ELSO Certification for Hospital Infantil San Vicente Fundación
A team of nine medical staff members from the integrated cardiovascular surgery team of Hospital Infantil San Vicente Fundación are becoming internationally ELSO certified with support from Nicklaus Children's and the GHI. This initiative will involve the development of a formal ECMO management protocol for pediatric critical congenital heart disease cases that develop potentially recoverable cardiogenic shock after corrective cardiac surgery. Nicklaus Children's plays a central role in the development and support of this ECMO training program, including providing the theoretical and practical knowledge needed to establish an effective ECMO program.
Medical Conferences
First Pediatric Global Health Congress, Cartagena, August 9-10, 2024
This is the first pediatric conference organized by Casa del Niño Children's Hospital, the main tertiary pediatric hospital of the Bolívar region and our key regional partner. The LPR Foundation is the main sponsor of the conference, including two speakers from Nicklaus Children’s Hospital taking part in the key scientific activities. Dr. Cristina Abuchaibe, NCH cardiologist, will speak about advances in prenatal CHD diagnostics, as well as optimizing pulse oximetry in CHD screening. Dr. Guillermo de Angulo, NCH oncologist, will speak about the early diagnosis of cancer in children and the use of immunotherapy in pediatric leukemia.
SCP Congreso Pediátrico del Caribe, Barranquilla - May 22-24, 2024
As part of our continued partnership with the Sociedad Colombiana de Pediatría, GHI sponsored Dr. Cristina Abuchaibe, cardiologist from Nicklaus Children’s Hospital, to speak at their regional conference about her experience in implementing a successful congenital heart disease program. This was an impactful opportunity to highlight the importance of newborn CHD screening with pediatric physicians from throughout the Caribe region.
First Pediatric Seminar in Carmen de Bolívar - Carmen del Bolívar, May 31, 2024
Casa del Niño Children's Hospital and Fundación Ser hosted the first pediatric seminar in Carmen del Bolívar, a more remote town several hours from Cartagena. The LPR Foundation sponsored the participation of 11 physicians from the Casa del Niño Children's Hospital to attend the event. This is part of a concerted effort to improve access to quality pediatric care beyond Cartagena to the furthest reaches of the region. Dr. Andrea Maggioni from Nicklaus Children’s Hospital’s Global Health Department and Dr. Ana Macias from the Global Health Initiative spoke about the importance of early implementation CHD screening. This was preceded by CHD training at the largest local hospital, Hospital Nuestra Señora del Carmen de Bolívar. Topics focused on mainly on infectious diseases as this region has some of the highest incidences in Colombia and Latin America, as well as Chagas, Leptospirosis, malnutrition, renal diseases and quality management.
FIU Global Health Consortium Conference – Cartagena, September 13-15, 2023
FIU partnered with SCP and the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) for the expansion their annual Global Health Conference of the Americas. This was FIU’s first conference post-pandemic, which highlighted the need to foster regional collaborations for developing recommendations that governments and healthcare organizations can implement to further protect their communities. Over 300 international public health experts from government, medical and academic backgrounds convened in Cartagena to discuss global health challenges that are expected to arise due to climate change. Topics covered at the conference included pandemic preparedness, advances in immunizations, nutrition (including displacement and food insecurity) and environmental health. GHI hosted three physician speakers from Nicklaus Children’s Hospital:
- Dr. Rani Gereige: Climate Change and Impact on Pediatric & Population Health.
- Dr. Hernandez-Trujillo: Healthcare Disparities in Allergy, Asthma, and Immunodeficiency in the Latino population: What Can Be Done.
- Dr. Marcos Mestre: Hospital Operations during the Pandemic: Lessons Learned and Preparing for the Future.
