Science will be the foundation for two research and entrepreneurship buildings to be built in the USF Research Park near the southwest corner of the USF campus.

USF held groundbreaking ceremonies Jan. 28 for the two new facilities that will emphasize bioengineering and life sciences and will add more than 230,000 square feet for laboratories, offices for corporate partners, an expanded 30,000-square-foot business incubator and the Center for Biological Defense. The complex will bring scientists and entrepreneurs together to work side by side, share innovations and make advancements that succeed in both the laboratory and in the marketplace.

Photo by Jason Marsh

By Anne DeLotto Baier

Improving the quality of children's health care will require continued commitment by the nation's pediatricians and parents to demand effective and affordable pediatric care from legislators, insurers and providers of care, said Lisa Simpson, MB, BCH, MPH, a USF pediatrician who holds the All Children's Hospital Guild Endowed Chair in Child Health Policy.

"While pediatricians have been forceful advocates for better insurance coverage for children, they've been less active in the policy debate over quality of care. Their voices need to be stronger at both the state and national levels," said Dr. Simpson, chief of the Division of Child Health Outcomes. "At the same time, parents need to be given understandable information about quality indicators so they can make informed choices about health plans and medical care for their children."

Dr. Simpson is the co-author of a report titled "Measuring the Quality of Children's Healthcare: A Prerequisite to Action" published last month as a supplement to the journal Pediatrics. The paper's other author is Denise Dougherty, PhD, senior child health advisor at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the lead federal agency for research on the quality and safety of health care. The article prioritizes recommendations to move forward the national agenda for improving the quality of children's health care. The recommendations were developed by a group of 40 child health experts, advocates and purchasers of health care who met in Washington, DC. The top recommendation was to create an information technology system, designed with children's unique needs in mind, that would help physicians and other practitioners more efficiently track health care indicators like patient satisfaction, emergency room visits, pain levels and treatment outcomes.

"For example, current computerized physician order-entry systems typically are not designed to include weight- and body-mass measurements, an essential part of preventing medication errors in children's health care," the authors write. The authors report that investing in the technology needed to evaluate and improve children's health often takes a back seat to reducing the rising costs of health care – an issue re-emerging as a political hot button. Yet the two are inextricably linked, Dr. Simpson said. "Poor quality health care in childhood can lead to greater consumption of health services and lost productivity in adulthood."

Even when evidence shows that a medical practice results in better outcomes, practitioners often fall short of providing optimal care for children, Dr. Simpson said. For example, despite clear evidence and guidelines for primary care of childhood asthma, less than 60 percent of pediatric patients receive the inhaled steroidal medications most effective in controlling the disease, she said. "Yet, experts agree that most emergency room visits and hospitalizations for asthma attacks could be avoided if more children were taking the right medications." Dr. Simpson said pediatricians are critical to closing the gap between what is known about children's health (evidence-based practice) and what is often practiced. They can commit to improvement in their own practices and join in national research collaboratives such as the Pediatric Research in Office Settings (PROS) network sponsored by the American Academy of Pediatrics, she said. Pediatricians enrolled in PROS work with AAP researchers to design studies, obtain research funding, and collect and report shared findings.

"Across Florida, only 30 practices participate in PROS," Dr. Simpson said. "This is a great start, but we need even more good research by pediatricians at the practice level to provide the basis for new quality measures and to build public support for quality-improvement efforts."

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From left, Eric Bennett, PhD, associate professor of physiology and biophysics, explains his poster to USF Cardiovascular Symposium co-chairs Gene Ness, PhD, and Douglas Schocken, MD. Photo by Eric Younghans.

Dr. Belsole and Louis Martin-Vega, PhD, dean of the College of Engineering, welcomed the attendees, including researchers and clinicians from affiliate hospitals such as St. Joseph's, All Children's and Tampa General Hospitals. Douglas Schocken, MD, professor of medicine in the Division of Cardiovascular Disease, and Gene Ness, PhD, professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular biology, co-chaired the symposium. USF Vice President for Research M. Ian Phillips, PhD, DSc, who oversees a research team investigating novel ways of treating heart disease and diabetes with gene therapy, spoke on "Gene Therapy for Failing Hearts" at the plenary session.

"This symposium demonstrates our commitment to moving new ideas from the laboratory back into the community in the form of new, improved treatments," Dr. Phillips said.

A sample of the 23 presentations on research in progress included:

-- Richard Heller, PhD, of the Department of Surgery, discussed effective gene transfer methods for the delivery of genes or drugs. Dr. Heller and fellow researchers at the College of Engineering are investigating a technique known as electroporation – using an electrical pulse to destabilize the cell membrane, allowing a therapeutic molecule (a plasmid DNA) to slip inside the cell before the membrane reseals.

-- Theresa Beckie, PhD, of the College of Nursing, reported on a National Institute of Nursing Research study comparing the recoveries of post-heart attack patients enrolled in a women's only cardiac rehabilitation program to women in a more traditional, nongender-focused program. A pilot study conducted by Dr. Beckie before she began the randomized trial indicated that the women's-only program was well received, with participants reporting less depression and anxiety.

-- W. McDowell Anderson, MD, of the Division of Pulmonary Diseases, reported on work by members of the USF Sleep Research Group, including a study demonstrating increased cardiovascular disease risk in patients with the most common sleep disturbance, insomnia. Another USF study found that obstructive sleep apnea, diabetes and high blood pressure were significantly reduced in obese patients who underwent surgery for weight loss.

-- Robert Henning, MD, of the Department of Internal Medicine, discussed preliminary studies investigating human umbilical cord blood progenitor cells as a treatment for heart attack. Working with researchers in the Department of Pathology and the Center for Aging and Brain Repair, Dr. Henning found that injections of these stem-like cells improved heart function and appeared to reduce heart muscle damage in rats with heart attacks when compared to untreated rats.

In addition, 20 research teams reported on their work at a poster session. Dr. Belsole charged the group with developing a plan and budget for the cardiovascular initiative by the end of March. He said similar HSC initiatives are planned in neurosciences and infectious diseases. A sample of the 23 presentations on research in progress can be found by going online to www.hsc.usf.edu/publicaffairs/hscnews.htm

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