Pediatrics |

1955

Thomas Francis Jr. concludes two-year national field trials of Salk poliomyelitis vaccine; over 1,800,000 children participate. Francis announces to the world that the polio vaccine developed by former student Jonas Salk is “safe, effective, and potent.”

1969

Mott Hospital opens its doors. Mott was the U-M’s first separate children’s hospital and is now among the nation’s leading pediatric health care centers.

1997

Establishment of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and Child Development Supplement.

As the largest and longest-ever longitudinal, genealogically based study of the US population, the PSID (housed at ISR and initiated in 1968) is one of the original population-level assessments of health in the contexts of social determinants. The addition of the Child Development Supplement substantially expanded the health-focused measures of the PSID effort and set the stage for biomarker-focused research combined with intensive survey data collection that has now become its hallmark.

1998

The Child Health Evaluation and Research (CHEAR) Unit is established by Gary L. Freed, M.D., M.P.H. In 1998, Dr. Freed was recruited from UNC—Chapel Hill to lead the Division of General Pediatrics at U-M. Upon his arrival, he founded the CHEAR Unit, designed as a multidisciplinary, cross-campus research initiative focusing on child and family health, healthcare utilization, and health policy.

The CHEAR Unit is the largest and most successful pediatric health services research unit in the US. Working with his longtime collaborator, Sarah J. Clark, M.P.H., Dr. Freed rapidly established the CHEAR Unit as a rigorous source of program and policy evaluation for major initiatives implemented by agencies such as the CDC and the Michigan Medicaid program. Dr. Freed also actively recruited several junior faculty from other institutions who went on to become leaders in the field of pediatric health services research, and in 2000 he obtained funding from NICHD for the first pediatric health services research training program (T32) supported by NIH that drew other talented pediatricians to CHEAR for fellowship and subsequent faculty positions at UM and other leading academic institutions. Under Dr. Freed’s leadership, the CHEAR Unit grew to become a pre-eminent pediatric health services research group in the United States.

2000

The CHEAR Unit receives initial funding from the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development for an HSR Fellowship program.

Michigan had the first (and for over 10 years the only) NIH-funded pediatric health services research fellowship in the U.S.

2006

CHEAR Unit total extramural funding reaches $30M.

2006

The Division of Pediatric Cardiology forms the Michigan Congenital Heart Outcomes Research and Discovery (M-CHORD) Program.

2007

Origination of the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health – In 2007, Matt Davis, M.D., M.A.P.P., and his team in the CHEAR Unit began the National Poll on Children’s Health as a way to bring the public voice into the national dialogue about child health and health policy in the United States.

Through a unique combination of public-oriented monthly Reports released online in lay language, and over two dozen peer-reviewed scientific publications as well, the National Poll on Children’s Health has contributed a wide variety of public perspectives to national discussions and informed reports from the Institute of Medicine, and has also served as a unique shared research platform through which multiple UM faculty have accessed national household samples in which to investigate their research questions.

2007

CHEAR Unit hosts the 1^st Annual Meister Lecture in Child Health Policy.

2007

CHEAR Unit establishes the National Poll on Children’s Health and publishes 1^st report.

2007

The Pediatric Comprehensive Weight Management Center is launched and collaborates with CHEAR to evaluate program outcomes.

The only fully comprehensive weight management center for pediatrics in the state of Michigan.

2008

CHEAR faculty (Woolford) selected to Co-Chair the Healthy Kids Healthy Michigan Health Policy Action Team, a state wide coalition of 120 organizations dedicated to reducing childhood obesity in Michigan through strategic policy initiatives.

2008

Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology participates in the creation of ImproveCareNow – an inflammatory bowel disease quality improvement network.

UM pediatric IBD remission rates have steadily increased from 66% in 2008 to 89% in 2014. Currently there are 71 care centers across the U.S.

2009

Division of Pediatric Cardiology and MICHR awarded NICHD/NCRR funding to form multicenter Pediatric Cardiac Critical Care Consortium (PC4)

2009

Division of Hospital Medicine’s UMHS Child Protection Team begins collaborations with Munson Medical Center and Traverse Bay Children’s Advocacy Center in creating a Telemedicine Program for victims of suspected child maltreatment.

First Telemedicine Program in the State of Michigan and region for victims of Suspected Child Abuse. Received FIGs award for $12,792 in order to purchase telemedicine equipment to be utilized for Telemedicine Child Abuse Evaluations.

