The Child Health Research Institute hosted its inaugural Scientific Conference, highlighting the outstanding work of its child health researchers, on Nov. 3 and 4. The conference showcased the impactful research being done by CHRI’s membership, and it was the final event in the first visit and assessment of CHRI by its National Scientific Advisory Board (NSAB).
The conference began at Children’s Hospital and Medical Center on Nov. 3 with a keynote address to CHRI’s members. NSAB member Phyllis A. Dennery, MD, professor and Sylvia K. Hassenfeld Chair of Pediatrics, Brown University, gave an inspiring presentation on “The trials and tribulations of the physician-scientist.” As CHRI aims to grow its research platform, recognizing and working to overcome these challenges is of significant relevance.
The next morning, for the full-day conference kickoff and pediatric grand rounds, fellow NSAB member Kevin Johnson, MD, vice president of applied informatics at the University of Pennsylvania Health System, set the stage for highly engaging discussions with his presentation “Envisioning our future partner in children’s health care: Could it be the EHR?” With his expertise and pioneering role in biomedical informatics as it impacts research, health care systems, health care delivery and efficacy, Dr. Johnson’s lecture brought to the forefront opportunities and potential pitfalls in how to interact with and design systems for the future.
Following Dr. Johnson were the CHRI speakers. These presentations were chosen by senior scientists within CHRI who judged all the submitted abstracts. The top scoring abstracts were presented in the general session, and all presentations generated significant discussion and follow-up queries from attendees.
The first group of speakers focused on brain injury and development. Presenting were Xin Wei, PhD, research assistant professor, UNMC Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences; Gurudutt Pendyala, PhD, Robert Lieberman MD PhD Endowed Professor of Anesthesiology, UNMC; and Gwenn L. Skar, MD, assistant professor, UNMC Department of Pediatrics. In the second group, UNMC PhD candidates Matthew VanOrmer and Taija Hahka, along with UNMC MD/PhD candidate Rebecca Slotkowski, discussed nutrition in perinatal medicine.
Next were current CHRI Scholars Jeffrey Salomon, MD, assistant professor, UNMC Department of Pediatrics, and Eric Peeples, MD, PhD, associate professor, UNMC Department of Pediatrics, Their presentations on microbiome and brain injury capped the morning.
In the afternoon, the conference attendees split-off into CHRI Areas of Emphasis (AOE) subgroups for poster discussions. These presentations also were judged to be top in their respective areas. Each room was led by AOE Champions who moderated sessions filled with questions, conversations and potential new collaborations.
The conference was the first fully in-person event for CHRI since the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus, and each presentation was met with great interest from the fellow scientists in attendance. CHRI Executive Director Ann Anderson Berry, MD, PhD, said the event was a great success and strong building block for conferences to come.
“Our goal with the conference was to highlight the amazing, top-quality science of our faculty and senior graduate students and to bring our scientists together for engaging conversation and team building,” she said. “I’m excited by the robust conference attendance, the quality of the science presented and the excitement with which it was greeted. And beyond the research, it was wonderful to see how being together in person enabled connections and collaborations. We will be excited to host this event again in 2023. Feedback from the NSAB members on the conference presentations was that we are performing world class child health research at CHRI.”