FETAL CARE AND UROLOGY
Establishing a Framework
How do you safely build standards of care for an emerging field of medicine ?
Children ’ s Hospital Colorado has a robust fetal care center , transplant program and Congenital Anomalies of the Kidney and Urinary Tract ( CAKUT ) clinic . As such , it has steadily worked to build a comprehensive , multidisciplinary care program for fetal genitourinary , or GU , anomalies .
“ These cases are extremely rare and complex ,” says pediatric urologist Vijaya Vemulakonda , MD . “ These are diagnoses like bilateral renal agenesis — the absence of both kidneys . Hospitals across the country are starting to look more at interventions , but up until just a few years ago , these were considered lethal anomalies .”
VIJAYA VEMULAKONDA , MD
Pediatric urologist , Children ’ s Hospital Colorado
Associate professor , Surgery- Urology , University of Colorado School of Medicine
The GU anomalies program at Children ’ s Colorado has three components . The first is a working group to help providers improve clinicalfacing work with families . Notably , this component includes ongoing studies analyzing meetings between the care team and families . Study leaders engage families to get their feedback on values and preferences , thereby improving the care team ’ s ability to help a family process the complicated diagnosis and make subsequent treatment decisions .
The second component is referring provider outreach and education . “ We partner with our network of care and referring practices to provide them information about some of these complex diagnoses ,” Dr . Vemulakonda says . “ We make sure they understand our program and the care we
6 | CHILDREN ’ S HOSPITAL COLORADO