SCP 33º Congreso Nacional de Pediatría – Barranquilla, July 6-8, 2023
Organized by our partners, the Sociedad Colombiana de Pediatría (SCP), this is the largest pediatric conference in Colombia with more than 3,000 pediatric clinicians attending from throughout Latin America. Key strategic partners for this conference included the Florida International University (FIU) Department of Public Health, the Asociación de Pediatría de Latinoamérica (ALAPE), Asociación Española de Pediatría (AEP), Sociedad Latinoaméricana de Infectología Pediátrica. GHI hosted several NCH speakers at the conference covering a wide range of pediatric topics, including:
- Dr. Juan Bolívar: Syncope in the Adolescent Athlete: Diagnosis and Management
- Dr. Luis Caicedo: Eosinophilic esophagitis: Increasing Occurrence in Latin America
- Dr. Monica Payares: Hip Dysplasia - Early Diagnosis
- Dr. Lourdes Prieto: Innovations in Cardiac Congenital Disease Interventions
The Initiative also hosted a co-branded booth that proved to be popular with conference attendees and spread the word on the initiative’s CHD screening efforts to the medical community.
American Academy of Pediatrics National Conference – Oct. 4 - 7th, 2022
Dr. Ana Macías, GHI Medical Coordinator in Colombia, represented the initiative at the American Academy of Pediatrics National Conference in Anaheim, California by presenting GHI’s poster, “Colombia Global Health Initiative - CCHD Screening Implementation”.
XI Congreso Panamericano de Neonatología – Oct. 13 -15th, 2022
GHI sponsored the accommodations and airfare for Drs. Carolina Jiménez and Juan Jiménez, the leading neonatologists from our partner site, Hospital General de Medellín, to attend the XI Congreso Panamericano de Neonatología in Cartagena, Colombia. The neonatologists presented various scientific posters and benefitted from exposure to a wide variety of topics on neonatal care, including the latest medical advances and best practices.
31st Foro Internacional de la Organización de Excelencia en Salud - Oct. 19 - 21st, 2022
The OES is an organization established in 1991 whose mission is to improve the national and international healthcare quality through concerted efforts with local health service providers, insurers, universities, foundations, and the government. At their annual international conference in Cartagena, Dr. Andrea Maggioni and Dr. Luis Alberto Percy Nuñez, CEO of our local partner hospital, Casa del Niño, formally presented the GHI project and CHD poster, which helped further promote our efforts across Colombia.
VIII Simposio Internacional de Actualización en Pediatría, Cartagena - June 29 - July 2, 2022
Hosted by the Sociedad Colombiana de Pediatría (Pediatric Society of Colombia), this is the largest pediatric conference in Colombia. The Global Health Initiative participated with five speakers from Nicklaus Children’s Hospital covering a wide range of pediatric topics. The LPR Foundation also hosted a co-branded booth with NCH that proved to be very popular with conference attendees and effectively spread the word of our GHI efforts in CHD to the participating medical community.
Global Health Initiative Regional Conference, Cartagena - May 26, 2022
GHI hosted a regional conference in Cartagena for its collaborating sites in the Bolívar department to share data and connect on opportunities to improve access to CHD screenings in the region. As a result of the input and surveys completed during the sessions, GHI has implemented additional improvements that have had an immediate impact on increasing the percentage of births screened at each site. As of the end of July 2024, the GHI program is screening an impressive 46% of the total newborn population in Bolívar for CHD.
First Scientific Conference on Congenital Heart Disease – November 21, 2021
On November 17, 2021, the Global Health Initiative successfully hosted its first bilingual pediatric CHD conference at the Hotel Santa Clara in Cartagena, Colombia. The goal of this conference was to present current efforts by the initiative to expand newborn cardiac screening in Colombia, with the aim of sharing lessons learned and potential synergies with other experts that will further foster local and global efforts toward the early detection of congenital heart disease.
Left to Right: Dr. Marcos Mestre, SVP and Chief Medical Officer, Nicklaus Children’s Hospital; Dr. Andrea Maggioni, Director, Global Health; Lorena Perozo-Rocha, President and CEO, LPR Foundation; Lawrence DeGeorge, Director, LPR Foundation, Matt Love, CEO, Nicklaus Children’s Hospital.
First GHI Medical Conference, Barranquilla – May 2021
The Global Health Initiative hosted its first medical conference at the new LPR Foundation offices in Barranquilla, inviting physician leaders from the initiative's new active sites to share their feedback on the program and how to expand usage throughout the Atlántico region.