2010

CHEAR Unit receives funding from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and establishes the Q-METRIC Consortium to test, evaluate and advance Pediatric Quality Measures.

2012

The Division of Pediatric Cardiology’s PC4 collaborates with CardioAccess, Inc and ArborMetrix, Inc. to create PC4 registry.

2012

The Division of Pediatric Cardiology receives funding award (Pasquali NHLBI K08 transfers to UM – Case Ascertainment and Outcomes Assessment in Administrative vs. Clinical Data for Children Undergoing Heart Surgery)

2012

The CHEAR Program in Pediatric Unscheduled Healthcare Delivery is launched.

Working in collaboration with the Center for Healthcare Engineering and Patient Safety to design safer, more efficient, cost-effective, and coordinated systems of care for the evaluation and treatment of children with acute illnesses and injuries.

2012

Surveillance system is developed by the Healthy Kids Healthy Michigan Health Policy Action Team for use in the Michigan Care Improvement Registry to monitor body mass index received approval for use.

2012

The Division of Pediatric Cardiology works with the Michigan Department of Community Health as participants of the newly founded Critical Congenital Heart Disease Advisory Committee.

In 2011 USHD Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and the American Academy of Pediatrics made the recommendation that newborns be screened for critical congenital heart disease using pulse oximetry.

2012

The Division of Pediatric Cardiology works with the Michigan Department of Community Health to create the Michigan Alliance for Prevention of Sudden Cardiac Death in the Young (MAP-SCDY).

2012

The Division of Pediatric Cardiology participates with the Michigan Department of Community Health in establishing protocols and educational documents for screening of newborns in Michigan.

Documents are housed on the MDCH web site. University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital and Von Voightlander Women’s Hospital faculty and staff formed a committee to address implementation of reporting process for U-M newborns and for support of birthing centers in the state.

2012

“Decision Support for Parents Receiving Genetic Information about Child’s Rare Disease” – PCORI grant awarded to David Sandberg, Ph.D., et al

2013

CHEAR awarded funding from the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development to study size-appropriate child passenger restraint use.

2013

The Division of Pediatric Cardiology begins data submission to PC4 registry.

2013

The Division of Pediatric Cardiology receives NHLBI funding (U10HL068270) to support formation of Pediatric Heart Network Health Services and Outcomes Collaboratory.

2013

The Division of Pediatric Cardiology establishes a Project ADAM program at the University of Michigan.

Project ADAM (Automated Defibrillators in Adam’s Memory) is a program founded at the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin that aims to prevent sudden cardiac death in children and teens through education and development of emergency response programs in schools and communities.

2013

The Division of Pediatric Genomic Medicine and Division of Child Behavioral Health receive funding from the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to develop, implement and evaluate a decision support tool for genetic testing in children with Disorders of Sex Development.

2013

The Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology is awarded funding from Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation of Michigan to study the epidemiology of Fistula’s in Crohn’s disease.

2014

The CDC’s Chronic Kidney Disease Surveillance project tracks the national burden of chronic kidney disease and the epidemiology of risk factors associated with CKD. In 2014, the CKD surveillance steering committee endorsed the proposal to expand the perspective of risk factors from onset in childhood that influences the incidence of CKD in childhood and in adulthood.

Hypertension worsens health outcomes in the pediatric intensive care unit.

2014

The impact of low blood pressure (hypotension) in the intensive care unit setting has long been understood. In 2014, a UMHS wide analysis of chidren admitted to the pediatric critical unit identified a link between high blood pressure (hypertension) and longer hospitalizations, acute kidney injury and increased risk of mortality. Citation: Ehrmann BJ, Selewski DT, Troost JP, Heiber SM, Gipson DS. Hypertension and Health Outcomes in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. Pediatric Critical Care Medicine. Pediatr Crit Care Med. 2014 Jun;15(5):417-27. PMID: 24717906

2014

The Division of Pediatric Cardiology is awarded funding (Gaies NHLBI K08) for “Explaining Variation in Mortality after Pediatric Cardiac Surgery” using PC4 infrastructure.

2014

The Division of Pediatric Cardiology is awarded funding (Pasquali NHLBI R01) for Understanding Quality and Costs in Congenital Heart Surgery, which will support ongoing collaboration between UM and national partners from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons and Children’s Hospital Association.

