The Institute Approach: What it Means to Us
Director, Cincinnati Children’s Heart Institute
Jeff Robbins, PhD, Director, Cincinnati Children's Heart Institute.
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This issue of Research Horizons highlights the work of the Heart Institute, established this past July. The Heart Institute is the first of several institutes we plan to introduce over the next few years, and it underscores Cincinnati Children’s commitment to transforming outcomes in pediatric health by fully integrating our clinical and research capabilities. The partnership that the Heart Institute creates will allow us to better understand, develop and deliver the latest, most effective treatments for children with heart disease.
Why an Institute
Historically, top medical centers across the country have hired the best and brightest clinical professionals and researchers, but have struggled to provide them with the structure or operational processes that encourage the free exchange of ideas and discoveries. Despite our best intentions, barriers persist between the scientific and clinical communities. Each has hired and trained its own professionals who, in turn, have perpetuated a specific clinical or research silo. We believe the time has come for change, and our Institute approach will serve as a model for this change.
The Institute will bring physicians, nurses and other clinical staff together with basic and translational research teams to change the way we understand, prevent and treat pediatric heart disease. It will merge the diverse activities of clinical care, research, education, operations
and outcomes improvement. It will provide the structure and the business processes that not only encourage but drive the exchange of information between bench and bedside. Within the Institute, researchers and physicians will interact daily with the goal of defining new
disease pathways and developing novel treatments for pediatric cardiovascular disease.
The Time is Right
The need could not be greater. Every year, 35,000 children in the United States are afflicted with heart disease. One in every 350 babies is born with a congenital heart defect. Understanding the causes of these problems and developing innovative treatments is a central mission of the Heart Institute.
Cincinnati Children’s has already made tremendous progress in both basic science and clinical practice in pediatric heart disease. We are building a strong reputation for using stateof-the-art improvement techniques to achieve better outcomes. The Heart Institute would not have been possible without this strong foundation.
Looking to the Future
The Institute approach is crucial to fulfilling our mission of educating the next generation. The clinical and research fellows, students and professionals trained at our Heart Institute will be among the best and the brightest; these talented women and men will propagate our vision
of transforming pediatric health care across the nation.
