MD; John Chuo, MD, MS; Jeffrey Gerdes, MD; Carrie Hufnal-Miller, MD, FAAP; Mark Joffe, MD; Mark Ogino, MD; Karen Pinsky, MD; Kathy Shaw, MD, MSCE

Improving Hospital Care and Service Delivery for Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Awardees: Jan Boswinkel, MD; Eron Friedlaender, MD, MPH; Amy Kratchman, BA; Susan Levy, MD, MPH; Judith Miller, PhD, MS

Transitioning from Pediatric to Adult Services: A Primary Care Based Model

Awardees: Oana Tomescu, MD, PhD; Symme Trachtenberg, MSW, LSW

Minds Matter: Improving Pediatric Concussion Management

Awardees: Kristy Arbogast, PhD; Matthew Grady, MD, FAAP, CAQSM; Christina Master, MD, FAAP, CAQSM; Flaura Winston, MD, PhD

Preventing Outpatient CLABSI

Awardees: Christina Bales, MD; Susan Coffin, MD, MPH; Allison Ballantine, MD, MEd; Millie Boettcher, MSN, CRNP; Joy Collins, MD; Lori Kramer; Mark Magnusson, MD, PhD; Maria Mascarenhas, MBBS; Anne Reilly, MD, MPH; Susan Rettig, RN, BSN

Round 2

Anticoagulant Management Program

Awardees: Leslie Raffini, MD

Chemotherapy Tracking System

Awardees: Charles Bailey, MD, PhD

From Knowledge to Practice: Developing the Infrastructure to Create and Implement Collaborative Clinical Pathways

Awardees: Ron Keren, MD, MPH; Jane Lavelle, MD

Intestinal Rehabilitation Program

Awardees: Maria Mascarenhas, MBBS
Key Contacts: Christina Bales, MD

Unit-Based Patient Safety Walk Rounds

Awardees: Allison Ballantine, MD, MEd; Jacquelyn Evans, MD, FRCP(c), FAAP; Anne Reilly, MD, MPH; Kathy Shaw, MD, MSCE; Lisa Zaoutis, MD
Key Contacts: April Taylor, MS, MHA

Department of Pediatrics CHOPLink (EPIC) Implementation, Quality and Safety Team

Awardees: David A. Piccoli, MD

Round 1

Access Nurse Advisor

Awardees: Alison Marx, MBA; Mark Rodi, MHA
Key Contacts: Alexandra Lahm RN; BSN; Michelle Lizzi, RN, BSN

Referring Physician Communication and Care Coordination

Awardees: Alison Marx, MBA
Key Contacts: Maryann Chilkatowsky, MBA; Michelle Lizzi, RN, BSN

Automated Appointment Reminders

Awardees: Alison Marx, MBA
Key Contacts: Larry Barnes, MBA; Eileen Drames, MBA

Center for Bone Health

Awardees: Maria Mascarenhas, MBBS; David A. Piccoli, MD; Virginia Stallings, MD
Key Contacts: Andy Calabria, MD; Michael Levine, MD, FAAP, FACP, MACE

Center for Pediatric Eosinophilic Disorders

Awardees: Chris Liacouras, MD; Jonathan Spergel, MD, PhD

ADHD in Primary Care

Awardees: Nathan Blum, MD; Thomas Power, PhD, ABPP

Multidisciplinary Cancer Survivorship Program

Awardees: Claire Carlson, RN, BSN; Jill Ginsberg, MD

Office of Fellowship Training

Awardees: Catherine S. Manno, MD; Gail Slap, MD, MS

Pediatric Knowledgebase

Awardees: Jeffrey Barrett, PhD, FCP; Peter Adamson, MD

Sudden Cardiac Death Prevention

Awardees: Victoria Vetter, MD, FAAP, FACC

Round 9 initiatives

The following projects are underway:

