Skip to main content

Search

Stories

|

I Am Seattle Children's

Watch the videos and read the stories of the providers, staff, supporters, patients, families, volunteers and friends who make up the Seattle Children's family.

Improving Preschoolers’ Oral Health

Efforts to promote twice-daily toothbrushing through parent and child education have been met with little success. The barrier that parents report most often is child non-compliance or refusal. Dr. Brent Collett is pursuing a new tactic, focusing on parents’ use of behavior management skills.

Helping Young Children Sleep Better

Between 10% and 40% of preschoolers have significant sleep problems, making them more likely to struggle in school, struggle with emotions and behavior and develop obesity. Dr. Michelle Garrison is investigating how a new approach can help parents fix these problems and improve their children’s health – and their family’s quality of life.

Using Facebook to Study Substance Use

Most people would never want to relive adolescence, but Dr. Megan Moreno’s team does it every day, by following the Facebook posts of hundreds of young adults who participate in their research.

Better Care for Teens with Depression

Dr. Laura Richardson is investigating whether an integrative approach to mental healthcare – called collaborative care – can help teens with depression get better care, faster.

Tackling Autism’s Toughest Questions

Dr. Bryan King and colleagues' autism research investigates fundamental questions about a disorder whose prevalence has skyrocketed from one in 1,000 children 30 years ago to about one in 110 today.

Unraveling Genetics Research Dilemmas

As more people participate in research that sequences their genomes, Dr. Holly Tabor is investigating how researchers should tell participants about their risk for diseases and health problems.

Making Heart Surgery Obsolete

Dr. Mark Majesky’s research could revolutionize treatments for everything from heart disease to muscular dystrophy.

Donors Spark Innovation

Donor dollars play an essential role in supporting discovery and innovation at the laboratory bench and the bedside.

Helping Parents Focus on Their Child’s Care, Not How to Pay for It

Seattle Children’s commitment to uncompensated care helps families focus on their child’s health rather than the cost of the medical care needed to restore it.

Unraveling How Autism Affects the Brain

Dr. Sara Webb is looking beyond autism’s symptoms to identify the cognitive processes that drive children’s brains and behavior.

Protecting Children from Chemicals

Dr. Sheela Sathyanarayana is identifying how everyday chemicals affect children and helping families find practical ways to reduce their exposure.

Decreasing Unnecessary Lab Tests, Saving Money

Dr. Michael Astion’s team is leading an innovative project to decrease unnecessary testing that could save families, hospitals and insurance companies millions of dollars a year.

Improving the Lives of Suicidal Teens

Dr. Elizabeth McCauley is testing therapies that could put suicidal teens on track toward happier, healthier lives.

Developing Strategies to Prevent Substance Abuse

About 10% of adolescents suffer from depression, and roughly the same percentage of youth have substance abuse problems. While these numbers might seem alarming, Dr. Cari McCarty believes they also contain reasons for hope.

Measuring the Quality of Pediatric Healthcare

As one of the nation’s leading quality of care researchers, Dr. Rita Mangione-Smith is developing innovative ways to pinpoint which medical treatments, procedures and practices improve patients' lives, and which ones fall short.

Unraveling How Craniofacial Conditions Affect Development

By unraveling how craniofacial conditions affect childhood development, Dr. Matthew Speltz is dedicated to catching developmental problems earlier, when treatment could help children lead happier, more fulfilling lives.

Preventing Obesity by Improving Children’s Environments

As Dr. Pooja Tandon watched an increasing number of overweight children come through her office, she came to an uncomfortable realization: traditional weight-loss strategies frequently did not work.

Unraveling the Genetics of Childhood Disorders

By unraveling the genetic causes of rare brain disorders, Dr. Bill Dobyns is opening the door to innovative treatments for more common childhood diseases including autism, epilepsy and certain cancers.

Improving Treatment for a Common Craniofacial Disorder

When it comes to birth defects, craniofacial microsomia (CFM) isn’t a household name. But it’s the second most common congenital facial condition, affecting more than one in every 3,500 children. It occurs when part of a child’s face – usually the ear or jaw – is underdeveloped, and it can profoundly impact a child’s ability to hear, eat, breathe or speak. Which explains why Dr. Carrie Heike is on a mission to revolutionize our understanding of CFM.

Helping Develop a Game-Changing New CF Therapy

A game-changing therapy for cystic fibrosis completes the journey from the laboratory to the bedside with help from Seattle Children’s.

