Massachusetts General Hospital

MassGeneral Hospital for Children celebrates 10 years of excellence in pediatrics

11/Nov/2010

BOSTON — Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) is poised to commemorate the 200th anniversary of its founding in 2011, but 2010 marks an important milestone for the hospital's youngest patients. This year, MGH celebrates 100 years of comprehensive pediatric services, 50 years of pediatric surgery, and a decade as Mass General Hospital for Children (MGHfC). To celebrate its past, present and future, MGHfC is hosting a birthday party on Nov. 11 at 4:00 in the Yawkey Center for Outpatient Care.

"Mass General has celebrated many milestones through the years, and I am tremendously proud to celebrate MGHfC's evolution over the past decade into the full-service network it is today," says Ronald Kleinman, MD, physician-in-chief for MGHfC. "As an established institution within Mass General we are able to offer the highest quality care to our young patients and a smooth transition to adult specialists as they grow up."

A hospital within a hospital, MGHfC serves more than 170,000 children every year through 50 medical specialties and 15 surgical services.  Some of MGHfC's clinical, research and advocacy achievements over the past decade include:

• The All Terrain Vehicle Safety Act of 2010, which raised the minimum age requirement to operate ATVs from 10 to 14. It also requires the use of helmets and safety training for operators 18 and younger.
• Definition of the term "third-hand smoke" to describe the tobacco contamination that lingers even after a cigarette is extinguished. The MGHfC study was the first to examine adult attitudes about the health risks to children of third-hand smoke and how those beliefs may relate to rules about smoking in their homes.
• The Lurie Family Autism Center, a world-class center dedicated to comprehensive clinical care, research, advocacy and public policy analysis, to meet the needs for autistic individuals from early childhood through adulthood.

"Our specialists treat some of the sickest patients and work to unravel some of the most trying medical problems," says Joseph P. Vacanti, MD, surgeon-in-chief for MGHfC. "Moving forward, we also plan to study new ways to deliver care to ensure we are evolving with the demands of the modern healthcare system and healthcare reform."

Massachusetts General Hospital, established in 1811, is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. The MGH conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the United States, with an annual research budget of more than $600 million. The hospital is home to major research centers in AIDS, cardiovascular research, cancer, computational and integrative biology, cutaneous biology, human genetics, medical imaging, neurodegenerative disorders, photomedicine, regenerative medicine, systems biology, transplantation biology.

Media Contacts: Marty Ray, 617-726-0274, aray6@partners.org