  • A-START (Adolescent Specialized Treatment and Recovery Team). The goal of this program is to create a comprehensive interdisciplinary licensed substance use disorder (SUD) assessment and treatment clinic for adolescents that uses a strengths-based family and youth centered approach to wellness
    • Decrease admissions/readmissions and emergency department visits for SUD-related conditions
    • Decrease stigma, barriers to care, and increase equitable access to care for youth with SUDs
  • Building Early Autism Diagnostic Capacity in Primary Care: A Model for Specialty and Primary Care Collaboration. The goal of this program is to implement an innovative primary care/specialty care collaboration as a potential strategy to address a national (and local) crisis in access to timely diagnostic services for autism spectrum disorder (ASD), building on a very successful pilot project currently underway that has demonstrated that it is feasible and acceptable for trained primary care clinicians (PCC) to diagnosis ASD in a subset of young children.
    • Train PCPs termed “Autism Champions” to evaluate toddlers in their practice whose universal autism screening scores suggest a “high likelihood” of autism, leading to faster access to ASD-related services which has been shown to improve outcomes.
    • Implement referral model in which the children referred to developmental and behavioral pediatrics (DBP) are children for whom the Autism Champion is uncertain about the diagnosis, and these children are then seen for expedited appointments.
  • CHOP Outreach Center for Expertise in Pediatric Emergency Readiness and Training (ExPERT).  The goal of this program is to establish the CHOP Outreach Center for Expertise in Pediatric Emergency Readiness and Training (ExPERT) which will build on existing educational outreach efforts and enhance them with ongoing clinical, research, and quality improvement work in neonatal and pediatric emergencies.
    • Build an online intake portal to allow interested provider groups to efficiently request ExPERT outreach and identify educational needs.  Develop a robust program of outreach education and training tailored to individual requests and document/disseminate the outcome of these efforts. Train ExPERT outreach ambassadors to deliver high-impact, evidence-based neonatal and pediatric emergency care training sessions.
    • Expand CHOP’s outreach efforts within and beyond our network to all providers that care for children and who seek to gain knowledge and training for pediatric emergency care. ExPERT will elevate CHOP as the premier institution for neonatal and pediatric emergency readiness, education, and training in the region.
  • Firearm Safety in Clinical Care. The goal of this program is to employ an innovative, multi-disciplinary, inter-departmental approach to integrate firearm safety counseling and locking device distribution into inpatient and outpatient environments at CHOP.
    • Draw upon key aspects of current pilot programs to develop a cohesive workflow that is standardized while remaining adaptable to the wide range of health care settings across the enterprise.
    • Create and scale this program through the lens of health equity, based on principles of implementation science, and with a focus on sustainability by: designing and testing data-driven processes for engaging and counseling patients and families; enhancing and disseminating evidence-based provider training modules; offering Patient and Family Education materials through a variety of means for maximum flexibility; creating processes for safe storage device distribution; and facilitating widespread implementation by providing ongoing support and housing program elements in a “firearm safety toolkit” on the CHOP intranet.
  • Establishing a Comprehensive Pediatric Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia (HHT) Clinical and Research Program. The goal of this program is to establish CHOP as a Pediatric hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT) Center of Excellence (CoE) in conjunction with the existing Penn HHT CoE to enhance clinical care and research for this autosomal dominant disorder of vasculogenesis characterized by vascular malformations in multiple organs. Build a robust clinical program for pediatric patients with HHT that combines clinical excellence with attention to coordination of care to meet pediatric-specific needs and prepare children for the transition to adult care.  Implement a quality improvement measure with a novel educational tool to increase awareness and diagnosis of children at risk for HHT who present with signs/symptoms or family history concerning for the diagnosis.
    • Identify and address racial, socioeconomic, and geographic inequities that have been overlooked in HHT.
    • Create the framework for a clinical and translational research program that harnesses the existing Penn/CHOP resources of basic research in vascular biology, genomic discovery, and therapeutics.

Round 8 initiatives

The following projects are underway:

  • A Coaching Program to Support Development of Skills to Advance CHOP’s Clinical and Education Missions. The goal of this project is to develop and implement a coaching program to support all CHOP GME and faculty physicians in developing or increasing knowledge, skills and performance that advance CHOP’s clinical and education missions. As a first step toward achieving this long-term goal:
    • Develop and implement a coaching program for GME trainees (residents and fellows) that enhances and increases the scale of a successful pilot coaching program for CHOP residents.
  • Building an Infrastructure to Address Racial Disparities in Treatment and Outcomes in Children with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. This initiative will improve our understanding of, and build an infrastructure to address, racial disparities in treatment and outcomes of children with type 1 (T1D) and type 2 diabetes (T2D). This initiative involves:
    • Compiling patient and provider feedback regarding the etiologies of observed disparities in diabetes care
    • Developing a robust electronic health record data infrastructure to extract data pertaining to clinical care and disparities
    • Developing electronic health record-based tools to facilitate equity in technology use in children with T1D; and
    • Generating and sharing real-time provider- and team-based outcome metrics that will support benchmarking of disparities in treatments and outcomes
  • Developing the Infrastructure for a CHOP Center of Diagnostic Excellence. This initiative will develop an institutional Center of Diagnostic Excellence (CDE), which will consolidate and evolve the shared vision of CHOP’s quality improvement teams, researchers, and Cognitive Bias Think Tank (CBTT) members to improve diagnostic performance, reduce preventable harm, and promote health quality and equity.
    • Structured around four inter-professional pillars (diagnostic safety, operational excellence, education, and patient-centeredness), the CDE will advance efforts in diagnostic excellence and medical decision-making, in turn improving the safety and equity of care. 
  • Family Connects – Identification and Provision of Social Resources through a Novel Needs Assessment and Allocation Program in the CHOP Emergency Department. The program will expand upon a novel social resource navigation program entitled, “Family Connects,” initiated in the CHOP Emergency Department (ED) by a multidisciplinary group of physicians, nurses, and social workers in response to increased social need among families presenting to the ED during the COVID-19 pandemic. This program reaches families during the ED visit for social need evaluation and resource connection. This initiative will:
    • Refine and strengthen the Family Connects program delivery process
    • Develop mechanisms for direct community program referrals
    • Establish social needs follow-up plans.
    • Enhance capacity to serve as a resource for other enterprise-wide activities to address patient and family-level social need
  • Addressing URiM Faculty Retention via The Formation of a Faculty Ombuds Team: The Leadership Accountability Team. This project will lead to the development of a Leadership Accountability Team – a group of trusted liaisons who employ the principles of an ombudsperson to bidirectionally serve Under-Represented in Medicine (URiM) faculty and departmental/divisional leaders with the desired goal of improving the professional work environment of URiM faculty via the provision of adequate support, and ultimately, retention. This team will:
    • Serve as an impartial, and confidential sounding board for both URiM faculty, as well as our division-chiefs
    • Proactively liaison between URiM faculty and division chiefs to establish and carry out a strategy for success for our URiM faculty’
    • Provide division chiefs with the knowledge and tools to appropriately support URiM faculty through the collection of themes and sharing lessons on an individual level, and at division chief meetings
    • Assist the appropriate parties in mitigating/addressing any challenges faced by URiM faculty in a confidential manner
    • Identify future URiM faculty leaders, as well as vulnerable faculty that may be at risk of leaving our institution, allowing time for implementation of targeted plans to promote retention
    • Utilize tracked themes to foster improvements in the organization’s overall retention strategy of URiM faculty
  • Resilience after Infant Substance Exposure: NFP-RISE, Compassionate, integrated care for infants with substance exposure. This initiative will use the existing multidisciplinary assessment structure within the Neonatal Follow-up Program (NFP) and partner with enhanced social work and community partners to provide NFP-RISE, a specialized care track for infants with prenatal opioid exposure. The initiative will deliver integrated care designed to decrease risk and optimize outcomes
    by utilizing best practices for serving this population.
    • Provide focused attention for infants at risk for neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome (NOWS). 
    • Partner with delivery hospitals and community service agencies to engage infants and their caregivers from birth.
    • Provide longitudinal, detailed, developmental trajectory monitoring to identify areas of need early and connect infants and young children to therapeutic interventions.
    • Leverage team connections across community services to facilitate continuity of care for infants across caregiving situations.
    • Support coordinated care across disciplines, specialties, primary care, and community services
  • Sleep in Primary and Specialty Care Services (Sleep PASS): The project will create a model for Enhancing Primary Care Specialty Care Integration, Collaboration, Patient Outcomes, and Health Equity. This initiative will transform pediatric sleep disordered breathing (SDB) care by deploying innovative approaches:
    • Implement systematic, universal screening for SDB symptoms at CHOP well child visits through an EHR tool that has already demonstrated feasibility and utility.
    • Refine EHR-based primary care clinician decision support for management of abnormal SDB screening results.
    • Develop a sleep navigation program that integrates sleep navigators (nurse navigator and/or community navigator) into primary care to enhance referral completion and patient outcomes.
    • Collectively, these comprehensive and innovative clinician- and patient-facing approaches have the potential to increase primary-specialty care integration and collaboration, improve patient outcomes for children with SDB, and reduce SDB-related health disparities.

