Goals
Goals
The overarching goal of the center is to promote integrated precision care across the Nicklaus Children’s Hospital and use the personalized profile of each child to guide value-based therapeutics management strategies with enhanced efficacy and safety. The integration of precision medicine in patient care includes the following key programmatic elements.
- Bridging the gap by bringing precision medicine to underserved populations to address health disparities in diverse and predominantly Hispanic South Florida populations.
- Building infrastructure to maximize synergies. Implementation of precision medicine requires a transdisciplinary framework that cuts across organizational silos and fosters strong collaborations between clinicians, researchers, information technology, administrators, community organizations, and government agencies.
- Advanced molecular diagnostics as a front door for rare undiagnosed disorders at the Undiagnosed Disease Clinic, led by clinical geneticists. Early diagnoses of monogenic diseases in critically ill infants and children on diagnostic odyssey can help improve care and lessen suffering and mortality.
- Development of pharmacogenomic and other precision medicine tools to identify critical biomarkers for disease progression and drug responses. The Pharmacogenomics Program tailors gene-specific drug treatments to increase efficacy and mitigate the risk of adverse reactions. CPM conducts discovery and translational research to help patients who do not respond well to traditional therapies.
- Outreach and education of healthcare professionals, researchers, patients, and the public on precision medicine, pharmacogenomics, rare diseases, and preconception screening.
- Facilitating research opportunities to access high-quality biospecimens through Nicklaus Children’s Biobank and research data through Precision Analytics.
- Promoting research and industry collaborations, access to clinical trials, gene therapy, enzyme replacement, and other new therapy options. This approach is especially valuable to health disparity populations, who may not respond to standard diagnostic or treatment strategies developed from clinical trials lacking representative study participants.
For the past 24 years at the Craniofacial Center and Plastic Surgery at Nicklaus Children's Hospital, we have worked on the presurgical and postsurgical treatment of patients with cleft lip and palate.
This course will present our experience, techniques, and results in managing cleft lip and palate patients. The course lasts approximately two and a half days in theoretical and practical, with the laboratory to make the presurgical devices (POA is a modification of the NAM) and RAS (Rhinoplasty Appliance System). Our 3D printer system. This course will be intensive and focused on providing all the knowledge and tools for the interdisciplinary management of patients with cleft lip and palate.
This course is aimed at Plastic surgeons, maxillofacial surgeons, orthodontists, pediatric dentists, dentofacial orthopedics, and prosthodontists. A detailed pre- and post-surgical treatment manual and a Nicklaus Children's Hospital certificate for managing patients with cleft lip and palate will be delivered.
Topics:
- Introduction and general concepts
- Interdisciplinary Management and Genetics
- Psychological management
- Physiology and anatomy of Cleft patients
- Feeding techniques
- Pre- and post-surgical treatment protocols.
- Description of surgical techniques. (Gingivoperoplasty, unilateral and bilateral)
Impression techniques
- Manufacture of apparatus and adjustments
- Clinical evaluation
- Managing complications
- Long-term case research and evaluation
Presenters
The course will be presented by:
Dr. Martha Mejía
Dentofacial Orthopedist
Martha Mejia is a dentist from Colombia who specializes in Dentofacial orthopedics. She works at 2000 with Dr. Samuel Berkowitz as a Research associate evaluating Craniofacial treatments. For the past 27 years, she has been treating patients with craniofacial problems and conducting research assessing the treatment of cleft lip and palate patients. Since 2001, she has been a member of the Craniofacial team at Nicklaus Children's Hospital in Miami. She has been a consultant and reviewer of presurgical treatment for Smile Train Express since 2018 and has been a consultant for SAMAC Smile Train (South America Advisory Council). She is an international lecturer and 1996 founded the Sonríe Foundation in Pereira, Colombia, for the comprehensive management of patients with clefts. After many years of clinical practice, her experience brought her to develop devices to treat cleft palate patients, the most important of which is the “Rhinoplasty Appliance System,” patented in 2021.
Lecturers
Dr. Marina Villani-Capo
Psychologist
Dra. JoAnn Vargas
Speech Pathologist
Past Event Photos
Agenda
| First Day |
| 9:30 a.m. - 9:45 a.m. |
Welcome
- Welcome to the hospital
- Coffee and pastries
- Presentation of members |
| 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. |
Hospital tour |
| 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. |
Feeding Techniques (JoAnn Vargas) |
| 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. |
Anatomy and physiology of the affected patient |
| 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. |
Lunch
Animals with cleft (by Dr. Chad Perlyn) |
| 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. |
Pre-surgical treatment (Dr. Martha Mejía)
- Description of maxillary technique
- Impression
- Evaluation
- Adjustments |
| 3:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. |
Patients and Parent Management (Dr. Marina Villani) |
| 4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. |
Surgical Description (Dr. Jordan Steinberg) |
| Second Day |
| 9:30 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. |
RAS (Rhinoplasty Appliance System) (Dr. Martha Mejía) |
| 10:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. |
Introduction and general concepts: Interdisciplinary Management of Gentics (Dr. Mislen Bauer) |
| 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. |
Patients and Parent Management (Dr. Marina Villani) |
| 12:30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. |
Lunch |
| 1:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. |
Laboratory Ras System and Maxillary appliance |
| Third Day |
| 9:30 a.m. -10:30 a.m. |
Managing Complications (Dr. Martha Mejía) |
| 10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. |
Post-surgical management
Evaluation of facial growth on 20 patients (Dr. Martha Mejía)
|
| 12:00 p.m. - 12:30 p.m. |
Certificate |
| 12:30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. |
Lunch |
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