It’s no secret that we measure just about everything at Cincinnati Children’s. We do it so we can tell how we’re doing in our quest to be the leader in improving child health.
We also share the information because we believe the more people who have the knowledge, the greater the advancements we can make. We’ve seen it work in a chronic care collaborative we have for children with inflammatory bowel disease. We’ve seen it with our cystic fibrosis program, which has gone from sub-par to one of the best thanks to sharing information among providers and with families.
In today’s issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, one of our doctors makes the case for sharing access to government health care data. Through President Obama’s “Open Government Directive,” Patrick Conway, MD, says “meaningful expansion of data access for researchers and other users is needed to improve the public’s health.”
Dr. Conway, who recently returned to Cincinnati after working in the White House and at the Department of Health and Human Services, knows this will not be easy and it will not happen over night.
But we’re already seeing the fruits of increased access. Not just at in the work we’re doing at Cincinnati Children’s. HHS has a Community Health Data Set that offers “hundreds of measures of health care quality, cost, access and public health through a single access point.”
“The government is engaging partners … to develop applications and tools to use the data to raise awareness of community health performance, increase pressure on decision makers to improve performance and help facilitate and inform action to improve performance,” Conway writes.
For too long, information about how we’re doing in health care has been hard to come by. President Obama says we need to be more open. Dr. Conway’s commentary in today’s JAMA agrees. And so do we.
Bring it on.
This is a recap of health news featuring Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. We hope you enjoy this week’s news collection and, please, feel free to offer comments below– we really do listen!
Researcher Gives Cancer Kids “Hope”
Cincinnati.com (Cincinnati Enquirer)
Children with Down syndrome are 10 to 20 times more likely to develop leukemia than kids born without the developmental disorder.
Jennifer Pope, a pediatric cancer researcher at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, is looking for genetic clues to explain the link between Down syndrome, a genetic condition that causes developmental delays and other health problems, and acute myeloid leukemia, a cancer that affects certain white blood cells.
Study Links Obesity And Smoking With Teen Migraines
RTT Newswires
A new report published in the current edition of the journal Neurology suggests that teenagers who are obese and/or smokers are more likely to suffer from migraines than those who are not.
Smoking and obesity are, however, just a few of the contributors to teen migraines. According to Dr. Andrew D. Hershey of Ohio’s Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, lack of sleep and a poor diet can also cause headaches for teens.
It’s insidious and often unreported, but child abuse is a scourge that haunts its victims today and into the future. It also threatens our very society.
Fortunately, there is hope.
And last week doctors, policemen, prosecutors and social workers came together at Cincinnati Children’s to take a stand of support for voluntary home visitation programs to help children and families today, and reduce crime tomorrow.
It’s simple: stop child abuse and the children will not turn into adult criminals.
According to data from Fight Crime: Invest In Kids (a national association of law enforcement, violence survivors, prosecutors and others), more than 100 children a day are abused in Ohio alone. Of the 36,000 children annually abused in the state, 1,400 of them become criminals as adults.
Every Child Succeeds, a program of Cincinnati Children’s, the Hamilton County/Cincinnati Community Action Agency, United Way of Cincinnati and other community groups, is a pioneering home visitation program. Dr. Judith Van Ginkel, the program’s director, leads a program that for 10 years has been providing help to families across the metro area. Not only do the home visitation specialists look for signs of child abuse, they also help the families with nutrition, housing, mental health and other issues.
“The magic of Every Child Succeeds is that someone comes in and becomes a friend, a counselor, and helps break the cycle of violence,” Dr. Van Ginkel said at a press conference. “These early childhood visits help parents be better parents.”
The evidence in support of home visitation programs is overwhelming. An ECS study published in Pediatrics in 2007 shows that “infants whose families did not receive home visits … were 2.5 times more likely to die in infancy compared with infants whose families received home visits.” In addition, Dr. Van Ginkel said a Centers for Disease Control study showed that children who are subjected to six or more incidences of violence lived, on average, 20 years less than children who were not the victims of violence.
Thomas Streicher, chief of police in Cincinnati, said by the time law enforcement gets involved, it’s often too late, “the damage has been done.” That’s why he and others took time last week to support Every Child Succeeds and other programs that have been shown to cut the rates of child abuse in half.
While most children who experience abuse never become violent offenders, survivors of abuse are more likely to commit crimes as adults. One researcher, according to Fight Crime: Invest In Kids, found that being abused or neglected almost doubles the odds that a child will commit a crime as a juvenile. The survivors are also more likely to abuse their own kids.
We know how to break the cycle. We need to expand programs like Every Child Succeeds. Dr. Van Ginkel says her 130 home visitors can help only about 30 percent of the families in need. There is a waiting list of about 100 families at al times. And because we know “it takes a village,” if ECS is unable to help, the folks there eagerly refer families to two other, similar, programs in the area: Lighthouse Youth Services and Healthy Moms and Babes.
Funding for these programs is a challenge. The state faces budget shortfalls. There is federal money available through the health care reform law, but there may not be enough to go around.
Programs like Every Child Succeed are proven successful. They are less expensive that some of the alternatives, especially mending the broken bones and shattered mental health of victims of child abuse and neglect.
We can’t afford NOT to find ways to keep up this good work.
This is a recap of health news featuring Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. We hope you enjoy this week’s edition of collected news and, please, feel free to offer comments below– we really do listen!
Lifestyle Affects Teen Headaches
CNN.com
Teenagers who are overweight, got little exercise and smoked are much more likely to get headaches than teens who are healthier, according to a study recently reported in the medical journal Neurology.
“This study is significant because lots of times, especially in America, we focus on trying to get better with a pill and this shows that by learning to control or maintain these healthy habits, presumably it will improve their overall outcome with headaches,” explains Dr. Andrew Hershey, director of the Headache Center at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.
More Teens Suffering From Hearing Loss
WKRC-TV (Cincinnati)
The Fetal Care Center of Cincinnati Making Miracles in Tri-State
WKRC-TV (Cincinnati)
Imagine being pregnant with twins when you’re told one of your unborn babies has a fluid buildup in its chest. The Fetal Care Center of Cincinnati is a collaboration among Children’s Hospital Medical Center, University Hospital and Good Samaritan Hospital, and is leading the way in this specialized care and attracting moms from all over the world.
Elisabeth Baldock, senior vice president of human resources at Cincinnati Children’s, explains that in any organization, it is important to hire good people and adequately compensate them for their work. This story further communicates Cincinnati Children’s commitment to quality on all levels of health care and business.
