In its annual Best Children’s Hospitals rankings, U.S. News & World Report ranked the following six UF Health pediatric programs among the nation’s best: diabetes and endocrinology (17th nationally), nephrology (26th nationally), cardiology and heart surgery (32nd nationally), gastroenterology (34th nationally), pulmonology (40th nationally) and cancer (46th nationally).

“These rankings show that for a program our size, we are one of the top pediatric programs in the U.S.,” said Scott Rivkees, M.D., chairman of the department of pediatrics in the UF College of Medicine. “We are now seeing more children than ever before. We see children from not only Florida but from across the U.S. and around the world. These children come to our organization because of the specialized care that we, and only a handful of other programs, can provide.”

Among Florida hospitals, UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital was ranked highest in diabetes and endocrinology.

“Over the next year, we will continue to build upon our strengths and make our department even better for the boys and girls we care for,” Rivkees said.

In this year’s Best Children’s Hospital rankings, UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital was recognized for the quality of its pediatric cancer program for the first time. Several changes and improvements in recent years likely led to this recognition, said William Slayton, M.D., chief of the division of hematology and oncology in the department of pediatrics.

During the past two years, significant efforts have been made to improve the bone marrow transplant unit, specifically, Slayton said. As a result, patient outcomes after transplant have improved. In addition, staff members have improved palliative care efforts and the division has become more closely aligned with the UF Proton Therapy Institute, which supplies targeted radiation to tumors, sparing healthy tissue. Because children are still growing and susceptible to side effects from radiation, this technique is particularly beneficial, Slayton said.

“This recognition is a reflection of the teamwork and the great work that the individuals in this division have been doing,” Slayton said. “We have really great people here and they really are focused on providing the highest quality care and experience for our patients and their families.”

U.S. News’ Best Children’s Hospitals rankings list the top 50 hospitals in each of 10 specialties, including: cancer, cardiology and heart surgery, diabetes and endocrinology, gastroenterology and GI surgery, neonatology, nephrology, neurology and neurosurgery, orthopedics, pulmonology and urology. UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital was one of 87 hospitals across the country that U.S. News ranked in at least one of these specialties.

To obtain the rankings, U.S. News & World Report collects survey information about patient data and outcomes directly from hospitals and also queries doctors to factor in each hospital’s reputation. One-hundred-and-fifty physicians from each specialty were surveyed. The reputation score counts for 25 percent of each hospital’s ranking.

The full rankings and methodology are available at www.usnews.com/childrenshospitals.

*Special Thanks to UF&Shands Newsroom for publishing.

The new website features information about current ongoing studies at UF offered through the TrialNet screening program as well as information about staff and researchers who are involved. TrialNet is an international consortium of centers dedicated to the study, prevention, and early detection and treatment of type 1 diabetes.   To date, UF TrialNet researches have screened over 3,200 participants in the Pathway to Prevention Study, with the hopes of helping countless others at risk for type 1 diabetes and reducing complications.

To learn more, please visit the TrialNet at UF website. Click here to read TrialNet’s most current E-Newsletter and sign up for their list-serve.

The Conference is the world’s largest, most prestigious diabetes meeting; bringing together scientists and health care professionals from around the world who are involved in diabetes research and care. And this year’s meeting will  introduce new program features and advancements in research that will make it one of the most interesting and interactive conferences on diabetes to date!

The five day meeting will feature eight distinct theme areas and will include presentations by world-renowned diabetes experts on:

• Acute and Chronic Complications
• Behavioral Medicine, Clinical Nutrition, Education, and Exercise
• Clinical Diabetes/Therapeutics
• Epidemiology/Genetics
• Immunology/Transplantation
• Insulin Action/Molecular Metabolism
• Integrated Physiology/Obesity
• Islet Biology/Insulin Secretion

Dr. Haller’s presentation, titled ”Combined ATG-GCSF in New Onset Type 1 Diabetes,” will be presented on June 22nd, 2013 as part of the Symposium on Clinical Trials of T-Cell Therapeutics for Reversing Type 1 Diabetes. Stay tuned for copies of abstracts and Poster Presentations upon commencement of this year’s meeting.

To learn more or stay informed on all the latest happenings at the Scientific Sessions, please click here.

Before joining nPOD, he co-led a start-up biotechnology company, commercializing a patented antibody technology he co-invented. As a Chief Science Officer and Vice President of Research & Development, he directed research projects; collaborated with third parties (private and public entities) for product trials; strategized company intellectual properties protection; negotiated licensing agreements; provided technical sales and customer support; and represented the company at various conferences and trade shows.

