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About the Institute
 Launched in September 2009, the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation at Children’s National Medical Center is redefining what is possible in surgery through innovative, integrated research. The Institute’s physician-scientists are applying their expertise in their specialized fields to pursue the common goal to make pediatric surgery more precise, less invasive, and pain-free. By combining research and clinical work in this area, the Institute is developing knowledge, tools, and procedures that will benefit children in the Washington region, across the country, and around the world.
Through four key initiatives, our physician-scientists are making team science a reality as they address four initiatives simultaneously:
- Pain medicine -- developing tools and techniques to eliminate pain in children before, during, and after surgery
- Bioengineering --using the most advanced technology to “see” inside a child’s body without the need for incisions
- Immunology -- using a child’s own immune system to fight illness and cure disease
- Systems Biology --personalizing treatment for every child depending on their unique genetic makeup, to improve treatment and cure disease
Pain Medicine Initiative
Pain is one of the most challenging and misunderstood issues in pediatric care — due in part to the difficulty of measuring it in newborns and other young patients who cannot effectively communicate their experience. The Pain Medicine Initiative is bring us closer to a solution through the development of the first device capable of providing an objective measure of a child’s pain. Once Institute researchers can measure pain accurately, they will be able to begin to eliminate it with more effective medications and treatments. At the same time, they will work to unravel the genetic markers that show how a child will react best to existing medications for optimal and safe results. The benefit to children will be improved surgical outcomes through the elimination of needless pain and suffering.
Specialty Division: Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine
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Bioengineering Initiative
Current breakthroughs in biomedical imaging and the computational sciences offer significant potential for revolutionizing the way surgery is practiced. Driven by dramatic advances in computer technology, bioengineering research today is an exciting discipline that brings together the fields of physics, chemistry, mathematics, and materials science. The Bioengineering Initiative aims to make surgery smarter, more predictable, and more precise by customizing procedures for each child. This goal will be achieved with sophisticated surgical simulation tools to plan and practice on a digital “double”; enhanced visualization of tissue and even cells during surgery for optimum outcomes; and the development of minimally and non-invasive surgical methods using nanoprobes and nanoparticles. For pediatric surgeons, this initiative offers unprecedented opportunities for achieving previously unimaginable levels of clinical success for children.
Specialty Division: Diagnostic Imaging and Radiology
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Immunology Initiative
A broad branch of biomedical science, immunology studies the complex group of organs and cells that defend the body against infections and other diseases. The Immunology Initiative focuses on developing an array of treatment strategies that will use the body’s immune response to prevent and cure disease. By suppressing or stimulating the immune system, these immunotherapies will also help the body heal itself and keep inflammatory disease at bay. The benefit to children will be less need for invasive and caustic treatments for cancer and other devastating diseases.
Specialty Division: General and Thoracic Surgery
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Systems Biology Initiative
Across the biological sciences — genomics, proteomics, and molecular and cellular biology — efforts are underway to understand the complex interactions that take place among the many levels of biological activity: from genetic processes of DNA and RNA transcription, to protein development, to cell and tissue function, to organ structure and activity. At the same time, breakthroughs in the computational sciences make it possible for scientists to model these intricate biological processes. Today, multidisciplinary teams of biologists, mathematicians, physicists, and engineers are able to computer-simulate a physiological system at a level of complexity unimaginable only a decade ago. This integration of the biological sciences, computational sciences, and engineering is the core of the Systems Biology Initiative, and opens the door to a new era of predictive, preventive, and personalized surgery.
Specialty Division: Center for Genetic Medicine
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A Commitment to Innovation
The four initiatives of the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation are unique and critical to the transformation of pediatric surgery. However, none of these initiatives can be transformational on its own. It is the synergies and collaborations among these initiatives that will facilitate meaningful discoveries, create an environment where the best physician-scientists can thrive, and solve the key challenges of the field. To successfully realize the development of new ideas and set the stage for new standards of performance, the Institute is implementing principles of innovation management borrowed from successful business models — focused leadership; rigorous tools and processes for tracking and measuring advances; and the fostering of creativity, discovery, and invention. Applying these principles across all areas, with a sense of urgency and a common goal, the Institute’s physician-scientists are re-imagining surgery to allow children to live longer, healthier lives.
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