Report to the Community 2011

Advancing Care, Research and Training

The Foundation raises funds to a) ensure that Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and child health programs at the Stanford School of Medicine are able to provide the finest, family-centered care to children and expectant mothers; b) train the next generation of pediatric and obstetric medical leaders; and c) conduct research into treatments and cures for diseases of childhood and pregnancy.

Continued growth in community support has helped transform Packard Children’s into one of the nation’s preeminent children’s hospitals, and has sustained its commitment to care for any child in the community, regardless of their financial means.

In 2011, Packard Children’s began a transformative expansion that will double the hospital’s size and add 150 new private rooms, space for advanced diagnostic and treatment equipment, new treatment rooms, nursing and support services, and expanded clinics. The Foundation’s Breaking New Ground campaign is helping to fund this project, and to support education, training, and research at the School of Medicine. In 2011, the Foundation reached $480 million toward its campaign goal of $500 million.

Overall in 2011, donations for the Hospital and School totaled $62 million, thanks to the generosity of 11,301 individuals, foundations, and corporations.

Among the Packard Hospital and School of Medicine highlights for the year:

• U.S. News & World Report has once again recognized Packard Children’s on its list of Best Children’s Hospitals. In the 2011-12 rankings, Packard is the only Bay Area children’s hospital with programs in the nation’s top 10, including cardiology/heart surgery (#5), neonatology (#6), and nephrology (#7). Additionally, the cardiology/heart surgery and neonatology programs were the highest-ranked on the West Coast. Seven other Packard programs also ranked highly on the U.S. News specialty list, including cancer, neurology/neurosurgery, diabetes/endocrinology, gastroenterology, pulmonology, urology, and orthopedics.

• 

  Kathleen Sakamoto, MD, PhD, has been appointed director of the Bass Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Diseases at Packard Children’s, and chief of the division of hematology, oncology, and stem cell transplantation in the department of pediatrics at the Stanford School of Medicine. Previously, Sakamoto was a professor and chief of the division of hematology-oncology and vicechair of research at Mattel Children’s Hospital and the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

  Sakamoto studies the molecular regulation and development of blood cells. Her research focus is to understand how aberrancies in blood formation result in diseases, including leukemia, bone marrow failure, and myeloproliferative disease.

• Packard and Stanford were verified as a level-2 pediatric trauma center by the American College of Surgeons in June. The new status takes into account the trauma treatment capabilities of the Pediatric Emergency Department at Stanford, as well as the ability of Packard Children’s to offer pediatric surgery, intensive care unit stays, and physical or occupational therapy services to children recovering from traumatic injuries.

  Packard and Stanford faculty and staff involved in the effort to achieve level-2 pediatric trauma center status included Bernard Dannenberg, MD, director of the pediatric emergency department; Karl Sylvester, MD, associate professor of pediatric surgery; David Spain, MD, chief of trauma and critical care surgery; and Karla Earnest, RN, pediatric trauma coordinator.

• 

  In September, Packard’s Mobile Adolescent Health Services, affectionately known as the Teen Van, celebrated 15 years of service, having provided care for more than 3,500 impoverished and homeless adolescents ages 10 to 25. Using a “Medical Home” model, the Teen Van provides patients with primary health care, specialty care, medications, laboratory work, nutrition counseling, mental health care, and social work services. Since uninsured and homeless youth often lack transportation, the Teen Van comes to them, making regular visits to schools, shelters, and community agencies in Santa Clara, San Mateo, and San Francisco Counties.

• In April, the division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine at Packard Children’s was accepted into the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Maternal-Fetal Medicine Units network. The network’s 14 academic medical centers jointly conduct large clinical trials to investigate important problems in obstetrics. This highly coveted role is given in recognition of research contributions to the field, and affords Packard a voice in the development and conduct of clinical trials that will change future national practice.

• Michael Longaker, MD, MBA, the Deane P. and Louise Mitchell Professor, is the recipient of the 2011 Flance-Karl Award presented by the American Surgical Association, the oldest surgical association in the United States. The award is the highest research honor that the association awards, and is presented to a surgeon who has made a seminal contribution in basic laboratory research with applications to clinical surgery.

• Longaker serves as director of the Children’s Surgical Research Program at Packard as well as director of the Program in Regenerative Medicine and co-director of the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at Stanford. He has broad experience in pediatric plastic surgery, developmental biology, epithelial biology, tissue repair, and tissue engineering.

Return to Top