Help us reach more incredible milestones for children and families. Donate Now
In those nine words are contained six years, 22 projects and hundreds of CHOP staff whose efforts have benefitted countless children.
The Chair’s Initiatives is an internal grant program that helps CHOP’s best and brightest minds launch their best and brightest ideas. To have a project chosen for the Chair’s Initiatives is an honor. Those that make it successfully through the rigorous application process receive two years of funding, plus additional supports.
Chair’s Initiatives funds started a special program for children with a severe intestinal disorder, including Saudeeyah, 2, shown here with gastroenterologist Christina Bales, M.D.
Examples of Chair’s Initiatives projects to date: Partnering with primary care pediatricians in the management of attention deficit disorders. Bringing records of chemotherapy drugs safely into the digital realm. Improving diagnosis and care for concussion, in the emergency room and beyond. Creating a computer portal to help families manage asthma. And building special care teams for children and teens who are cancer survivors; who suffer from a rare allergic disorder; who are at risk for poor bone health; who must take anticoagulants; and more.
“We invest in teams that in turn invest great amounts of time and knowledge to improve care for children,” says Alan R. Cohen, M.D., chair, Department of Pediatrics, who founded the program along with Alison Marx, M.B.A., the department’s operating officer.
Project teams are held accountable for results, as they would be with a prestigious external grant. At quarterly meetings to present data and review progress, neonatologists, cardiologists, oncologists and other clinicians may come to the table with computer programmers and business managers. The pollination of ideas across areas of expertise stokes innovation and enthusiasm.
Nationwide, the Chair’s Initiatives is receiving attention as a model for institutions interested in incubating verifiable improvement. CHOP team members have published 39 articles in peer-reviewed journals and, of the 16 projects for which Chair’s Initiatives funding has concluded, all have found funding from other sources to continue.
Cohen, who will step down from his post in 2013, has the final word: “The teams’ problem-solving skills and diligence have made us very proud. It’s been gratifying to help them reach their goals.”
Read The Journal of Pediatrics article.
Learn more about the Chair’s Initiatives.
