The Use of Virtual Reality in Pediatric Surgery
Mark Ryan, MD, MSPH, FACS, discusses the use of virtual reality and 3D imaging in pediatric surgery, and the impact it has on planning, outcomes and the future of pediatric procedures.
Jun 26, 2025
Transformational Pediatrics
Transformational Pediatrics features interviews with physicians and researchers at Children’s Mercy Kansas City who are transforming pediatric care through genomic medicine, personalized therapeutics, health services and outcomes research, and innovations in health care delivery.
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Episodes
Navigating Kidney Transplants: The Adolescent Journey
Discover the unique challenges faced by adolescent kidney transplant recipients and their families in this deep dive into patient-centered assessments. Host Dr. Mike and pediatric nephrologist Dr. Judith Van Sickle discuss barriers to medical adherence and the importance of a supportive network in optimizing health outcomes for young patients.
Jun 24, 2025
Unexpected Findings in Study of Gene Mutations for Pediatric Cancer Patients
Tomoo Iwakuma, MD, PhD, discusses recent research findings around his studies of the p53 gene.
Apr 15, 2025
Optical Genome Mapping
Children’s Mercy Kansas City is the first pediatric hospital in the U.S. to clinically launch Optical Genome Mapping (OGM), an advanced digitized technology that enhances the detection of genetic abnormalities. Dr. John Herriges discusses what this means for pediatric care and what's to come.
Oct 18, 2024
Expanding Access to Genetic Testing to Rural Populations
Ana Cohen, PhD, discusses Children's Mercy's cutting edge genetic testing, and how they're improving access by expanding research to rural communities.
Jul 01, 2024
Provider Burnout and Prioritizing Wellbeing
Stephanie Burrus, DO, discusses physician burnout, and how Children's Mercy Kansas City's Center for Wellbeing is addressing it at their institution.
Jun 25, 2024
How We Heal Little Hearts: The Piccolo Procedure Explained
The Piccolo device is an innovative and minimally invasive way to close the Patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) in pediatrics. Dr. Rockefeller talks about how the Piccolo came to fruition, the benefits, and what else is on the horizon for the PDA closure world.
Apr 18, 2024
Updated Dermatology Guidelines and Use of Bactrim
Bactrim is a commonly prescribed antibiotic used to treat a variety of conditions, including urinary tract infections, acne and skin and soft tissue infections. The American Academy of Dermatology recently revised its guidelines discouraging the use of Bactrim to treat acne based on research conducted by my next guests – Dr. Jenna Miller, pediatric intensivist, and Dr. Jennifer Goldman, Infectious Diseases, of Children’s Mercy Kansas City....
Mar 07, 2024
Precision Medicine in Pediatrics: Genetic Testing for Children with Cancer
To accelerate precision medicine for pediatric oncology, Children’s Mercy Kansas City, together with its Research Institute (CMRI), pioneered a new whole-exome-sequencing-based genetic test for all children diagnosed with cancer. While many pediatric research institutions in the country conduct genetic sequencing of tumors, CMRI is one of the few institutions performing both research and clinical sequencing in-house on both tumor and normal DNA samples....
Jan 19, 2024
Genomic Answers for Kids Expands Sequencing to Clinical Setting
Children’s Mercy Kansas City, one of the nation’s leading independent pediatric health organizations, announced it is the first health care system to use 5-base HiFi sequencing, the world’s most-advanced genomic sequencing technology from PacBio, in the clinical setting to accelerate diagnoses for even more patients and families.
Jan 19, 2024
Navigating Pediatric Fontan-Associated Liver Disease
Incredible advances in the care of patients born with single-ventricle heart disease have led to significantly better quality of life and survival. Complex surgical palliation culminating in the Fontan procedure is effective and can allow patients to grow and develop similar to their peers. Unfortunately, changes related to Fontan anatomy lead to stress and increased pressure on the liver, known as Fontan-associated liver disease. These stresses can cause scar tissue to form and—rarely—liver can...
Dec 06, 2023
Population Health Management and Pediatric Type 1 Diabetes
In this episode, Dr. Mark Clements leads a discussion focusing on population health management and pediatric type 1 diabetes.
Nov 27, 2023
Data Science: Informing Better Health Care Decisions
Data science -- often discussed with terms like artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data, data goverernance -- has the potential to transform every aspect of health care, from the patient experience to how, when and where care is provided, and improving outcomes. In this Transformational Pediatrics episode, Mark Hoffman, PhD, Chief Research Information Officer at Children's Mercy Kansas City, discusses the challenges and opportunities for data science within pediatric health care and ...
May 26, 2023
Professional Coaching in Medicine and Health Care
The health care sector has begun to embrace coaching to promote resilience and innovation during a time of massive disruption while also cultivating healthier workplace cultures. In this podcast, Alyssa Stephany, MD, Director of the Physician Leadership Center at Children's Mercy Kansas City shares how professional and peer coaching can help reduce burnout, increase job satisfaction, and improve the overall provider experience of health care, while also having a positive effect on patient care....