Round 7 initiatives

The following seven Initiatives were funded for 2019-2021:

  • Adolescent Mobile Health Unit. This initiative will create an adolescent designed and focused Mobile Health Unit (MHU) which will provide an extension of clinical and adolescent sexual health services in the Philadelphia area, bringing mobile health care into youth communities that need it most, offer point of care services and refer to Title X funded CHOP clinics for on-going sexual health services, such as STI/HIV testing and reproductive health, provide health education sessions, clinical navigation services such as insurance support, referrals for behavioral and mental health support, referrals for homeless youth, and referrals to social/community support groups and programs, and create entry points to build long-term relationships for health care. Download the poster presentation.
  • Leveraging the Baldrige Performance Excellence Framework to Embed Evidenced Based Management Practices in Ambulatory Operations and Improve Patient Access to Care. The goal of this project is to successfully implement a bundle of evidence-based strategies to improve patient access in the ambulatory clinic environment using operations management, implementation science and the Baldrige performance excellence framework. This will include creating an ambulatory care innovation lab to accelerate operational improvements, and implementing and scaling tests of change related to scheduling and visit cycle time optimization (e.g. scheduling template best practices, appointment smoothing), care model reconstruction (e.g. combined electronic and in-person consultation models), and pre-visit appointment information collection. Download the poster presentation.
  • Communicating and Connecting Mental Health Needs of Patients. This project will improve patients’ access to mental health services by identifying and addressing unmet care coordination needs for mental health referrals. The project will assess the current state of mental health referral patterns, focusing first on primary care sites, develop consensus recommendations on appropriate practices for mental health referrals, and use quality improvement methods to conduct a gap analysis for what is needed to move from current practice to ideal practice, and implement a test of change towards achieving ideal practice. Download the poster presentation.
  • Debriefing: Broken Down and Rebuilt. This initiative will define and implement best practices for clinical event debriefing (CED) that can be spread throughout the institution. The initiative will conduct a comprehensive needs assessment, build partnerships with leaders in medical education rooted in simulation in which debriefing is elemental to the methodology, identify existing debriefing-like initiatives underway in the organization, including post-event reviews for safety events, stablish care-environment-targeted best practices highlighting the current model of debriefing in the MBU, integrate the ability to address education, emotional processing and QI/systems issues into the CED process, plan for wider adoption of cognitive simulations focused on developing clinical decision-making as a complement to simulations centered around adherence to guidelines and pathways, and change national practice and contribute to broadly generalizable interdisciplinary educational, QI and patient care improvements. Download the poster presentation
  • Endocrine Late Effects after Cancer Therapy (ELECT) Program. This project will establish an Endocrine Late Effects program, to expand access and provide high-level and consistent endocrine care for a growing population of childhood cancer survivors. In addition to serving current patient needs from the Survivorship, Neuro Oncology, Bone Marrow Transplant, and general oncology referrals, serve the growing needs of programs such as the CAR T-cell Program, Bone Marrow Failure, Neurofibromatosis, and Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis (LCH). Download the poster presentation.
  • Pulmonary and Allergy Personalized Asthma (PAPA) Clinic. The goal of this project is to create personalized and improved care for children with problematic, difficult to treat asthma and their families by utilizing a multidisciplinary clinic approach to create an innovative model for care where the needs of patients are addressed in an organized step-wise strategy to implement personalized steps for improved understanding and adherence to their care, leveraging tools such as Healthy Planet and EPIC multi-disciplinary clinic (MDC) models, and further strengthening collaboration with our partners in this process including Primary Care, Asthma Population Health Workgroup, Community Asthma Prevention program, Emergency Medicine, Social Work, Community Impact, Primary Care etc. Download the poster presentation.
  • Doctor-to-Doctor Teledermatology: Leading the Way in High-Quality Pediatric Telemedicine. This initiative will Implement teledermatology services via EPIC eConsult to 5 total primary care sites within the CHOP Care Network which will optimize workflow for primary care and dermatology providers, complete development of a secure, provider-to-provider teledermatology platform via eConsult functionality in Epic 2018. This will include the development of a dashboard to track operational metrics, forge early partnership with insurers to establish interest and share data, and complete needs assessment survey of PCPs regarding curbside consultation and teledermatology. Download the poster presentation.

