Mark Wallace, President and CEO of Texas Children's Hospital and Dr. Ralph Feigin, Physician-in-chief of Texas Children's Hospital

“This investment is not about buildings; it is about the responsibility we as a leader in pediatrics have to accelerate the translation of research from bench to bedside,” said Mark Wallace, chief executive officer of Texas Children’s Hospital. “It is very obvious to our board, our medical staff and our employees that there is a significant need in our backyard, in our country and across the world for research and development in key areas. Access to the highest quality pediatric care will suffer without an ongoing commitment to cutting-edge research; at Texas Children’s Hospital, we will not allow that to happen.”

Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute
One of the most notable projects to come out of this landmark investment will be the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute (NRI). The institute will be the first comprehensive pediatric neurological research center of its kind in the world devoted to collaborative, unified efforts to understand the unique issues of the child’s brain structure, development patterns and related diseases.

Disorders including autism and other neuro-developmentally handicapping conditions are on the rise at alarming rates, with neurological diseases, including cerebral palsy and epilepsy, estimated to exceed more than a half-trillion dollars annually in health care expenditures, lost productivity and other economic costs. Brain-related disorders account for the majority of our nation’s long-term care costs, and when combined with psychiatric disorders, account for more hospitalization and prolonged care than almost all other diseases combined.

“Texas Children’s is the most logical home for a children’s Neurological Research Institute,” according to Dr. Ralph Feigin, Texas Children’s Hospital physician-in-chief. “With 23 pediatric neurologists, we are the largest such division in the world. For example, Dr. Huda Zoghbi, one of our lead neurological researchers, and her team already have established themselves worldwide in genetics by isolating the genetic roots of at least two crippling neurological diseases—Rett syndrome and spinocerebellar ataxias.”

The NRI will combine research and clinical treatments of disorders that affect children. Also, because so much of this work will be done at the genetic level, it is anticipated that findings will have a major impact on adult diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.

Texas Children's Feigin Center
Research
As part of its $1.5 billion investment, Texas Children’s commitment to research includes the expansion of its existing Feigin Center.  At the expanded facility, research will focus on studies that will rapidly translate novel cell and gene therapy protocols directly from the laboratory to the patient.

“There is no area of pediatric research and care that currently we are not working in,” says Dr. Feigin. He notes that the institution has the largest pediatric cancer program in the United States, is ranked among the three best pediatric heart programs in the country and receives the largest amount of National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding to a pediatric department in the country.  “Whether it’s our Children’s Nutrition Research Center, our work in cardiomyopathy, leukocyte biology or in infectious disease, all of our programs will grow with the addition of new facilities and laboratories,” adds Dr. Feigin.

Education
This center also will serve as a site for specialized education and training. In fact, the U.S. Senate recently passed a bill that reauthorizes the federal Children’s Hospitals Graduate Medical Education (CHGME) Program through 2011, with an annual funding cap of $330 million.  As one of only a few independent children’s teaching hospitals, Texas Children’s benefits from this program and will remain on the forefront of cutting-edge physician training.

Texas Children’s Maternity Center
Texas Children’s Hospital also plans to expand on its reputation in perinatal services with the creation of the Texas Children’s Maternity Center. The center will offer a centralized continuum of care from pre-conception, pregnancy, delivery to post-delivery. Currently, Texas Children’s houses the world’s largest level 3 neonatal unit. As high-risk births in both the region and the nation continue to rise, research and treatment needs also have escalated. The center will offer a full range of obstetrics services for high-risk pregnancies, including evaluation and consultation, preterm birth evaluation and prevention, access to specialists, sub-specialists and surgeons, intensive care services, perinatal diagnostic and treatment services and support, including parenting classes, lactation support and social services.

“The Texas Children’s Maternity Center is an extension of collaborative relationships we’ve forged with other hospitals over the years,” according to Wallace. “The addition of a high-risk OB program is a natural fit that complements our services for critically ill newborns and infants and is the best way we know to improve neonatal outcomes. We will be providing the very best care available, while bringing a very special expertise to the child.  It’s why we’re able to recruit the best physicians in the country, such as acclaimed fetal interventionalists Drs. Moise and Johnson, who will help form the cornerstone of this new program.”

Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus
In recognition of growing health care needs and a shifting population base, Texas Children’s will expand its existing work in the community by breaking ground on one of the largest suburban pediatric hospitals in the country. For west Houston, one of the fastest-growing areas nationally, plans call for an emergency center, operating rooms, intermediate and acute-care inpatient beds and outpatient services as well as physician offices.

“We will bring a full range of needed, world-class pediatric services to support the area. This is the health care model of the future: to get to patients and treat them before they become critically ill and to ensure that they receive access to the full continuum of care," says Wallace. "We’re simply building off the fine work of our Texas Children’s Pediatric Associates group, our community clinics and neighborhood initiatives to ensure that the highest quality of pediatric care is accessible.”