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McIntosh and Tulchin-Francis Receive the Women Who STEAM Award

McIntosh and Tulchin-Francis Receive the Women Who STEAM Award

by | May 3, 2019 | Research & Innovation

At Scottish Rite Hospital, our team of experts are recognized nationally and internationally for their dedication to advancing the care for children with orthopedic conditions. This week, two of the hospital’s very own received a unique honor.

Pediatric orthopedic surgeon Amy L. McIntosh, M.D., and Division Director of Movement Science Kirsten Tulchin-Francis, Ph.D., were selected as Women Who STEAM by the Dallas Chapter of The Links, Incorporated. The STEAM award acknowledges outstanding women from diverse backgrounds in the areas of science, technology, engineering, arts and math. McIntosh, Tulchin-Francis and the other six women honored, have made remarkable contributions in their respective fields, while also teaching, mentoring and serving within the community and workplace.

McIntosh and Tulchin-Francis are leaders and innovators at the hospital. Both understand the importance of educating the next generation, especially young women who may be interested in the sciences. Together, they organize and host the Dallas Perry Outreach Program and Medical Student Outreach Program through The Perry Initiative – an organization that encourages young women to pursue careers in orthopedic surgery and engineering. They have the opportunity to share their story to this group and showcase what it is like to be a female working in this industry. “The greatest honor is to have the opportunity to influence young girls,” says Tulchin-Francis. “Being able to show them what I do and letting them take what they are learning in the classroom and see how it can be applied in real life is a victory in itself.”

The Links, Incorporated is an international, not-for-profit corporation established in 1946 that consists of over 15,000 professional women of color located throughout the world. The 2019 inaugural Women Who STEAM Award luncheon was hosted by the corporation’s Dallas chapter. They recognize the tremendous value in actively supporting the growth and development of young girls to create a positive future for the community. The chapter established the Women Who STEAM Award to create a pipeline to success for all girls of color, specifically in the STEAM fields.

(Photos courtesy of Reflections HP Photography, ReflectionsHD.com)

Pediatric Foot Disorders: What Are We Learning From Research?

Pediatric Foot Disorders: What Are We Learning From Research?

by | May 2, 2019 | Research & Innovation

Scottish Rite for Children Center for Excellence in Foot includes a multidisciplinary team that is dedicated to advancing the treatment for complex pediatric foot conditions. Directed by Anthony I Riccio, M.D., the center conducts comprehensive research into clubfoot – a congenital disorder in which the child’s foot is severely turned inward and pointed downward. In addition, Dr. Riccio leads the research for complex adolescent foot disorders. Alongside an adult foot and ankle surgeon, Riccio works with a diverse group of specialists to analyze these cases and conducts research to advance how the disorders are treated. 

Prospective Evaluation of Treatment for Clubfoot
Purpose:  To help orthopedic surgeons better understand and treat patients with a diagnosis of clubfoot.  

The research team is collecting data from hospital patients who volunteer to participate in the study. The team is currently evaluating the immediate and long-term outcomes of patients who undergo surgical and non-surgical treatment interventions. Participants are followed until skeletal maturity and are asked to participate in questionnaires, motor and strength tests, gait analyses and pedobarographs (a device that measures foot pressure abnormalities) along the way. Currently, there are over 1,500 patients enrolled in the study. This research will establish a protocol for the collection of relevant clinical and functional outcome measures on our patients with a diagnosis of clubfoot.

The Foot and Ankle Registry
Purpose: To further the understanding of the functional and long-term outcomes of adolescents treated for a foot and/or ankle deformity by creating a prospective registry for patients treated at the hospital.

