The Catalyst Issue 14 | Summer 2012 | Page 9

New Pediatric Procedure Suite A brand-new $1.8 million, 3,900-square-foot procedure suite opened at McLane Children’s Hospital Scott & White in April for interventional diagnostic tests and some treatment solutions for gastroenterology and pulmonaryrelated conditions. “The procedure suite is three rooms of amazing, state-ofthe-art technology, staffed by pediatric experts who are board-certified in pulmonology, gastroenterology, and anesthesiology, and by highly trained pediatric nurses,” says its medical director, Ashis V. Barad, MD, a pediatric gastroenterologist and assistant professor of pediatrics at the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine. “What’s really great for children is that when they wake up, there’s no nausea and no stomachaches. They can go back to school and resume normal activities the next day.” —Ashis V. Barad, MD This significant new service at McLane Children’s will help thousands of children, especially those who suffer, like adults, from lung diseases such as pneumonia and asthma. It also helps children with gastrointestinal conditions, such as inflammatory bowel disease including Crohn’s disease (which affects one in 10,000 kids) and colitis polyps, ulcers, acid reflux, and celiac disease. It can also help the 30 percent of children who complain of abdominal pain. Pediatric patients with congenital conditions, such as malformed intestines that result in short gut syndrome, will benefit from the procedure suite as well. The suite has endoscopy capabilities, which means that patients can quickly and painlessly undergo minimally invasive diagnostic tests, such as colonoscopies, and capsule endoscopies to assess stomach bleeding. It’s all housed in a digital computerized environment to help clinicians assess and treat young patients, who often experience very painful symptoms and need sophisticated tests for an accurate diagnosis. The procedure suite currently is equipped with scopes, or probes, for minimally invasive procedures. Additional equipment (see sidebar) will be needed to fully realize the suite’s capabilities and expand its services to areas such as pediatric dentistry, podiatry, Dr. Ashis V. Barad shows patient Gloria Wetherbee and her mother, Vicki, how an endoscope camera works in the new procedure suite at McLane Children’s. sw.org | Summer 12 The Catalyst 9