We Achieve Our Best Together Treating Kids Better Your support of the Children’s Fund is vital to the In 2015-16, CHLA was ranked lifesaving work performed at Children’s Hospital Los the leading pediatric hospital in Angeles. Contributions of unrestricted gifts provide California and among the top 10 CHLA leaders with the flexibility to direct funds to the in the nation on the U.S. News areas of greatest need—and the greatest benefit— & World Report Honor Roll of supporting family-centered care, expert patient children’s hospitals. CHLA has treatment, surgical excellence, research and discovery, been chosen for the prestigious list in each of the seven and education and training. years since it was introduced, and has been named the No. 1 children’s hospital in California every time. Your generosity allows us to provide many vital services—such as the Child Life Program, art and music At Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, we create hope therapy, and psychosocial programs—that are not and build healthier futures for the children and families reimbursed by insurance but are essential to a child’s entrusted to our care. We treat the most acute pediatric treatment and recovery. These programs simply would cases, often outside the scope or expertise of other not exist without donors like you who understand that children’s hospitals in the state. making a child truly well after injury or illness requires comprehensive medical, developmental, social and One of the country’s premier teaching hospitals, CHLA emotional care. has been affiliated with the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) since On behalf of all the children and families who benefit 1932. CHLA is also home to The Saban Research from your generosity, thank you for supporting Institute, one of the largest and most productive Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. pediatric research facilities in the United States. By the Numbers Children’s Hospital Los Angeles serves a community of nearly 3 million children. Thanks to the generosity of philanthropists, last year we were able to reach more children in need of our expert care than ever before. 107,000 14,600 16,000 2,267 $222.6 individual inpatient pediatric emergency surgeries, transports— million patients admissions in community including more among the benefits complex surgical most in the provided to the procedures nation children and than any families of 72,000 other hospital 343,753 Emergency Los Angeles outpatient in Southern Department visits California visits 1 Introducing Our New President The Center, which opened March 29, 2015, includes and Chief Executive Officer 1,750 square feet of physical and occupational therapy space; a Child Life playroom; designated rooms for occupational therapy crafts, speech therapy We are pleased and recreation therapy; and a patient kitchen and to announce that family dining area. It also sports the most advanced Children’s Hospital Los technology and patient safety features, including Angeles has a new ceiling-mounted lifts to safely move patients. leader: Paul S. Viviano has been selected as “The Petersen Foundation Rehabilitation Center gives the new president and patients access to the latest in rehabilitative equipment chief executive officer and care, as well as a family-friendly space that allows of CHLA. Viviano has the child’s mind and soul to thrive,” says Kevan 35 years of executive Craig, DO, chief of the Division of Pediatric leadership experience Paul S.Viviano Rehabilitation Medicine. in the health care industry and comes to us from the University of One of the largest acute pediatric rehabilitation centers California, San Diego, where he served as CEO of in the nation, the Center offers double the space of UC San Diego Health System and associate vice CHLA’s previous unit and allows us to care for more chancellor for UC San Diego Health Sciences. Prior to patients as they rebuild their lives—step by step. his service at UC San Diego Health, Viviano served as Philanthropy played an integral role in the construction chairman of the board and CEO of Alliance HealthCare of this vital rehabilitation space, which provides an ideal Services, the nation’s largest provider of advanced atmosphere to create hope and build healthier futures. outpatient imaging services. Previous to that, he served as president and CEO of USC University Hospital (Keck Medical Center) and USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. Viviano replaces Richard D. Cordova, FACHE, the outgoing president and CEO who led CHLA for the last 10 years. A Space to Heal Young patients in need of intense inpatient rehabilitative care now have a beautiful, state-of-the- art space in which to heal: the Margie and Robert E. Petersen Foundation Rehabilitation Center honoring Bobby and Richie Petersen at CHLA. The 22,000-square-foot inpatient rehabilitation unit is a “home away from home” for children recovering from traumatic injuries and complex diagnoses, including cancer, spinal cord injuries, stroke and rheumatologic disorders. Patients