Childress Summit II by Dr. Meredith

It’s wonderful to reflect back on the recently completed Childress Institute for Pediatric Trauma’s second Summit, in part, obviously, because it has left me so inspired and so motivated to go out and do more and continue this great work and cause. It was a really terrific event.

As usual, the hospitality and the orchestration were magnificent, and the team leaders, Drs. Mary Fallat, Jeff Upperman and David Mooney, were terrific. They had just the right preparation on each of the three projects that we had identified.

The attendees came prepared and motivated and we determined some important things for the Childress Institute. The first Summit was held in April 2013 and resulted in a lot of progress and a great article in the “Journal of Trauma,” which laid out the next steps for improving the medical care of injured children.

As the Childress Institute started working through those areas of need, it became obvious we needed to work on finding our next meal before we try to solve world hunger. In other words, the Childress Institute needs to focus.

By that, I mean the Childress Institute needs to focus its efforts to be the most impactful. Under the leadership of Bob Gfeller, we narrowed down the offerings from Summit I and determined next steps with an action plan. The team leaders put together three major projects:

• Rural Provider Needs Assessment – led by Dr. Upperman
• Pediatric Trauma Educational Platform – led by Dr. Mooney
• Pediatric Trauma Dashboard – led by Dr. Fallat

They led those topics, and will carry us through to recommendations and workable projects that we can break down and focus on to accomplish in a known timeframe.

Our hand-picked, nationally-renowned leaders including:

• American College of Surgeons
• Boston Children’s Hospital
• Brenner Children’s Hospital at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center
• Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
• Children’s Hospital Los Angeles
• Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC
• Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin
• Children’s National Health System
• Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center
• Emergency Medical Services for Children National Resource Center
• Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development/NIH
• Kosair Children’s Hospital
• KY Hospital Association
• Maternal Child Health Bureau / HRSA
• Nationwide Children’s Hospital
• Phoenix Children’s Hospital
• San Antonio Military Medical Center
• Texas Children’s Hospital
• Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences
• University of Toronto
• University of Utah
• University of Washington

A special thanks and recognition should go to our new executive director, Bob Gfeller, who brought all the passion of his personal history and all the expertise of his past work experience to the Institute, the cause and the Summit. It allowed us to accomplish the task of sorting through these great ideas and turning them into something that we can make into value for injured children in the country, and value for the Childress Institute’s mission and goals. A big thanks to him and all the participants because it was gratifying, inspiring, and unbelievably productive. I would also be remiss if I didn’t thank Michelle Caldwell for keeping us on task throughout the planning process, organizing the agenda and adding all of her personal touches to make the experience memorable for all our participants.

From this, we will move forward to write another paper for publishing and inform the rest of the world about the progress that we’ve made. We’ll set priorities for several of the projects that came from this, and improve the fate for injured kids in this country. Well done, everyone.

Dr. Wayne Meredith, Medical Advisor, Childress Institute for Pediatric Trauma