2014

The Division of Hospital Medicine and the Traverse Bay Children’s Advocacy Center establishes a contract with two Munson HealthCare SANEs (Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners) to conduct telemedicine abuse evaluations under the direction of Dr. Bethany Mohr, CPT Medical Director. Provision of Child Abuse training to SANEs. Provision of space for exams by Munson HealthCare.

Equipment purchased with FIGs funding. First mock examination in the CPT Telemedicine Clinic involving mock patient, SANEs, and CPT. Services Agreement between Traverse Bay Children’s Advocacy Center and the Regents of the University of Michigan completed. Telemedicine Pamphlet finalized and printed to provide to patients/family in the telemedicine clinic. Treatment agreement finalized and approved by UMHS HSLO.

2014

The Department of Pediatrics and the Divisions of Pediatric Cardiology and Neonatology implement reporting of results of newborn critical congenital heart disease screening from U-M and support of the process for other birthing centers in the state.

A process of extracting data from the EMR and submitting to the state electronically was established for UMHS. Education for practitioners in the state was provided by UMHS faculty and staff. The Division of Pediatric Cardiology is establishing a process for exploring Society of Thoracic Surgeons Congenital Heart database compared to the CCHD screening data for quality assessment purposes. This is a unique feature of the Michigan process compared to other states.

2014

The Division of Pediatric Endocrinology participates in the creation of a collaborative care network focused on quality improvement in Type 1 Diabetes.

2014

The Division of Pediatric Genomic Medicine is awarded funding from the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development to study parental perceptions of Next Generation Sequencing and informed consent in newborns.

2014

The Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology is awarded funding from the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America to study mobile text messaging for improving symptoms and quality of life for patients with inflammatory bowel disease.

2014

The Divisions of Pediatric Cardiology and Pediatric Genetics establish a DNA bio-repository for the CDC-NIH sponsored Sudden Death in the Young (SDY) Registry.

2014

CHEAR faculty (Susan Woolford, M.D., M.P.H.) selected to co-lead the new Children’s Hospital /American Academy of Pediatrics Expert Exchange, which brings together pediatric obesity providers from across the country with a goal of improving the delivery of obesity care for children and adolescents.

2014

CHEAR faculty (Woolford), with support from Project Healthy Schools, obtains funding from the National Institutes of Health to develop geo-location triggered system to prompt healthy food choices at the point of sale among African American adolescents in Southwest Michigan.

2014

The Division of Pediatric Cardiology works with the Michigan Department of Community Health’s Michigan Alliance for Prevention of Sudden Cardiac Death in the Young (MAP-SCDY) in establishing a new school award and responding to new legislation about cardiac emergency plans in schools.

Facilitates the first MiHEARTSafe School awards as schools meet defined criteria. Participates in development of tools for schools to utilize in complying with HB 4713 requiring schools to have a cardiac emergency plan.

2014

The Division of Pediatric Cardiology initiated and completed the project to make Michigan only one of several states with advanced care for children experiencing a sudden cardiac arrest. This work was a major component of the approved state house bill 4713, and was recognized by the national organization “Project Adam”, certifying Michigan as an affiliate state.

2014

CHEAR faculty (Joyce Lee, M.D., M.P.H.) in conjunction with the faculty from the Schools of Art and Design, Public Health, Medicine, and School of Information, holds the inaugural “We #Make Health Fest”. The event promoted patient-centered participatory design in healthcare and the application of the “maker” movement for health.

Promotes collaboration and bridges the gap between the technical and design communities whose members want to work on health projects but need a health partner and health partners who have ideas but need a technical collaborator to bring them to life.

2014

CHEAR Unit and The Patient and Family-Centered Care program (PFCC) launch the first Patient and Family Research Council. The new initiative aims to better integrate the voices of pediatric patients and families into the development of child health research projects.

The committee is a mechanism for patients and families to contribute their perspectives on research at the initial stages of development while also providing an opportunity for patients and families to engage as partners in research once proposals have been funded.

2016

CHEAR becomes a fully recognized research center within the U-M Medical School.

Pediatrics //

2017

CHEAR establishes its Pediatrics Health Services Research Fellowship.

Pediatrics //

2018

CHEAR receives a gift from alumni Susan and Paul Meister. The Center is renamed the Susan B. Meister Child Health Evaluation and Research Center.

Pediatrics //

2020

The Susan B. Meister Child Health Evaluation & Research Center – Life Sciences Institute (CHEAR-LSI) Child Health Policy Scholars fellowship program is established.

Pediatrics //

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