At Children’s HeartLink, we know that staff in our hospital partner sites and our medical volunteer teams work diligently to lower infection rates and improve survival in children after heart surgery. And we’ve recently had two important journals recognize our work in quality improvement.

Just in time for International Infection Prevention Week (October 19-25), an article in the October issue of Pediatrics: The Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics singles out three features central to Children’s HeartLink’s model for their important role in reducing infection and improving survival in children after heart surgery:
• Webinars targeting safe practices during surgery
• Infection reduction initiatives
• Team-based practice

Our hospital partner sites enrolled in this study include:
• Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS) in Kochi, India
• First Hospital of Lanzhou University in Lanzhou, China
• Hospital de Base in Saõ José do Rio Preto, Brazil
• Nhi Dong 1 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

In September the pediatric cardiac program at AIMS, our partner site in Kochi, India, won the prestigious British Medical Journal Awards India for Quality Improvement in Healthcare for delivering “First World results in a Third World environment.” This award, considered the “Oscars of Medicine,” is a testament to the remarkable leadership and teamwork at AIMS.

It is also a testament to the high-quality training and mentoring provided by Children’s HeartLink medical volunteers to the AIMS program, including teams from Boston Children’s Hospital, Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford and University of Minnesota Masonic Children’s Hospital.