The research team is currently collecting data on adolescent patients who visit the hospital for any form of foot or ankle deformity. Currently, there are about 300 patients enrolled. Some of the deformities include bunions, flat feet, coalitions and several others of varying severity. If eligible, patients are invited to voluntarily participate in the study activities. These include:

  • Questionnaires
  • Clinical photos in the media department
  • X-rays
  • Gait analysis in the movement science lab 

The data collected will provide the research team the opportunity to evaluate the immediate and long-term clinical, functional and radiographic outcomes of this understudied patient population. By doing this, the foot and ankle experts hope to better define the treatment methods for the varying foot and ankle diagnoses throughout the hospital.

Redefining the Juvenile Bunion
Purpose: To understand the formation of juvenile bunions and if experts should treat them differently from the adult deformity. 

This was a study using the questionnaires, X-rays and pedobarographic data from 32 bunion patients in the Foot and Ankle Registry. The study team collected data from the X-rays through measurements of different angles associated with the foot and correlated them to the completed questionnaires from patients and performance during the pedopbarograph. The study team found that greater angles correlated with skewed pressure distribution of the foot resulting in higher pain and less functionality. Overall, this study will open the door to many more comparative projects to assess the best method of treating juvenile bunions.

Learn more about the research being conducted in the Center for Excellence in Foot.

Doctors Travel to Israel for International Pediatric Orthopedic Conference

Doctors Travel to Israel for International Pediatric Orthopedic Conference

by | Apr 5, 2019 | Research & Innovation

Doctors from the hospital are attending the 38th annual European Paediatric Orthopaedic Society (EPOS) meeting in Tel Aviv, Israel. EPOS is an international association comprised of over 500 surgeons from across the world. This four-day conference allows members to discuss research and collaborate on latest treatment techniques to ultimately advance the quality of care for children with orthopedic conditions.

As active members of EPOS, hospital staff attend and participate throughout this international meeting each year. Several are in attendance, along with past fellows, presenting the hospital’s original research. Below are the projects being presented:

  • Can real time monitoring with a controlled advancement drill decrease plunge depth?
  • Metaphyseal fracture displacement is predictive of intra-articular diastasis in adolescent triplane ankle fractures
  • Gait analysis in children with proximal femoral focal deficiency

In addition to these research presentations, surgeons from Scottish Rite Hospital are directing the first ever web-based joint educational endeavor between EPOS and the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America (POSNA). During this symposium, entitled “Across the Pond: International Differences in Pediatric Orthopaedic Trauma Management,” staff and former fellows from the hospital will discuss and debate current trauma treatment strategies with a panel of European trauma specialists. The debate will be recorded at the EPOS meeting and broadcast worldwide.

Pediatric orthopedic surgeon and director of resident education Anthony I. Riccio, M.D., is one of the hospital’s key representatives for EPOS. “As doctors and leaders within pediatric orthopedics, we have a responsibility to conduct research in order to better understand and find innovative techniques for treating complex conditions,” says Riccio. “It is an honor to travel the world to share our expertise and have the opportunity to both educate and learn from other specialists. Not only does this advance how we care for our patients here in Texas, but it evolves the treatment for pediatric orthopedic patients across the globe.”

Learn more about the hospital’s research.

D CEO: Scottish Rite’s Frisco Facility is Open for Business

D CEO: Scottish Rite’s Frisco Facility is Open for Business

by | Oct 16, 2018 | Press Coverage, Research & Innovation

Read the original story on D CEO’s website here.

The Scottish Rite for Children Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Center started accepting its first patients this week, and the entire building is a testament to movement and recovery.

Color-coded floors, bands of shifting color on the facade, colorful spiral staircases, and dynamic floor and wall art are designed to reflect movement and encourage children toward recovery. HKS designed the center and partnered with general contractor Beck in construction of the building.

Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children is building its second facility after 96 years in its Dallas location. Located at the corner of Lebanon Road and the Dallas North Tollway in Frisco, the facility will mirror the population boom in the northern suburbs and fit in well with other athletic facilities in the area such as The Star and FC Dallas. Conversations about the new center began in 2014, with construction breaking ground in 2016.

