News:


ACH Begins Clinical Trial
of Nerve Rerouting Surgery in Spina Bifida & Spinal Cord Injury Patients
Chuan-Guo Xiao, M.D., Chairman of the Department of Urology at Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, People’s Republic of China, has developed a surgical procedure that has potential to treat bladder dysfunction associated with spinal cord injuries and spina bifida. After performing many years of NIH-funded research in the United States and China, Professor Xiao returned to China where he has performed approximately 2,000 “skin-CNS-bladder” reinnervation procedures on children and adults with neurogenic bladder as a result of spina bifida, spinal cord injury and other forms of spinal cord dysfunction. This surgery involves an intradural re-routing of lumbar to sacral nerves to provide a new pathway for voluntary bladder emptying. Professor Xiao’s novel procedure offers renewed hope of continence and voluntary voiding for our patients with neurogenic bladder as a result of spinal cord dysfunction.

After attending a presentation by Professor Xiao at an International Children’s Continence Society Symposium in Hong Kong, Dr. Yves Homsy and a number of pediatric urologists felt that a large number of spina bifida and spinal cord injured patients could benefit from Professor Xiao’s novel approach for bladder refunctionalization. Dr. Homsy’s enthusiasm for the potential benefits of the procedure prompted two ACH neurosurgeons to visit Professor Xiao in China to discuss the procedure, review his results and to learn his technique. ACH has invited Professor Xiao to visit ACH this month as Dr. Gerald Tuite and Dr. Luis Rodriguez begin a multidisciplinary study to further define the great potential this procedure may hold for our many patients with neurogenic bladder dysfunction. Watch your mail for an invitation to this educational program.


Save The Date
The Suncoast Pediatric Conference will be held June 11-14th at the Hilton Clearwater Beach. Watch your mail and www.allkids.org/conferences for registration information to take advantage of early registration discounts.

Please Welcome These Physicians
S. Terri Bunch, M.D.
Pediatric Neurology

Dr. S. Terri Bunch has joined Drs. Joseph Casadonte, Ena Andrews and Raymond Fernandez in the practice of pediatric neurology at All Children’s Hospital.

Dr. Bunch completed her medical training at the University of Cambridge, UK and Addenbrooke’s Hospital, receiving the Clinical School Neurology Prize. After completing her clinical training in the UK, Dr. Bunch completed a neurology residency at the University of Florida, where she was named Resident Teacher of the Year and then served as chief resident for adult neurology. In addition, Dr. Bunch completed a pediatric neurology fellowship at UF and was chief resident for pediatric neurology.

Before coming to All Children’s Dr. Bunch practiced pediatric neurology in Savannah, GA and was a clinical associate professor of pediatric neurology at Mercer University School of Medicine.
Leslie Carroll, M.D.
All Children's Hospitalist

All Children’s Specialty Physicians welcomes Leslie Carroll, M.D., to the All Children’s Hospitalist program.

A graduate of Bologna University Medical School, Bologna, Italy, Dr. Carroll completed her pediatric residency at Long Island College Hospital (LICH), Brooklyn, NY, where she served as chief pediatric resident. After a fellowship in adolescent medicine at Brookdale Hospital Medical Center, Brooklyn, NY, she was an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at State University of New York (SUNY) Health Science Center in Brooklyn and Chief of the Division of Adolescent Medicine at LICH.

Before joining All Children’s, Dr. Carroll spent more than a decade as Chair of Pediatrics at Sacred Heart Hospital in Allentown, PA, where she was on the faculty of the family practice residency program and was twice named Teacher of the Year. In addition to establishing several school-based health centers in Allentown, she served on the Medical Advisory Board for the Educating Physicians in the Community/Immunizations (EPIC) program of the Pennsylvania chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Dr. Carroll is board certified in pediatrics and a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Gregory Hale, M.D.
Medical Director, Pediatric Hematology-Oncology

All Children’s Hospital and All Children’s Specialty Physicians recently welcomed Gregory Alan Hale, M.D., as Medical Director of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology, where he will lead the hematology-oncology and blood and marrow transplant programs.

Dr. Hale is a graduate of Marshall University School of Medicine, Huntington, WV. He completed his internship and residency in pediatrics at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, followed by a fellowship in hematology-oncology at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis. He is board certified in pediatrics and pediatric hematology-oncology.

After serving as assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics and the Blood and Marrow Transplant Program at the University of Kentucky and the Markey Cancer Center, Lexington, Dr. Hale returned to St. Jude in 1999 as Assistant Member in the Department of Hematology-Oncology, the Bone Marrow Transplant Service and the Transplantation and Gene Therapy Program. In 2001, he became the Clinical Director of the Bone Marrow Transplant Service, one of the world’s largest pediatric transplant programs, averaging 180 transplants annually. In 2003, he was promoted to Associate Member of the Division of Bone Marrow Transplantation; he later was named an Associate Member in the Hematological Malignancies and Developmental Therapeutics for Solid Malignancies Programs. Dr. Hale directed the Transplant Fellowship program and was Quality Management Officer for the Division of Bone Marrow Transplantation. Dr. Hale received the 2007 Outstanding Physician Award at St. Jude’s and has twice been named one of America’s Top Oncologists by the Consumer Research Council of America.

Dr. Hale is a member of the Children’s Oncology Group and serves on its Stem Cell Transplant Discipline Committee. He is a member of the American Society of Hematology, the American Society of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology and other professional transplant and immunology organizations and serves on the National Accreditation Committee of the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapies (FACT), which oversees the quality of transplant programs. Dr. Hale is currently President of the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) Council and serves on 13 working committees of the Center for International Bone Marrow Transplantation Registry, which combines data from the NMDP and the International Bone Marrow Transplant Registry.

An author of more than 90 peer-reviewed papers, Dr. Hale has been principal investigator for 35 studies and a co-investigator on 22 others, including Phase I trials. In 2007, he received the Best Abstracts Award for Clinical Research from the American Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation for his trials describing the long-term clinical and immunologic sequelae in transplant recipients who received EBV-cytotoxic T-cells. He is certified by the Association of Clinical Research Professionals as a Clinical Trials Investigator.
Dr. Hale’s research interests include: novel methods of graft manipulation for patients undergoing transplant from mismatched family members and for immunotherapy in autologous transplant recipients; regimen-related toxicities of stem cell transplantation; and nutrition in cancer patients.