Emergency Care Round-the-Clock

The team at Seattle Children’s Emergency Department stands ready round-the-clock to treat any childhood illness and injury – from the catastrophic to the common.

Working to Fix the Genetic Cause of Disease

Doctors at Seattle Children’s have developed groundbreaking tools that promise to fix the genetic causes of disease. Now they seek funding to turn the tools into cures.

Accelerating Research Through Philanthropy

VECA Electric and Technologies, a founding sponsor of Seattle Children's Research Champions program, has recently made an important discovery of its own: philanthropy can energize the donor as much as the recipient.

Dr. Timothy Cox: Searching for Clues About Cleft Lip and Palate

Dr. Timothy Cox is on the trail of the genetic and environmental factors that cause cleft lip and palate.

An Ounce of Prevention

Seattle Children’s partners with community organizations to tackle tough – and ticklish – issues that affect kids.

Improving the Quality of Life for Survivors of Childhood Cancer

Seattle Children’s is improving how we detect, prevent and treat the health problems that come in cancer’s aftermath.

Profile: Dr. Maureen Kelley

Women who are asked about the impact of suffering a stillbirth have strikingly similar answers – whether they live in Seattle or in a rural Ugandan village. Many women feel like losing the child is their fault, feel pressure to “get over it” and may even be blamed by others for the loss. Dr. Maureen Kelley is working to eliminate the stigma behind this unwarranted guilt and silence, and to break down the barriers to recognizing prematurity and stillbirth as major global health issues.

Dr. Mike Jensen: Stopping Cancer in Its Tracks

Dr. Mike Jensen intends to start a revolution in pediatric cancer treatment where a child’s own immune system is the cure.

Nurses Make the Difference

Nurses work on the front line of patient care and are the eyes and ears of the medical team.

Surgeons Improve Outcomes

Seattle Children’s surgeons apply the art and science of their craft to improve outcomes for kids.

Donor Spotlight: Resa Moore

Seattle Children’s Research Institute may be powered by the brightest scientific minds, but the original push for the institute came straight from the hearts of mothers.

Zebrafish Aquatics Facility

Operated by the Center for Tissue and Cell Sciences, Seattle Children’s zebrafish aquatics facility is helping researchers pursue advanced therapies that repair congenital heart defects and other disorders – without invasive surgery or its complications.

Kids with Autism: Better Access to Services

Seattle Children's is taking a leadership role in making an audacious goal a reality: helping every child with autism get the services and treatment they deserve.

Dr. Gary Walco: Improving Pain Management

Dr. Gary Walco is on a mission to make every child's experience at the hospital as painless as possible. Starting now.

Cystic Fibrosis: Defeating Chronic Lung Infections

Dr. Luke Hoffman studies how different bacteria interact to improve treatment for chronic lung infections.

Principal Investigator Focus: Dr. Lisa Frenkel

As a clinician and researcher specializing in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), Dr. Lisa Frenkel, an investigator in the Center for Childhood Infections and Prematurity Research, stands at the crossroads between two worlds.

Seattle Children's Hospital Providers Transplant Hope to One 3-Year-Old Patient

When Destiny was born, doctors detected that her small bowel was blocked because the lumen of the bowel was not formed. She has undergone about a dozen surgeries and in January 2011 received a small bowel transplant at Seattle Children’s.

Picturing the Future of Epilepsy Care

Dr. Rusty Novotny opens the door to better epilepsy care through his focus on integrated, multimodal imaging.

Healthy Kidneys, Healthy Lives

Seattle Children's Nephrology team takes an innovative approach to providing teens with chronic kidney disease what they need to live the lives they choose.

Breathing Easier: Developing the Hansen Ventilator

CEO Dr. Tom Hansen challenged a team to develop a low-tech, low-cost ventilator for use in resource-limited areas. What they’ve designed could save millions of preterm infants in the developing world.

Pediatric Specialty Care in Bellevue

Eastside children and teens get the region’s best pediatric specialty care at our new Bellevue Clinic and Surgery Center – and their parents get a short commute.

Innovations in Occupational Therapy

An innovative therapy helps children develop new motor pathways to improve use of a weakened arm.

Seattle Children's Journey Program

Seattle Children's Journey Program helps parents and siblings invest in a changed life after the death of a child. Two hundred families use the program's bereavement services each year.

The Gift of Time

Our diverse league of volunteers – from high schoolers to golden-agers – carry out small tasks that reap big rewards for patients, families, staff members and the volunteers themselves.

