2016: A banner year for innovation at Children's National Health System

WASHINGTON, April 18, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In 2016, clinicians and research scientists working at Children's National Health System published more than 1,100 articles in high-impact journals about a wide array of topics. A Children's Research Institute review group selected the top articles for the calendar year considering, among other factors, work published in top-tier journals with impact factors of 9.5 and higher.

"Conducting world-class research and publishing the results in prestigious journals represents the pinnacle of many research scientists' careers. I am pleased to see Children's National staff continue this essential tradition," says Mark L. Batshaw, M.D., Physician-in-Chief and Chief Academic Officer at Children's National. "While it was difficult for us to winnow the field of worthy contenders to this select group, these papers not only inform the field broadly, they epitomize the multidisciplinary nature of our research," Dr. Batshaw adds.

The published papers explain research that includes discoveries made at the genetic and cellular levels, clinical insights and a robotic innovation that promises to revolutionize surgery:

• Outcomes from supervised autonomous procedures are superior to surgery performed by expert surgeons
• The Zika virus can cause substantial fetal brain abnormalities in utero, without microcephaly or intracranial calcifications
• Mortality among injured adolescents was lower among patients treated at pediatric trauma centers, compared with adolescents treated at other trauma center types
• Hydroxycarbamide can substitute for chronic transfusions to maintain transcranial Doppler flow velocities for high-risk children with sickle cell anemia
• There is convincing evidence of the efficacy of in vivo genome editing in an authentic animal model of a lethal human metabolic disease
• Sirt1 is an essential regulator of oligodendrocyte progenitor cell proliferation and oligodendrocyte regeneration after neonatal brain injury

Read the complete list.

Dr. Batshaw's announcement comes on the eve of Research and Education Week 2017 at Children's National, a weeklong event that begins April 24. This year's theme, "Collaboration Leads to Innovation," underscores the cross-cutting nature of Children's research that aims to transform pediatric care.

SOURCE Children's National Health System

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