May 24, 2023
Health and Poverty of Rural Children
Nearly 1 in 5 children in the United States live in rural areas. Rural children experience health and health care disparities compared to their urban peers and represent a unique and vulnerable pediatric patient population. Important disparities exist in all-cause mortality, suicide, firearm-related unintentional injury, and obesity. In this episode, Dr. Jessica Bettenhausen discusses research into these disparities, their causes and potential actions to address them....
Jul 18, 2022
Health Care Informatics
What is informatics and why is it important in health care? Listen as Jill Westcott, MD, MS, FACOG, Physician Informaticist for the Fetal Health Center at Children's Mercy, shares her expertise on the topic and how informatics is improving patient outcomes in fetal health.
May 28, 2021
Genomic Answers for Kids Establishes New Paradigm in Rare Disease Research
The Children’s Mercy Research Institute® is undertaking a research initiative to build a first-of-its-kind pediatric data repository to facilitate the search for answers and novel treatments for pediatric genetic conditions. Our goal is to collect genomic data and health information for 30,000 children and their families over the next seven years, creating a database of nearly 100,000 genomes....
May 10, 2021
Transforming Pediatric Research
How do we create a healthier future for children? The Children's Mercy Research Institute with a core focus on genomics, personalized therapeutics, population health, health care innovation and bioethics is positioned to fundamentally transform pediatric research and create a world of well-being for all children. Listen as Thomas Curran, PhD, FRS, Chief Scientific Officer, discusses the institute and the future of pediatric research....
Mar 10, 2021
Achieving Transplant Excellence Through Personalized Medicine
Children’s Mercy Kansas City is recognized as one of the top 10 nephrology programs in the nation by U.S. News & World Report, and the kidney transplant program has incorporated a number of innovative practices into their management plan that are designed to enhance patient outcomes. Join us as Dr. Bradley Warady discusses how the program’s personalized approach to meeting each patient’s unique needs — including repeated surveillance biopsies, epitope matching and pharmacokinetic assessment ...
Feb 16, 2021
Pediatric Hemodialysis and Advances in Infection Prevention and Vascular Preservation
To reduce the risk of complications related to hemodialysis, the Children’s Mercy Kansas City Division of Nephrology has implemented several strategies. Listen as Dr. Bradley Warady shares how the institution of standardized infection prevention practices has resulted in more than 1,200 consecutive days without an outpatient central line-associated blood stream infection (CLABSI) in a hemodialysis (HD) patient. In addition, Dr. Warady discusses how vascular preservation protocols also are improv...
Feb 16, 2021
Impact of Race & Ethnicity on Responses to Folic Acid Dosing
Devika Maulik MD shares her translational research as it relates to folic acid and different responses to dosing among women of various races and ethnicities. She is using the information gathered to create recommended guidelines for folic acid dosing. She discusses current literature on this topic, as well as her studies in this area.
Jan 05, 2021
Pediatric Recurrent Intentional Foreign Body Ingestion: Case Series and Review of the Literature
Dr. Christina Low Kapalu discusses cases and literature surrounding pediatric recurrent intentional foreign body ingestion.
Nov 05, 2020
Variations in Morning Serum Cortisol Levels Based on Sex and Pubertal Status
Dr. Sarah Tsai discusses his recent findings from his study surround serum morning cortisol levels.
Sep 11, 2020
Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome: Algorithm for Diagnosing and Treating
Dr. Emanuel "Mike" Vlastos discusses the algorithm for diagnosing and trading twin to twin transfusion syndrome.
Jul 31, 2020
Improved Outcomes for Liver Transplantation with Biliary Atresia
Dr. James Daniel discusses improved outcomes for liver transplantation with Biliary Atresia.
Jun 18, 2020
Clinical Characteristics of Fractures in Pediatric Patients Exposed to PPIs
Dr. Nathan Fleishman discusses the clinical characteristics of fractures in pediatric patients exposed to PPIs.
May 15, 2020
Pediatric Provider Well-Being and the COVID-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented work environment for pediatricians and pediatric subspecialists. How we practice medicine has been dramatically changed. When discussing physical precautions such as PPE and social distancing, provider mental well-being also should be a part of the conversation. In this podcast, Jennifer Bickel, MD, pediatric neurologist and Medical Director of the Children’s Mercy Center for Professional Well-Being, discusses how pediatricians have responded to...
Apr 30, 2020
Preventing Type 2 Diabetes
Dr. Kelsee Halpin discusses Endocrinology and Diabetes.
Apr 22, 2020
Bariatric Surgery
Childhood Obesity continues to be on the rise and causes serious health consequences. In this podcast, Dr. Jason Fraser discusses the Bariatric Surgery program at Children's Mercy. We learn who is a candidate for bariatric surgery, the requirements for surgery, why Children's Mercy decided to offer bariatric surgery, the type of bariatric surgery offered at Children's Mercy and results....
Jul 16, 2019
Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: Current Concepts for A Complex Condition
Dr. Tania Burgert discusses Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) and the current ideas surrounding a complex condition.
May 28, 2019
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