New Hope for Pediatric Cancer Treatment

Dr. Michael Jensen, who is leading research that has the potential to radically change the way pediatric cancers are treated – and cured – joined Seattle Children’s Research Institute in July 2010.

Passion for Drowning Prevention

Dynamic duo Elizabeth Bennett and Dr. Linda Quan strive to stop drowning deaths through research, outreach and advocacy.

Matters of the Heart

Dramatic innovations in cardiac catheterization mean fewer conditions require open-heart surgery. Children's interventional cardiologists are helping show the way.

David Knott and the Sound of Music Therapy

Kim Arthur interviewed music therapist David Knott to find out how he uses music to help patients. He naturally turned to his musical instruments to explain.

Changing the Script

The Biofeedback Clinic helps adolescents with chronic pain take back their lives. Using a variety of mind-body techniques – including guided visualization, progressive muscle relaxation and deep breathing – adolescents learn to control their pain.

Asthma Q&A with Dr. Jason Debley

Asthma is a blockage of bronchial tubes in the lungs caused by inflammation and swelling of the bronchial tubes, and spasm of the muscles surrounding the bronchial tubes. Find out more about asthma and current research being done by Dr. Jason Debley.

Operations, Big and Small

What does a 300-pound high-school football player with appendicitis have in common with a tiny newborn with the birth defect gastroschisis? Children's general and thoracic surgery providers can give both the care they need.

Prevention Saves Lives

Injury and trauma are the leading cause of death among children, teens and young adults. Learn about injury prevention and the changes being made each day to help your children lead healthier lives.

Helping Kids Lead “Ordinary” Lives

No one appreciates the perseverance behind medical research more than Kari Foss, a member of Kentwood High School’s volleyball team, who was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at age 2.

Cancer Survivor Program

Cancer and its treatment can have serious long-term effects on health that are sometimes not evident until later in life. We have a follow-up program for childhood cancer survivors and their families.

Working Together to Cure Cancer

Ji Hyun Lee is a nurse practitioner in the Cancer program at Children’s. One visit with a pediatric cancer patient changed her entire career.

Hearing Loss: Early Intervention Helps Kids Communicate

Deaf and hard-of-hearing infants enrolled in appropriate early intervention services by 6 months of age are likely to have normal language and cognitive development. Have an audiogram as early as possible so that your baby can be consistently exposed to language.

Families Are Our Partners in Care

"A chronically ill child presents a challenging journey for a family, but through partnering with the medical teams at Children's we have been able to truly experience the joys of being parents."

Fetal Heart Program

If a problem is detected during a routine ultrasound screening, an obstetrician (OB) can refer the patient to Children’s Heart Center specialists for a complete fetal cardiac evaluation.

The Best Transplant Care

Pioneering organ transplant surgeon Dr. Jorge Reyes directs transplant services at Children’s and the University of Washington Medical Center. He is also a professor and chief of the Division of Transplantation at the UW School of Medicine.

Team Care for Cleft Lip and Palate

Children’s multidisciplinary approach to cleft lip and palate provides an ideal environment for an infant with a cleft. A craniofacial pediatrician oversees the care of each child, creating a treatment plan tailored to the child’s condition and then coordinating care among the other specialists on the child’s care team.

Electrophysiology Reduces Heart Transplants

"When a child’s heart beats too fast," says Dr. Jack Salerno, Children’s electrophysiologist, "we can use radiofrequency ablation to cauterize a small area of tissue that prevents the irregular heartbeat from recurring."

New Options for Treating Heart Defects

With cardiac catheterization, doctors use the bloodstream to get to the heart. Doctors make an incision in a vein near the groin, then insert a flexible hollow tube called a catheter.

Life and Limb: Improving Bone Tumor Treatment

A lot has changed over the last two decades in the treatment of bone tumors. As recently as the early 1980s, amputation was the standard of care and survival rates for cancerous bone tumors were less than 50%.

Excellent Care and Outcomes for Children with Heart Disease

About one in every 100 babies born in the United States has a heart defect. Most of them will need treatment or surgery.

Latest News

Children's Hospital designs first cancer unit for young adults
3.15.13 — KOMO TV

More children and adults over 30 are surviving cancer diagnoses today than ever before, but teens and young adults have not ... cont.

Dr. Wendy Sue Swanson: Preventing Salmonella
3.13.13 — KING 5 TV

There are more than one million cases of salmonella reported each year. Around 70,000 infections come from reptiles and ... cont.

Doctors recommend feeding babies solid foods sooner
3.7.13 — KOMO TV

While the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) previously recommended parents wait until their children are 6 months old before ... cont.