Round 6 initiatives

The following six Initiatives were funded for 2017-2019:

  • Developing a Comprehensive Cancer Predisposition and Surveillance Program. The goal of this project is to increase identification and surveillance of the predisposition to develop childhood cancer due to a heritable germline mutation in order to track, understand and improve outcomes. Download the poster presentation
  • A Community Health Worker (CHW) Initiative: Enhanced Care Management for Complex Patients This team will build evidence and infrastructure for enhanced care management through the development of a generalizable and scalable CHW role at CHOP. Download the poster presentation
  • Creating a Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) Pediatric Sepsis Program. This team will leverage existing clinical, research, and quality improvement initiatives to establish CHOP as the premier center for treatment of pediatric sepsis. Download the poster presentation
  • Developing an integrated multi-disciplinary hemophagocytic syndromes (HS) team of excellence. The goal of this project is to develop a unique, internationally renowned, multidisciplinary team focused on the diagnosis and management of patients with hemophagocytic syndromes (HS). Download the poster presentation
  • Creating an Epidermolysis Bullosa Multidisciplinary Clinic. The goal of this project is to provide coordinated, state-of-the art, and family-centered care for patients with epidermolysis bullosa (EB), a rare, inherited blistering disease that leads to skin fragility. Download the poster presentation
  • Integrating Lupus Care at CHOP. This initiative will support patients with pediatric systemic lupus erythematosus (pSLE) and their caregivers to improve the value of pSLE healthcare delivery. Download the poster presentation

Round 5 initiatives

The following six initiatives were funded for 2015-2017:

  • An Integrative and Educational Pediatric Genomics Initiative. The goal of this project is to improve access, use and efficiency of genomic testing, and to help patients, families and healthcare providers better understand test results. The team will develop web-based interactive education modules on genomic medicine for professionals and families, and recruit staff champions to promote it.
  • Developing a Hospital-wide Fertility Preservation Program. This team will support the creation of a comprehensive fertility preservation program for patients, families and providers at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. The program will support identification of all at-risk patients, and offer timely referrals, clinical consultations, patient care plans and educational resources. Financial support will also accelerate the pace of research discoveries.
  • Integrating Apps in Pediatric Practice (iApp). This team will develop a process to integrate evidence-based and clinically evaluated health apps for families into pediatric care at CHOP in order to improve outcomes.
  • Fostering Healthcare Coordination of Children in Foster Care. This team will establish a healthcare coordination model for children placed into foster care by providing comprehensive screening and evaluation upon entry into foster care to ensure access to a medical home, sharing information across health and child protection systems, and identifying practices that can be used in the primary care setting and expanded through telemedicine.
  • Leveraging Predictive Analytics and Technology to Decrease Missed Appointments. This team will use data from CHOP’s electronic medical record system (EPIC) and predictive analytics to identify patients that are more likely to cancel the same day or fail to show for scheduled appointments. This information will be shared with staff who can reach out to patients and find more effective was to improve attendance rates.
  • Multidisciplinary Intervention Navigation Team (MINT) for Pediatric to Adult Medical System Transitions. This team will create a centralized CHOP service to assist with difficult transitions to adult care involving multiple specialists. The new service will develop care plans; assess patients’ psychosocial, self-care, and health insurance needs; and identify adult providers – coordinating care between CHOP and the University of Pennsylvania Health System.

Round 4 initiatives

Five initiatives were funded for 2013-2015:

  • COMEDO: A Mobile Computerized System to Assess Acne Patients and Develop Treatment Recommendations Adapted From Standardized, Expert Treatment Guidelines. Acne is one of the most common reasons for a visit to the doctor in ages 13-21. This team refined a computer program that can recommend treatment through analysis of the patient’s skin through photos taken from a smartphone and other data. The goal was to pilot the tool at primary care practices.
  • Enhancing Providers’ Ability to Respond Effectively to Peer Bullying and Victimization. This team surveyed patients, parents and providers about the effects of bullying, and then designed tools, such as sets of recommendations in Epic, to help providers identify bullying and respond in ways that will help.
  • Identification, Remediation and Prevention of Chronic Glucocorticoid Therapy Effects. More than 1,500 CHOP patients are on long-term glucocorticoid (steroid) therapy to prevent organ damage and other effects of immune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus. This team worked on standards to identify, monitor, remediate and prevent side effects such as weight gain and high blood pressure.
  • Thrombosis Prevention and Treatment in Cardiac Patients. Children with heart disease account for a high proportion of CHOP’s acquired venous thromboembolisms (blood clots). This team developed strategies to reduce the incidence and complications of thrombosis in cardiac patients.
  • Proof of Concept of an Infrastructure for Text Messaging Interventions at CHOP: Development and Evaluation of THRIVE (Texting, Health Resources to Inform, MotiVate and Engage). This team studied the effectiveness of texting in improving care, adherence, and well-being of adolescents and young adults (ages 12 to 25) completing cancer treatment. One group received daily text messages for 16 weeks, including education, encouragement and appointment reminders; the control group did not. The project also aimed to evaluate whether texting software and interventions could be applied to care of and research with other diagnoses.

