Children's Healthcare of Atlanta commits $75 million to research centers

By Shelia M. Poole

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Children's Healthcare of Atlanta is investing $75 million over the next five years to establish seven pediatric research centers of excellence.

The investment allows  Children's Healthcare to step into "the big leagues,"  of pediatric health care research, said Dr. Paul Spearman, chief research officer, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and the Nahmias-Schinazi Research professor and vice chairman of research of pediatrics at Emory University.

Children's Healthcare will join the likes of Children's Hospital Boston, Texas Children's Hospital and Nationwide Children's Hospital, all leaders in the area of research and treatment of children, Spearman said.

Dr. John Barnard, president of the Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Ohio, said the investment " is a major running start for the organization to join the most elite pediatric research organizations in the United States."

Children's Healthcare's reputation for its care and treatment of patients has been "outstanding," Barnard said, but the health system had experienced deficiencies in investment in research.

"Reputation in this industry does not change overnight," he said. "One must earn the reputation and it can take years to do that."

"We are currently in an era of biomedical research and the opportunities have never been greater to have a meaningful impact on the health of children," Spearman said. "The promise for high-flying, personalized treatment that has laser-like precision is very exciting."

The centers will focus on research in the following areas: cardiovascular biology, developmental lung biology, immunology and vaccines, transplant immunology and immune therapeutics, pediatric healthcare technology innovation, cystic fibrosis and endothelial cell biology.

An eighth center -- the Aflac Cancer Center and Blood Disorders Service -- is already in existence and will share in the funding. Eventually, all the centers' works will be located in the new pediatric research building on the Children's at Egleston and Emory campuses.

"Everyone on the Emory side is very excited about the possibility and where this takes pediatric research -- not only on a local stage but a national stage," said Dr. David S. Stephens, vice president for research in the Robert W. Woodruff  Health Sciences Center at Emory.

Planned priority areas in the future include drug discovery, neurosciences, autism, and clinical and translational research.

The hospital also will be able to attract top-notch physicians and scientists, who can focus on the treatment of pediatric diseases and chronic conditions and the use of  newest technologies, Children's Healthcare's  Spearman said.

The commitment also will strengthen the system's relationships with Morehouse School of Medicine, Emory University and Georgia Institute of Technology.

Spearman said the announcement is part of an ongoing expansion of pediatric research in Atlanta and throughout the state.

Children's Healthcare recently received a $30 million grant from the Joseph B. Whitehead Foundation, of which $25 million will help fund a new pediatric research building.

The healthcare system comprises three hospitals and 16 neighborhood clinics in metro Atlanta. Combined, the nonprofit Children's Healthcare receives more than half a million patient visits annually.