More Than Caring – Curing
Research Improves Care at The Children’s Hospital
Many hospitals dedicate themselves to treating illnesses and mending injuries. But at The Children’s Hospital, our four-pillared mission includes patient care, education, research and advocacy – a comprehensive approach that provides better treatment, now and in the future.
Our academic affiliation with the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine means our doctors are not only expert clinicians, but also active researchers discovering new treatments and cures. Our physicians practice medicine at The Children’s Hospital while educating the next generation of pediatricians, family practitioners and pediatric specialists, and pioneering research in many fields.
“One of the things we want to do is provide the kind of information, from research and clinical experience, to help the physician on the front lines provide the best care,” says Stephen R. Daniels, MD, PhD, pediatrician in chief and L. Joseph Butterfield Chair of Pediatrics at The Children’s Hospital.
National Leadership in Pediatric Research
The Children’s Hospital and its affiliates are responsible for virtually all of the pediatric research published in the Rocky Mountain region in the past decade, as well as several internationally recognized medical milestones including the discovery of toxic shock syndrome and development of new pediatric heart surgery techniques now used around the world. We receive more than $30 million in research funding each year from National Institutes of Health and other government agencies, as well as foundations, local philanthropists and private industry.
Current research at The Children’s hospital ranges from improving treatments for diseases such as leukemia, cystic fibrosis and diabetes to developing a new artificial heart pump for kids born with only one ventricle.
Our Experimental Therapeutics Program – one of only five west of the Mississippi River – expands cancer patients’ options for access to new treatments with new combinations of approved drugs, allowing patients to access treatments at Children’s instead of having to travel to another facility.
Doctors at The Children’s Hospital are also developing new therapies using umbilical cord stem cells to help regenerate damaged or defective cells, potentially unlocking treatments for numerous childhood diseases. Thanks to a $5 million gift from the Gates Frontiers Fund, the Charles C. Gates Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Biology program at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine will expand its research program to encompass pediatrics. To support the research, The Children’s Hospital will recruit a physician-scientist who will hold a new endowed chair, the Diane G. Wallach Chair in Pediatric Stem Cell Biology.
“This research holds great promise for improving our ability to treat a wide variety of childhood illnesses and congenital malformations,” Dr. Daniels says.
New Location Supports Research Opportunities
The new Children’s Hospital, located at I-225 and East Colfax Avenue, is part of the first university-affiliated biosciences park west of the Mississippi River, including 600,000 square feet of research space, two adult hospitals and the University of Colorado’s medical, dental, nursing and pharmacy schools.
The Anschutz Medical Campus has been described as a city of its own, where world-class research meets state-of-the-art facilities for patient care. The close proximity allows doctors to collaborate with their academic colleagues and put scientific discoveries into practice immediately improving children’s lives.
“For the first time, we have all of the campus working together across all of the areas we’re interested in,” Dr. Daniels says. “You meet different people and have different interactions, and there are great conference and education facilities. People are excited about working in that environment, and I think that will be an incentive to the kinds of people we want to attract.”
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