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Science Showcase
- Lurie Children’s Ranks #1 in Illinois in U.S. News & World Report Best Children’s Hospitals for 2025-2026
- Brett Lullo to Present at the International Congress on Early Onset Scoliosis and the Growing Spine
News from the Manne Research Institute Pillars
- AI Models Predict Sepsis in Children, Allow Preemptive Care
- Study Investigates Role of Brain Scans for Youth with Symptoms of Psychosis
- Motivational and Mobile-Based Support Improved Child Passenger Safety Behaviors, Clinical Trial Finds
- New Intervention Helps Pediatricians Promote Early Peanut Introduction to Prevent Peanut Allergy
- Can Digital Health Tools Help Younger Cancer Survivors Better Predict Future Health Risks?
- Whooping Cough Can Be Fatal in Young Infants, Experts Warn
- Risk of Long COVID in Kids Doubles After Second Infection
- Timely Pain Treatment Linked to Reduced Hospitalizations for Children with Sickle Cell Disease
- Investigating New Treatments for Spinal Muscular Atrophy
Manne Research Institute in the Media
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| | | Lurie Children’s Ranks #1 in Illinois in U.S. News & World Report Best Children’s Hospitals for 2025-2026 | | |
Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago has been recognized as a 2025-2026 Best Children’s Hospital by U.S. News & World Report, again ranking #1 in Illinois. Lurie Children’s again was ranked in all 11 specialties – the only children’s hospital in the State to claim this honor.
Nationally, Lurie Children’s ranked in the top 10 in three specialties – Urology (#6), Kidney Diseases (#7) and Neurology/Neurosurgery (#7).
The rankings assist parents and caregivers, along with their physicians, in navigating the challenges of finding the best possible care for children with serious illnesses or complex medical needs.
“Lurie Children’s is very honored to be recognized once again by U.S. News as a top children's hospital,” said Marcelo Malakooti, MD, MBA, CPE, FAAP, Chief Medical Officer at Lurie Children’s. “We are extremely proud to once again have each one of our specialties in the top 25 in the nation. We are also very proud to again be ranked as the #1 children's hospital in the great State of Illinois. This recognition reflects the dedication of all of our world-class team members and is aligned with our steadfast commitment to delivering the highest quality and safest care for all patients who seek our services.”
| | Brett Lullo to Present at the International Congress on Early Onset Scoliosis and the Growing Spine | | |
The Pediatric Spine Foundation selected three abstracts authored by Brett Lullo, MD, Attending Physician with the Division of Orthopaedic Surgery at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, for presentation at the 19th International Congress on Early Onset Scoliosis and the Growing Spine held November 5–7. The three abstracts will be part of the event’s podium sessions; Dr. Lullo will be the podium presenter for two of the abstracts. The titles of the three abstracts are “No Time Lost, Safety Gained: Impact of Enabling Technology on Early-Onset Scoliosis Surgery,” “Magnetic Growing Rods vs. Early Fusion for Juvenile Scoliosis: What Do Parents Actually Prefer?” and “Evaluating the Effect of Age at Growing Rod Insertion on Final T1-T12 Height.”
| | | | NEWS FROM THE RESEARCH PILLARS | | |
Sepsis, or infection causing life-threatening organ dysfunction, is a leading cause of death in children worldwide. In efforts to prevent this rare but critical condition, researchers developed and validated AI models that accurately identify children at high risk for sepsis within 48 hours, so that early preemptive care can be provided. These predictive models used routine electronic health record (EHR) data from the first four hours the child spent in the Emergency Department (ED), before organ dysfunction was present.
The multi-center study, led by Elizabeth Alpern, MD, MSCE, from Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, is the first to use AI models to predict sepsis in children based on the new Phoenix Sepsis Criteria. Findings were published in JAMA Pediatrics.
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Children with recent substance or alcohol use were less likely to have findings that prompted further testing, treatment, or admission (known as important findings) on their brain scans, but no other signs or symptoms were clearly linked to having important findings, according to a study published in Academic Emergency Medicine.
“This study shows that brain scans are infrequently helpful for evaluating symptoms of psychosis in children in the emergency department, particularly when there are no concerning signs or symptoms that might suggest a need for neuroimaging,” said study author Jennifer Hoffmann, MD, MS, Attending Physician of Emergency Medicine at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics (Emergency Medicine) at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “These findings might inform guidelines for evaluation of psychosis and might also contribute to lowering costs of care by avoiding unnecessary testing.”
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Parents improved use of appropriate child car seats after remote motivational counseling and mobile-based support, according to the results from a randomized clinical trial published in JAMA Network Open. The intervention included tailored web content, periodic text messages and personalized feedback on photos parents submitted every four to six weeks showing how their child usually travels in a car.
