A photo of Hector Wong.

Vice Chair, Department of Pediatrics

Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics

513-636-4259

513-636-4267

Board Certified

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My Biography & Research

Biography

Each year, 1.2 million children develop sepsis. The tremendous, but underappreciated, public health burden secondary to sepsis led me to research and care for this life-threatening condition.

In critical care medicine, we are in a unique position to watch what’s happening at the bedside and take that information back to the lab for formal hypothesis testing — and vice versa. In 2018, I received a National Institutes of Health Maximizing Investigators Award to do just that.

In my lab, we develop tools to disentangle the complexity of sepsis so we can bring precision medicine to critically ill children's bedsides. Our work is backed by a robust repository of biological samples and clinical data for children with sepsis. In fact, all of our current and planned laboratory-based research efforts are driven by discoveries generated from our clinical and biological database of children with sepsis.

Every day my team and I have the opportunity to positively impact the outcome of the sickest children.

Additional Languages

Spanish

Academic Affiliation

Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics

Clinical Divisions

Pediatric Intensive Care Unit PICU

Research Divisions

Critical Care

My Education

MD: University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Piscataway, NJ, 1989.

Residency: Department of Pediatrics, George Washington University School of Medicine, Children's National Medical Center, Washington, DC, 1990 to 1992.

Fellowship: Clinical Fellow, Department of Anesthesiology, Division of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, 1992 to 1995; Research Fellow, Department of Pharmacology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, 1992 to 1995.

Certification: National Board of Medical Examiners, 1990; Diplomate, American Board of Pediatrics, 1993; American Board of Pediatrics: Sub-Board of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, 1996.

My Publications

Two subphenotypes of septic acute kidney injury are associated with different 90-day mortality and renal recovery. Wiersema, R; Jukarainen, S; Vaara, ST; Poukkanen, M; Lakkisto, P; Wong, H; Linder, A; Van Der Horst, IC C; Pettilä, V. Critical Care (UK). 2020; 24.

Proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 loss-of-function is detrimental to the juvenile host with septic shock. Atreya, MR; Whitacre, BE; Cvijanovich, NZ; Bigham, MT; Thomas, NJ; Schwarz, AJ; Weiss, SL; Fitzgerald, JC; Allen, GL; Lutfi, R; et al. Critical Care Medicine. 2020; 48:1513-1520.

Biomarkers for Estimating Risk of Hospital Mortality and Long-Term Quality-of-Life Morbidity After Surviving Pediatric Septic Shock: A Secondary Analysis of the Life After Pediatric Sepsis Evaluation Investigation. Wong, HR; Reeder, RW; Banks, R; Berg, RA; Meert, KL; Hall, MW; McQuillen, PS; Mourani, PM; Chima, RS; Sorenson, S; et al. Pediatric Critical Care Medicine. 2020; Publish Ahead of Print.

Longitudinal characterization of olfactomedin-4 expressing neutrophils in pediatric patients undergoing bone marrow transplantation. Stark, JE; Opoka, AM; Fei, L; Zang, H; Davies, SM; Wong, HR; Alder, MN. PLoS ONE. 2020; 15:e0233738-e0233738.

Severe acute kidney injury is independently associated with mortality in children with septic shock. Stanski, NL; Cvijanovich, NZ; Fitzgerald, JC; Bigham, MT; Wong, HR; Shock, GP S. Intensive Care Medicine. 2020; 46:1050-1051.

PERSEVERE Biomarkers Predict Severe Acute Kidney Injury and Renal Recovery in Pediatric Septic Shock. Stanski, NL; Stenson, EK; Cvijanovich, NZ; Weiss, SL; Fitzgerald, JC; Bigham, MT; Jain, PN; Schwarz, A; Lutfi, R; Nowak, J; et al. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. 2020; 201:848-855.

Trajectory of mortality and health-related quality of life morbidity following community-acquired pediatric septic shock. Zimmerman, JJ; Banks, R; Berg, RA; Zuppa, A; Newth, CJ; Wessel, D; Pollack, MM; Meert, KL; Hall, MW; Quasney, M; et al. Critical Care Medicine. 2020; 48:329-337.

Critical illness factors associated with long-term mortality and health-related quality of life morbidity following community-acquired pediatric septic shock. Zimmerman, JJ; Banks, R; Berg, RA; Zuppa, A; Newth, CJ; Wessel, D; Pollack, MM; Meert, KL; Hall, MW; Quasney, M; et al. Critical Care Medicine. 2020; 48:319-328.

Juvenile OLFM4-null mice are protected from sepsis. Stark, JE; Opoka, AM; Mallela, J; Devarajan, P; Ma, Q; Levinsky, NC; Stringer, KF; Wong, HR; Alder, MN. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSIOLOGY-RENAL PHYSIOLOGY. 2020; 318:F809-F816.

Surviving sepsis campaign international guidelines for the management of septic shock and sepsis-associated organ dysfunction in children. Weiss, SL; Peters, MJ; Alhazzani, W; Agus, MS D; Flori, HR; Inwald, DP; Nadel, S; Schlapbach, LJ; Tasker, RC; Argent, AC; et al. Pediatric Critical Care Medicine. 2020; 21:E52-E106.