Round 3 initiatives

Six initiatives were funded from 2011–2013:

  • A Shared Decision-making Portal for Pediatric Chronic Illness. For conditions such as asthma, communication between families and clinicians about goals, concerns, and the child’s condition and progress is key. This team created a computer portal where both sides can share information, track progress and make decisions about care.
  • Assuring Quality and Safety at CHOP Community Pediatric Programs. The CHOP Care Network includes affiliations with numerous local hospitals. This team designed and implemented a quality monitoring system to ensure that all CHOP-affiliated sites offered the same quality of care.
  • Improving Hospital Care for and Service Delivery to Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Children with autism have different reactions to care and require different approaches. This team piloted strategies to promote patient comfort and minimize safety concerns during routine procedures such as sedation before a CT scan.
  • Minds Matter: Improving Pediatric Concussion Management. Early recognition of concussion signs and symptoms and early implementation of cognitive and physical rest are key to management of acute concussion. This team analyzed current practice across the institution and recommended improvements in primary care, emergency care, sports medicine, trauma and other areas.
  • Reducing the Incidence of Outpatient CLABSI (Central Line Associated Bloodstream Infections). Long-term IV lines called central lines, used to give patients medication and nutrients, bring increased risk of dangerous bloodstream infections. This team worked to translate safety improvements CHOP had made on the inpatient side into the outpatient realm.
  • Transitioning from Pediatric to Adult Services: A Primary Care Based Model. Good primary care doctors are important to young adults with complicated healthcare needs, but many don’t make it a priority to find one after they outgrow their pediatrician. This team designed tools to help patients find and maintain primary care providers.

Round 2 initiatives

Six initiatives were funded from 2008–2010:

  • Anticoagulant Management Program. Improved monitoring and care for children taking “blood thinners”
  • Chemotherapy Tracking Project. Computerized records of cancer patients’ drug regimens
  • CHOPLink Implementation, Quality and Patient Safety. Linked clinicians with computer specialists to ensure technology improves care
  • Collaborative Clinical Pathways. Established a framework for care guidelines to be created more easily
  • Intestinal Rehabilitation Program. Coordinated and improved care for children with intestinal failure
  • Unit-based Patient Safety Walk-rounds. Provided a forum for safety concerns of families and staff

Round 1 initiatives

Ten initiatives were funded from 2006–2008:

  • Access Nurse Advisor and Care Coordination. Nursing roles, systems and tools were created to support patients, families and providers in coordinating both access and care.
  • ADHD in Primary Care. A team created computer tools, conferences and other supports to help primary care pediatricians learn and manage patients with ADHD.
  • Automated Appointment Reminders. A computerized system was implemented to place standardized reminder calls across specialties to help families remember appointments and support continuity of care.
  • Center for Bone Health. A team provides specialized care for children with poor bone health and helped establish international care guidelines.
  • Center for Pediatric Eosinophilic Disorders. A team provides specialized care for rare allergic disorders, attracting patients from across the United States and becoming a model for other hospitals.
  • Database Development. A team developed databases and Web-based applications to support physicians in research and care.
  • Multidisciplinary Cancer Survivorship Program. A team created a monthly clinic where cancer survivors see oncologists, endocrinologists, cardiologists and other specialists, resulting in better care coordination for their many needs.
  • Office of Fellowship Programs. A team coordinates and streamlines application, evaluation, curriculum development and accreditation processes for all fellowship programs in the Department of Pediatrics.
  • Pediatric Knowledgebase. A team created a Web-based application that combined data about drugs with data about individual patients to help improve outcomes.
  • Sudden Cardiac Death Prevention. A cardiologist and staff provide screenings for undiagnosed heart irregularities in children and teens, and training in CPR and automated external defibrillator use for schools.

Learn more about the Chair's Initiatives


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