Recent Grant Awards
Creating Enduring Pediatric Medical Education for Pulmonary Hypertension
Awarded to the Pulmonary Hypertension Association (PHA)
I. Pediatric Webinar Series
PHA proposed to create a pediatric series of e-learning events targeted towards patients and caregivers, with twelve webinars being delivered over twenty four months.
Topics to be presented in coming months include Traveling with My Child, Symptoms, Side Effects, and Red Flags, Preparing the School Community to Accommodate My Child Who Has PH, Esteem Building for Teens Who Have PH, Explaining PH to your child, Symptoms, Side Effects & Red Flags, How to prepare the school community for accommodating a child with pulmonary hypertension, How to gauge my child’s physical limitations? How do I navigate around childhood activities?, Traveling with my child with Pulmonary hypertension, Esteem building for adolescents with chronic illness, Emergency preparedness for children with PAH, and Nurturing Partnerships with your child’s medical professionals to get the best care possible.
II. Pediatric CME Courses:
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Dr. Dunbar Ivy’s course General Pediatric Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (including Persistent Pulmonary Hypertension of the Newborn) was completed and posted to the website.
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Dr. Usha Krishnan submitted a rough draft for a course entitled Pediatric PH and Congenital Heart Disease, which is due to be posted on the website in August.
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Dr. Ronald Day is in the process of creating an interactive case study focusing on the diagnosis and treatment of pediatric PH, with a rough draft due date of August 1, 2011.
III. Resource Center:
- Practice guidelines
- Right Heart Catheterization
- 6 Minute Test
- PFT for the Non-Pulmonologist
- Deep vein thrombosis
- Heart failure patients
- Webinars
- Pediatric diagnosis
- PH from a pharmacist’s point of view
- Prostacyclin use
- Suggested Readings
- The “How-To” Series of webinars
- How to do exercise RHC hemodynamics
- How to manage acute peri-operative RV failure
- How to manage the PH patient in the OR to prevent acute RV failure
- How to manage PH in the pregnant patient
IV. Building the Field:
The collection of films PHA is beginning to develop will include biographical segments about many of the most influential doctors and researchers in the field. PHA has now filmed our first pediatric history. Dr. Robyn Barst is the foremost expert in pediatric PH and her groundbreaking work paved the way for further research in PH over time. In addition, PHA has used some of the footage described above and additional footage for a video explaining the value of the Robyn Barst Pediatric Research Fund to potential donors.
Development of a Right ventricular Assist Device for Patients with Advanced Pulmonary Hypertension
Awarded to Circulite, Inc.
This grant provides necessary funding required to complete preclinical studies and initiate a clinical study in patients with refractory IPAH. The project will;
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Utilize the same pump and outflow graft used for left heart support
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Develop a new inflow cannula fitted with cage to guard against right atrial collapse
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Utilize a small pump size that will permit subcutaneous placement
- Conduct two 90-day animal studies to show feasibility
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Conduct a preliminary cadaver fit study
Establish the Pulmonary Circulation journal
Awarded to the Pulmonary Vascular Research Institute
The inaugural issue of Pulmonary Circulation, the official journal of the Pulmonary Vascular Research Institute (PVRI), was published in spring 2011. The launch of this journal has already received a warm welcome from clinicians and scientists around the world who are engaged in research in the pulmonary vascular field. The scope of the journal is wide and will provide a home for clinical, translational and basic research in the field. This will be the only peer-reviewed international journal dedicated to furthering the science and treatment of pulmonary vascular disorders.