According to Scottish Rite, around 25 percent of their patient families live north of Dallas, and the ambulatory surgery facility will be an extension of the Dallas campus and will offer clinic visits and orthopedic day surgeries for children.

The five-story building offers views of Lake Lewisville from the upper floors, and will include 345,000 square feet of space, which includes one and a half floors of unused space so that the healthcare giver can grow with the area. If desired, the facility can be a full service hospital in the future.

Imaging will include MRI and three X-ray units with potential for a CT scan and additional MRI and X-rays. The second floor clinics are positioned around the imaging for convenience, and include a walk in clinic for fractures and centrally located admin space separated from patient rooms. There are two operating rooms with room for more, an infusion lab and space for other ancillary clinics. Surgeries will begin November, and families will be able to wait in apartment style family waiting rooms with furniture and sibling play areas.

The physical therapy gym is more reminiscent of a professional gym than a healthcare facility, and it will be accompanied by a Movement Science Lab built for sport-specific training and testing to focus on sports injury or general orthopedic rehabilitation.

The building also includes a conference center with smaller meeting rooms, a 150-seat auditorium, and courtyard that will serve community needs as well as academic gatherings. The adjacent U-11 soccer field can be used for group rehab sessions, injury prevention demonstrations and coaching clinics, and is accompanied by a playground with adaptive play equipment (which should be complete in December) and a half-mile walking and running trail that ties in to local trails.

Scottish Rite anticipates more than 22,000 clinical visits in year one for sports medicine, orthopedics and a fracture clinic, and 13,000 for physical therapy. Around 50 staff relocated from Scottish Rite’s Plan facility, while 30 relocated from the Dallas campus and 50 new staff were hired for the center.

“We are on the forefront of what is happening,” says Jeremy Howell, Vice President, North Campus at Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children.”We want to focus on the growing child.”

Scottish Rite continues the growth of Frisco’s sports medicine healthcare facilities, joining the Baylor Scott & White Sports Therapy & Research at The Star, which opened earlier this year.

Dallas Morning News: The Rite stuff for Frisco

Dallas Morning News: The Rite stuff for Frisco

by | Sep 18, 2018 | Press Coverage, Research & Innovation

View the original story on the Dallas Morning News website here.

FRISCO — In this boom-town that brands itself Sports City USA, a massive new hospital will aim to keep kids on the field.

Work crews have been putting the finishing touches on the new Scottish Rite for Children Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Center along the Dallas North Tollway at Lebanon Road. The 345,000-square-foot facility, which officially opens Oct. 10, will specialize in injury prevention and orthopedic issues such as broken bones or torn knee ligaments. 

The hospital is the latest athletics-centric addition in Frisco, which is home to the Dallas Cowboys, FC Dallas, the Texas Legends basketball team and the Frisco RoughRiders baseball team, among others. And it will serve a market where youth sports are big; Men’s Journal in 2011 declared the city to be the nation’s Best Place to Raise an Athlete.

Jeremy Howell, vice president of the nonprofit Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children, said the hospital is about more than sports: “We’re giving kids back their childhood.”

The hospital, announced in 2014, will join a market that now features the Baylor Scott & White Sports Therapy & Research at The Star, which opened less than a mile to the south a few months ago. Next year, the Texas Health Hospital Frisco will open a few miles to the north.

The facility will be the second pediatric hospital for the nonprofit Scottish Rite, which was founded in Dallas in 1921 to treat children with polio. Over the years, the hospital’s efforts broadened to treat a variety of orthopedic conditions, such as scoliosis, clubfoot and limb-length differences. 

Sports medicine is now the fastest growing sub-specialty for pediatric orthopedics. Part of that growth is due to the large number of children focusing on a single sport at an early age, resulting in overuse injuries.

The Scottish Rite’s Frisco campus — located along the tollway in what is known as the city’s North Platinum Corridor — will capitalize on that trend. But Howell said a second campus also makes sense now because about a quarter of Scottish Rite’s growing patient base lives north of Dallas.