“Parents and children might resist using the recommended car seat or booster seat, even though it’s the law, due to inconvenience or beliefs that their child is safe enough riding in a seat belt or recommended restraint. We tried to overcome these barriers by helping parents connect with their values to protect their child, understand the safety benefits of each car seat stage, and build their confidence in using car seats correctly,” said lead author Michelle Macy, MD, MS, Scientific Director, Community, Population Health, and Outcomes, Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, and Professor of Pediatrics (Emergency Medicine), Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
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Results from a randomized clinical trial published in Pediatrics show that pediatricians who received targeted educational and clinical decision-support tools were significantly more likely to advise parents to introduce peanut-containing foods early – an approach recommended by national prevention guidelines but often underused in practice.
About 8% of U.S. children have food allergies. Peanut allergy, the most common pediatric food allergy, affects more than 2% of children nationwide.
“We found that supporting pediatricians with training, electronic health record prompts, and educational materials for parents significantly improved their ability to counsel families on early peanut introduction,” said lead author Ruchi Gupta, MD, MPH, pediatrician and researcher at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, and Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
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Study Co-Chaired by Lurie Children's Chair of Pediatrics, Tara Henderson, MD, PhD
A groundbreaking new study from the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology aims to test whether digital tools and chatbot technology can help young adult cancer survivors get the genetic counseling they need to better understand future health risks to themselves and family members.
Led by Alliance Study Chair Angela Bradbury, MD, Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology Oncology at the University of Pennsylvania Abramson Cancer Center, the AYA ACCESS (Alliance A232301CD) study will enroll participants to study ways to address longstanding gaps in genetic services for adolescents and young adults (AYA) aged 18 to 39, who often receive care in community settings with limited access to genetic specialists. Research shows that more than 10% of AYAs have familial predispositions to cancer in their DNA, yet many do not receive recommended genetic testing due to barriers such as geographic distance, lack of provider knowledge, and limited time for screening.
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Pertussis, or whooping cough, is on the rise and incidence now exceeds pre-pandemic numbers. While in adults and older children the cough can be bothersome and last for months, pertussis in young infants can be life-threatening. Most children under 2 months of age with pertussis in the United States are hospitalized. In a special article published in Pediatrics, experts strongly encourage vaccination, especially during pregnancy.
“Pertussis symptoms are different in infants,” said leading author Caitlin Li, MD, infectious diseases specialist at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “The characteristic whooping cough may be absent, but apnea, or breathing interruption, is common.”
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Children and adolescents were twice as likely to experience long COVID after catching COVID for the second time, compared to their peers with a single previous infection, according to a large study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and published in Lancet Infectious Diseases. These results run counter to the popular perceptions that COVID in children is "mild" and that reinfections with COVID do not carry the same risk of long COVID that initial infections do.
Among the conditions associated with long COVID in youth, myocarditis (swelling of the heart muscle that can weaken the heart and even prove fatal) was most common with the risk tripling after a second COVID infection compared to the initial infection. Blood clots in children were more than twice as likely after a second COVID infection. Kids were also at increased risk for many other conditions after getting COVID twice, including damaged kidneys, abnormal heartbeats, headache, abdominal pain and severe fatigue.
“The results of this study further support one of the strongest reasons I give patients, families and physicians about getting vaccinated: More vaccines should lead to fewer infections, which should lead to less long COVID,” said co-author Ravi Jhaveri, MD, Head of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago and Professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
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A new study has found that prompt administration of opioid pain relief in emergency departments reduces the likelihood of hospitalization for children with sickle cell disease, according to findings published in JAMA Pediatrics.
Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a genetic blood disorder that can cause severe episodes of intense pain due to blocked blood flow. While national guidelines recommend prompt opioid treatment, this study is among the first to quantify the impact of timing on hospitalization rates, said Elizabeth Alpern, MD, MSCE, the George M. Eisenberg Professor and Vice Chair in the Department of Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, who was a co-author of the study.
“There hasn’t been prior work that shows if timely pain relief can impact important patient-centered outcomes like admission to the hospital,” said Alpern, who is also head of the Division of Emergency Medicine at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. “If we can stabilize and treat patients’ pain, they won’t need to be admitted to the hospital, where they would miss school, their families would miss work, and it’s disruptive to their lives.”
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A new clinical trial has revealed encouraging results for a muscle-targeting therapy aimed at improving motor function in children and adolescents with spinal muscular atrophy, according to a study published in The Lancet Neurology.
Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a rare genetic disorder that affects motor neurons — nerve cells in the spinal cord responsible for controlling voluntary muscle movement. Caused by mutations in the SMN1 gene, SMA leads to progressive muscle wasting and weakness, and can severely impact mobility, breathing and swallowing.
SMA is one of the most common genetic conditions affecting children, with an estimated 1 in every 6,000 to 10,000 babies born worldwide with the condition.
While current treatments help slow disease progression and improve motor milestones, they do not fully restore muscle strength or function. Even mild improvements in motor function, however, can significantly improve a child’s quality of life, said co-author Nancy Kuntz, MD, Medical Director, Mazza Foundation Neuromuscular Program at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and Professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
| | MANNE RESEARCH INSTITUTE IN THE MEDIA | | | | |
