Children & Young Adults

Approximately 1 in 15 young adults have high blood pressure, and they have lowest rates of blood pressure control compared to other adult age groups, putting them at risk for a future heart attack, stroke, congestive heart failure, and/or kidney disease. To help address this issue, Dr. Heather Johnson and her team recently launched a new website, MyHEART, that aims to help young adults with high blood pressure live a healthier life, lower their blood pressure, and prevent heart disease. A toolkit with information for providers and administrators about how they can use and promote the website with patients is also available.

A team of investigators that includes Dr. Elizabeth Cox recently received funding from AHRQ and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to develop and implement new children's quality measures for asthma and sickle cell disease. The project is funded under the Pediatric Quality Measures Program, and will be used by state Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Programs, as well as payors, clinicians, and patients & families to measure improve the quality of care for children with these diseases.

Researchers at UW-Madison, including Dr. Nancy Pandhi, recently launched a new web-based resource to help patients, doctors, and researchers learn more about patient experiences with illness and health. The first stories available on the website are about depression in young adults, and over time, the website will grow to include patient stories on other conditions and health issues. Learn more about the project here.

The Society of Hospital Medicine is now offering CME credit for a webinar led by Dr. Elizabeth Cox and Dr. Michelle Kelly on the development, implementation, and evaluation of a family-centered rounds checklist and associated toolkit of materials to support best practices in family-centered rounding. The CME activity is free. You can view details and register here.

Drs. Elizabeth Cox and Michelle Kelly spoke about family-centered rounds at a Society of Hospital Medicine webinar on Wednesday, April 22. The webinar reviewed the development, implementation, and evaluation of a family-centered rounds checklist and the associated toolkit of materials, available on HIPxChange, to support best practices in family-centered rounding. The webinar recording will be available on the Society of Hospital Medicine website.

Dr. Elizabeth Cox's project funded by the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) is featured in a recent article on patient engagement in clinical trials in the Wall Street Journal. In the project, Dr. Cox and colleagues are working with children and their families to determine the optimal way to tailor a family-centered diabetes management program to pediatric patients' specific needs.

Dr. Elizabeth Cox's project funded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to study family-centered tailoring of pediatric diabetes self-management resources was recently featured in the PCORI Board of Governors meeting. The slides for the meeting will be linked here when they become available on the PCORI website.

Dr. Ryan Coller will be participating in a $9.45 million CMS Innovation Award that was recently received by the State of Wisconsin Department of Health Services, the UW Health Pediatric Complex Care Program, and the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin Special Needs Program. The award will enable further development of the Pediatric Complex Care Program's mission of care coordination for children with medical complexity.

The Children's Hospital Safety Climate Questionnaire and Access Integrated Primary Care Consulting Psychiatry toolkit were recently posted as resources in the iCollaborative section of the AAMC MedEdPORTAL, a website that aims to equip healthcare professionals across the continuum of care with tools to improve patient care.