Together with his post-doctoral lab management experiences, Dr. Yang is skilled in research administration. He also has had extensive international business experience in Asia, Latin America, and Europe which equipped him to be culturally sensitive and knowledgeable in legal compliance and regulations

nPOD is a collaborative research consortium funded by JDRF and coordinated at the University of Florida under the direction of Dr. Mark Atkinson. The study supports scientific investigators by providing, without cost, rare and difficult to obtain tissues beneficial to their research. nPOD currently supports over 100 diabetes-related scientific studies at institutions around the world. You can learn more about nPOD here.

Three independent studies released in the Journal of the American Medical Association’s (JAMA) Internal Medicine May 2013 Edition issued new findings about calorie content and sodium levels in sit-down restaurants (referred to as “SDRs) and fast food venues.

Two studies focused their research on calorie and nutrient information. University of Toronto researchers analyzed the nutritional information of 685 meals ordered at 19 sit-down restaurant chains and discovered the average diner meal contained 1,128 calories — 56% of the average daily 2,000-calorie intake recommended by the Food and Drug Administration for a healthy adult. A typical lunch packed more than 1,000 calories on average, and at 1,226 calories on average — breakfast meals totaled even higher. ”On average, [meals] contained 151 percent of recommended daily salt intake, 89 percent of daily fat, and 60 percent of daily cholesterol,” researchers cited.

Similarly, researchers at Tufts University in Boston analyzed the calorie and nutritional content of more than 40 of the most frequently purchased dishes from the nine most common food categories purchased to discover that they to be even more disastrous to weight control efforts. Many of these eateries will not be required to post nutritional information when new health care laws go into effect later this year and without it, “fail to allow consumers to make informed choices about their diet.” Researchers calculated that the average lunch or dinner entree with sides contained 1,327 calories — 17% more than similar menu items offered at larger chains. A “rack of ribs” was one of the worst nutritional offenders among both studies. 

Meanwhile, data on sodium levels in processed foods did not fare much better in a joint study conducted by Northwestern University and the Center for Science in the Public Interest.  Results showed that on average, sodium content in 402 packaged foods only decreased 3.5 percent between 2005 and 2011. In addition, 78 items found in chain restaurants increased in sodium during that same time frame by 2.6 percent. ”The current high levels of sodium in packaged and restaurant foods, if not reduced, will likely cause at least one million deaths and $100 billion in health-care costs in the coming decade,” researchers say. ”Action by the FDA requiring the food industry to lower sodium in our food supply is long overdue and should begin without further delay. The Obama administration should take action forthwith.”

The findings come at a time when dining out accounts for a larger share of total away-from-home food spending and whose share is expected to rise over the next decade. Meanwhile, growing data supports the notion that excess consumption of calories and sodium contributes to obesity, hypertension, heart disease, diabetes and, cancer.

Researchers have made several important recommendations on proactive choices you can make when electing to dine out. These include:

• Preparing your own meals at home slashes calorie consumption by 20 percent to 35 percent, simply because there is a tendency to serve yourself smaller portion sizes than are put before you when eating out.
  
• Asking a server to wrap up half of your meal before it hits the table.
• Ordering a “lunch” or “half-” portion.
• Sharing an entree with a friend.

Sources: 

1. Scourboutakos MJ, Semnani-Azad Z, L’Abbe MR. Restaurant Meals: Almost a Full Day’s Worth of Calories, Fats, and Sodium.JAMA Intern Med. 2013;():1-2. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.6159.
2. Urban LE, Lichtenstein AH, Gary CE, et al. The Energy Content of Restaurant Foods Without Stated Calorie Information. JAMA Intern Med. 2013;():1-8. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.6163.
3. Jacobson MF, Havas S, McCarter R. Changes in Sodium Levels in Processed and Restaurant Foods, 2005 to 2011. JAMA Intern Med. 2013;():1-7. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.6154.
4. http://abcnews.go.com/Health/restaurant-meals-higher-calories-fast-food-studies-find/story?id=19170366#.UZPe3LXCaSp
5. http://cspinet.org/new/201305131.html

One of the easiest ways this can be accomplished is through digital health. While the use of mobile phones and mobile applications in disease control management is in its infancy, it is quickly expanding thanks to a convergence of diverse factors—including cutting-edge technology tools being applied to health, the rise of the quantified self (or self-data collection),  pressures created by the Affordable Care Act, the amount of data coming out of electronic health records, and growing patient-practitioner connectivity.

