Children's Mercy One of Five to Receive CDC Childhood Obesity Award
A team from Children's Mercy have been selected as co-investigators on a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-funded Childhood Obesity Research Demonstration cooperative agreement for the next five years.
The team of Sarah Hampl, MD, Meredith Dreyer Gillette, PhD, and Jordan Carlson, PhD, are one of five teams across the U.S. to receive this award. The study involves packaging and piloting family-based behavioral treatment for five to 12 year-olds with obesity, insured by Missouri Medicaid in Children’s Mercy’s and Freeman’s Primary Care Clinics. Based on family feedback, the treatment package will then be refined and a plan for dissemination and sustainability will be created.
The study team, led by Denise Wilfley, MD, from Washington University, also includes Freeman Health System in Joplin, Pennington Biomedical Research Institute, Northwestern University and the AAP Institute for Healthy Childhood Weight.
The project extends the work of the Center for Children’s Healthy Lifestyles & Nutrition, which led the creation of statewide childhood obesity treatment and prevention recommendations, along with Washington University and the University of Missouri-Extension’s Missouri Council for Activity and Nutrition. These groups continue to collaborate with state government, academic and community partners to guide the implementation of these recommendations across the state.
Children’s Mercy Kansas City is an independent, non-profit, 390-bed pediatric health system, providing over half a million patient encounters each year for children from across the country. Children’s Mercy is ranked by U.S. News & World Report in all ten specialties. We have received Magnet® recognition five times for excellence in nursing services. In affiliation with the University of Missouri-Kansas City, our faculty of nearly 800 pediatric specialists and researchers is actively involved in clinical care, pediatric research and educating the next generation of pediatricians and pediatric subspecialists. The Children’s Mercy Research Institute (CMRI) integrates research and clinical care with nationally recognized expertise in genomic medicine, precision therapeutics, population health, health care innovation and emerging infections. In 2021 the CMRI moved into a nine-story, 375,000-square-foot space emphasizing a translational approach to research in which clinicians and researchers work together to accelerate the pace of discovery that enhances care.