Scottish Rite opened a temporary space in 2015 in Plano. It logged more than 18,000 patient visits in the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30. Those patients will move to the Frisco campus starting next month.

And the site has plenty of room for growth. Two operating rooms will be available starting next month. Four more can be equipped as needed. One floor will also remain mostly empty at the start.

The Frisco campus will have a state-of-the-art Movement Science Lab. Motion-capture cameras will analyze children as they run, jump, kick and throw. An outdoor soccer field, curved running track and artificial turf at the medical center will help test their limits.

The facility will offer day surgeries as well as physical therapy. A fracture clinic will accept walk-ins. The hospital will also have a rotation of clinics, including those for scoliosis and prosthetics. 

Research will continue to play a large role for the teaching hospital. The medical center includes conference center space with a 155-seat lecture hall for training. The space will also be available to community groups. 

“We’re always looking at new and better ways to take care of kids,” Howell said. 

HKS Architects designed the pediatric hospital for efficiency. Meetings with doctors and nurses helped ensure the layout was functional. The pediatric hospital assigned different colors to define uses: blue for surgery and green for sports therapy, for example.

“This campus is all about movement,” said Bernita Beikmann, executive vice president for HKS Architects. “It’s rainbow from top to bottom.” 

A Rainbow Dragon sculpture from artist Daniel Goldstein hangs from the ceiling in the entryway. And colored lights and panels can be found throughout. 

Spaces are designed with families in mind — more natural lighting, comfortable seating, outlets for mobile devices, coffee bars. The idea is to take the anxiety out of their visit, Howell said. 

“We don’t want it to feel, smell or look like a hospital,” he said.

A Collaborative Research Program Advances Care for Children Diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy

A Collaborative Research Program Advances Care for Children Diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy

by | Jul 19, 2018 | Research & Innovation

At Scottish Rite Hospital, our team is dedicated to providing individualized, expert care to each child. The hospital’s Neurology department is focused on providing treatment to orthopedic patients who have related neuromuscular diseases and neurological disorders. Over the years, the hospital has established specialized clinics for children with these complex conditions. Through the collaboration between our trained neurologists and orthopedic team, the patients are able to receive multidisciplinary care to address their specific needs. 

To continue advancing the care and treatment of our neurology patients, the department is committed to ongoing research. Each year, the hospital hosts a two-week research program for children diagnosed with hemiplegic (one side of the body) cerebral palsy. To participate in this research, children meet study inclusion criteria and go through an evaluation one week prior to being enrolled in the program. Constraint induced movement therapy (CIMT) is a form of treatment where the child’s stronger arm is put into a splint forcing them to use the affected arm for all daily activities. The two-week therapy program includes gross and fine motor activities that encourage independence with identified goals. Activities include crafts, making snacks and games. The program also includes the use of the Armeo®Spring Pediatric (an upper limb video game based robotic exoskeleton). As part of the research, our team evaluates the child before and immediately after completing the program as well as six months later. By analyzing the progress of these children, the data has shown an impact from the therapy including improvement in range of motion, function and use of the affected arm. 

Like many of the research projects that take place at the hospital, this program involves staff from multiple departments. Our Neurology team works closely with the hospital’s research occupational therapists, Angela Shierk, Ph.D., O.T.R. and Heather Roberts, Ph.D., O.T.R., to make this a success. Pediatric clinical nurse specialist Nancy Clegg, Ph.D., R.N., has been involved with this program over the years and can see the impact it has made. “The children we see in our clinics and those who participate in this program are in need of specialized care,” says Clegg. “Our neurologists, orthopedic surgeons and therapists are able to conduct robust research to bring more knowledge and better care back to the patients affected by cerebral palsy. The CIMT program is just one of the many research programs that allow us to collaborate and discover innovative treatment options to enhance overall care.”