Mobile phone ownership and the usage of mobile applications are at a current record high. An ongoing analysis of current technology tools and trends for managing diabetes and other chronic conditions was presented at the recent 2013 Digital Health Communication Extravaganza held in Orlando, FL.  Findings revealed that currently, 83% of U.S. adults have a cell phone of some kind, and that 42% of them own a smart phone. That translates into 35% of all adults. 

While traditional mobile phones have shown some positive effect in the diabetes self-management space through text messaging, most of the success can be attributed to the increase in demand for phones that act as mobile computing devices with more features, functionality, flexibility and integration with online applications. An “explosion” of health-care driven mobile apps have become available for smart phone users over the past few years. Yet, with over 8112 apps in the iTunes store under the category “Health and Fitness” and 5452 apps under “Medical,” how does one know which app can best cater to their personalized health needs?

Researchers are currently underway to investigate the top 50 downloaded apps for diabetes self-management; placing their focus on select criteria which lay emphasis on: blood glucose monitoring, medication management and adherence, physical activity, healthy diet, problem solving, risk reduction, and psychosocial adaptation; as well as use of the most common theoretical frameworks for diabetes management, including the Theory of Planned Behavior, the Health Belief Model, and Social Cognitive Theory. Their recommendations for the top 50 diabetes self-management mobile apps will be made available over the next several months. We will provide them when they become available.

In the meantime, you can visit our Useful Mobile Apps page for suggested technology to aid people with diabetes in keeping tabs of their daily activities.  These are available on iTouch, iPhone, and iPad. *Please note that this advice should in no way substitute sound advice and/or recommendations offered by a doctor or any other patient-care provider. 

Sources:

http://dhcx.hhp.ufl.edu/index.php/about-the-center/poster-presentations/

• 8. Smart Phone Application for the Environmental Public Health Tracking Web Portal A
  Melissa Murray Jordan, MS, Florida Department of Health; Chris Duclos, MS, FL Department of Health; Rebecca Thomas, BA, FL Department of Health
• 9.  A Systematic Review of Type 2 Diabetes Management Mobile Applications:  Use of Behavior Change Theory and Evidence-Based Medicine Kitty Harding, MPH, Senior Account Executive, Ogilvy Public Relations

http://smexchange.ogilvypr.com/2013/01/is-2013-the-year-of-digital-health/

Cambridge, MA — Researchers at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) may have found a way to slow or possibly even stop the progression of type 2 diabetes; one of the world’s largest growing health problems.

Betatrophin, primarily expressed in the body in liver and fat, was found to prompt the body to create a protein that “significantly and specifically promotes pancreatic beta cell proliferation,” according to the study researchers.

Finding the right hormone was a stroke of luck — senior author Douglas Melton and coauthor Peng Yi were investigating what happens when animals don’t make enough insulin. Previous research showed that when the insulin pathway is blocked in the liver, there’s some process that induces the pancreas to make more insulin-secreting beta-cells in response.

So Melton and Yi treated mice with a small protein called S961, which blocks insulin signaling and induces glucose intolerance. Soon, the mice began to make more beta-cells. The researchers tried adding S961 directly to mouse beta-cells in the lab, but there was no observed effect. Therefore, they realized there had to be some intermediary in the process that eventually signaled the pancreas to start making more beta-cells.

Using what’s called a DNA microarray analysis, the researchers looked at the expression levels of various genes in mouse tissues known to be involved in regulating metabolism — liver tissue, white fat and skeletal muscle. After treatment of S961, they were able to zero in on a single gene, which they called betatrophin, which encodes for a protein that is 198 amino acids long. After S961 is applied, the level of betatrophin expression jumps in both the liver and white fat tissues.

When Melton and his colleagues induced the livers of living mice to make more betatrophin, there was “a striking increase in beta-cell replication,” an “average of 17-fold higher than in control animals.”

Nevertheless, figuring out how betatrophin acts on pancreatic beta-cells still remains unanswered. But this finding does open the door to a possible new treatment therapy where taking insulin shots would become a thing of the past.

“Our idea here is simple,” said Melton. “We would provide this hormone, the type 2 diabetic will make more of their own insulin-producing cells, and this will slow down, if not stop, the progression of their diabetes. I’ve never seen any treatment that causes such an enormous leap in beta-cell replication.”

To view a complete copy of this new study, please click here.