admitted to the unit require intensive therapy, with hospital stays ranging from one to five months. Fundación TeletónUSA rehabilitation gym 2 Making History in Haiti A New Era in Medicine Children’s Hospital Los Angeles has long helped What if each patient’s genetic information could be used children locally and globally. By extending our reach to deliver the most effective individualized treatment and beyond our main campus, CHLA helps to improve improve outcomes? What if doctors could treat disorders outcomes for children in our community and around before symptoms even appear? the world. This past May, CHLA Surgeon in Chief Henri Ford, MD, MHA, led an 18-member team of That’s the vision behind physicians, nurses, anesthesiologists, respiratory CHLA’s new Center for therapists and others from CHLA and the Keck Medical Personalized Medicine. Center of USC as they traveled to Haiti to conduct a The Center is conducting historic surgery—and help two very special baby girls. leading-edge research to unlock the human The surgery successfully separated 6-month-old genome’s potential and conjoined Haitian twins, Marian and Michelle Dave- embark on a new era in Nouche Bernard. The complex procedure—the first such pediatric medicine— operation ever performed on Haitian soil—took seven one where diagnoses are hours to complete. The international effort was overseen Alexander R. Judkins, MD, more precise, therapies by Ford, who was born in Haiti and visits regularly to executive director of the are more targeted and help revamp the country’s medical infrastructure, which Center for Personalized health care for children is Medicine was devastated in the 2010 earthquake. more personalized. “I liken the entire international team of surgeons, To support this innovative initiative, the CHLA Board of anesthesiologists and nurses to a symphony Trustees has committed up to $50 million of hospital orchestra,” says Ford. “The girls are doing fantastic. resources to the Center. We anticipate Marian and Michelle will recover fully and go on to lead healthy and happy lives.” Progress is already taking shape. For example, scientists in The Vision Center and the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at CHLA recently developed a gene-sequencing test that identifies changes related to the retinoblastoma gene (RB1) in patients with this devastating form of eye cancer. The test is already being used to improve treatments for our large patient population. CHLA treats nearly 20 percent of all retinoblastoma cases in the U.S. “That’s just the beginning,” says Alexander R. Judkins, MD, pathologist in chief at CHLA and executive director of the Center for Personalized Medicine. “In the near future, a newborn’s genome will be sequenced at birth—or even before—permitting clinicians to plan a lifetime of personalized health care that focuses on preventing, rather than reacting to, illness.” Henri Ford, MD, MHA, with Marian and Michelle Dave-Nouche Bernard 3 Unraveling the Mysteries “The integrated and comprehensive structure of the of the Mind IDM, and the way that it focuses entirely on children, is remarkably unique,” says Peterson. “It’s exactly what we need to make a real impact in helping children with Neurodevelopmental disorders are a growing crisis. neurodevelopmental disorders.” In the U.S. alone, 1 in 5 children suffer from a neurodevelopmental condition such as autism spectrum disorder or obsessive-compulsive disorder. CHLA is ranked among the top 10 children’s hospitals in the country for funding from the To make an impact on this crisis, CHLA created National Institutes of Health. the Institute for the Developing Mind (IDM), aimed at discovering the origins of neurodevelopmental disorders—and finding new ways to diagnose, treat Peterson’s groundbreaking research is already and prevent these conditions. Spearheading this effort making headlines. Earlier this year, he was featured is Bradley Peterson, MD, one of the nation’s principal in Time magazine after publishing research in JAMA experts in pediatric brain development, who joined Psychiatry, a journal of the American Medical CHLA from Columbia University in July 2014 to Association, on air pollution and its effects on brain become the inaugural director of the IDM. development. The study linked prenatal exposure to common air pollutants with hyperactivity and Under Peterson’s leadership, the IDM is creating a new, aggression in kids. coordinated process of research and discovery that crosses disciplines and brings experts together from Finding these links is just the beginning of the work across the hospital, The Saban Research Institute of CHLA that Peterson and other top scientists will conduct at the and the Keck School of Medicine of USC. Philanthropic IDM. “Our goal is not only to advance new discoveries support allows CHLA to recruit and retain experts, like related to how a child’s brain develops,” he says, “but Peterson, whose leadership will propel our research and to translate those findings into new therapies that will discovery to benefit more children and families.