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Researchers Develop New Sensor System to Prevent a Common Hospital Complication: Researchers at Georgia Tech have developed a new, flexible, sensor-filled fabric to monitor areas at risk of pressure injuries (PIs) and alert hospital staff when a patient needs to be turned. These sensors, embedded in fabric, can monitor patients’ physical condition and alert healthcare workers before pressure sores form. This technology is currently being piloted on four cribs in the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Arthur M. Blank Hospital Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), with the eventual goal of deploying it in 50 beds. The researchers hope their device becomes universal across healthcare systems, making PIs a thing of the past. The research for this priority issue is funded by the Pediatric Technology Center (PTC), a joint partnership between Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Georgia Tech, including funds from the Imlay Foundation's Imlay Innovation Fund.
Pediatric Technology Center (PTC)
We are proud to announce that the Marcus Center for Cellular Therapy has been named a 2026 Innovator of the Year in Research by the Atlanta Business Chronicle.
Marcus Center for Cellular Therapy
Leanne West, chief engineer of pediatric technologies at Georgia Tech and a national leader in pediatric health innovation, has been honored as a 2026 Innovator of the Year in Pediatric Health by the Atlanta Business Chronicle and selected as one of Titan CEO’s 2026 Georgia Titan 100 Honorees. These recognitions celebrate West’s leadership and impact in pediatric health innovation at both the local and national level. In January, West was also named chief research and innovation officer at Shriners Children’s, a role that expands her longstanding commitment to pediatric innovation.
Pediatric Technology Center (PTC)
As trauma-informed care becomes a guiding principle across healthcare, pediatric feeding disorder treatment is undergoing a long-overdue ethical reexamination. In response, Feeding Matters, in collaboration with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, has launched the Center for Feeding Ethics, a first-of-its-kind national initiative dedicated to ethical exploration and standards in feeding disorders and differences such as pediatric feeding disorder (PFD) and avoidant restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) care.
The Center for Feeding Ethics was born from the growing calls within the field to acknowledge historical harms and integrate lived experience into research, training, and care models. Most recently, national consensus efforts and patient- and family-centered research groups have emphasized the need for recognizing trauma history and embedding these lessons into future best practices.
The Multidisciplinary Feeding Program at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta is one of the few programs in the country to offer empirically supported treatment for children 8 months to 21 years old who have PFD and/or ARFID. Feeding Matters is the global system change leader for advancing the field of feeding disorders. Together, they are well positioned to bring the clinical, lived experience, and system change expertise to usher in a new era of feeding support for children and families.
“Healthcare is evolving to recognize that how we treat matters just as much as what we treat,” said William Sharp, Ph.D. who is the director of Children’s Multidisciplinary Feeding Program and is leading the clinical/research partnership of the Center for Feeding Ethics. “As feeding disorder research expands, ethical responsibility must expand with it. The Center for Feeding Ethics exists to help children receive care that is safe, effective and compassionate.”
Center for Clinical and Translational Research (CCTR)
Center for Gastroenterology, Endocrinology, & Nutrition Innovation (GENI)
Marcus Autism Center
Research and Epidemiology for Adolescent and Child Health (REACH) Center
We are excited to announce Dr. Philip Lupo as the recipient of the Lucky Jain-Raymond Schinazi Distinguished Professorship in Pediatrics and Dr. Michael Scheurer as the recipient of the Aflac Research Chair.
Dr. Lupo commented, “It a great honor to be named the Lucky Jain-Raymond Schinazi Distinguished Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Emory University. Dr. Jain was instrumental in paving my way to Emory, and Dr. Schinazi is a true example of leveraging the resources that this chair provides to conduct high-impact research.”
“As a public health professional my goal is always to do the best science to give the most people a chance at a healthier life, and I greatly appreciate the opportunities that the Aflac Research Chair is giving me to do just that,” said Dr. Scheurer.
Drs. Lupo and Scheurer are the Co-Directors of the Research and Epidemiology for Adolescent and Child Health (REACH) Center.
Research and Epidemiology for Adolescent and Child Health (REACH) Center
Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center (Aflac)
Emory University School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics, a proud academic partner of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, received $59 million in federal research grant dollars from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2025 for pediatrics departments, according to rankings released from the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research. With this achievement, the partner institutions celebrate four years in the top three and a decade in the top five for NIH funding.
Notable research projects supporting this ranking and physician training highlights are now available in the 2025 Research and Education Report: Championing Pediatric Science and Training. The funding allows researchers to work toward groundbreaking cures, treatments and innovations
The Children’s Pediatric Technology Center at Georgia Tech (PTC) has named a new co-lead for its work in Technology and Devices (Pillar 3)—Jay Shah, MD, DABR. Dr. Shah will co-lead Pillar 3 with Omer Inan, PhD, who has been a co-lead since last summer.
Dr. Shah is an interventional radiologist at Children’s and holds joint appointments as Associate Professor in the Emory University School of Medicine Department of Radiology and Department of Pediatrics. His clinical interests include vascular anomalies and ablative therapies for a variety of conditions. He has a deep understanding of what it takes to translate and implement medical technologies to help improve the lives of children.
Dr. Inan is Regents Entrepreneur and Linda J. and Mark C. Smith Chaired Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Tech. Over the past 12 years, he has worked with multiple investigators at Children’s on dozens of projects. He is interested in designing clinically relevant medical devices and systems and translating them from the lab to patient care applications. Developing new technologies for monitoring chronic diseases, such as heart failure, at home is a focus of his research.
The PTC brings clinical experts together with Georgia Tech scientists and engineers to develop technological solutions to problems in the health and care of children, providing extraordinary opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration in pediatrics. These collaborations allow us to bring discoveries to the clinic and the bedside, thereby enhancing the lives of children and young adults. Learn more about the PTC.
Pediatric Technology Center (PTC)
Brian Vickery, MD, has been named Vice Chair of Clinical Research for the Emory School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics. In this role, he will advance the Department’s clinical research, foster collaboration and serve as a resource for other researchers. Dr. Vickery, who will continue in his roles as Division Chief of Allergy and Immunology and Director of the Food Allergy Program at Children’s, is a nationally recognized allergist and immunologist focused on developing evidence-based clinical therapies for food allergy and anaphylaxis. He brings extensive experience leading multicenter clinical research and advancing patient-centered outcomes in pediatric care.
Dr. Vickery joins the Vice Chairs and Director of Research—Ann Chahroudi, MD, PhD, Vice Chair of Basic Science Research; Stacy Heilman, PhD, Vice Chair of Research Operations; and Hanna Alemayehu, MD, Director for Pediatric Surgical Research. They work closely with Chief Research Officer and Executive Vice Chair of Research, Kristy Murray, DVM, PhD, to support the Emory and Children’s pediatric research enterprise.
Center for Clinical and Translational Research (CCTR)
Center for Cystic Fibrosis and Airways Disease Research (CF-AIR)
Children's Center for Immunity and Applied Genomics (CIAG)
Research and Epidemiology for Adolescent and Child Health (REACH) Center
‘Not Just Small Adults’: Children’s and Emory Researchers Build Specialized AI Models to Guide Clinical Decision Making for Clinicians Treating Kids
Dr. Satish Viswanath and Team Harness AI for Good, Developing Models to Unlock More Effective Treatments and Precision Medicine
There is no shortage of headlines about AI—many sensational, some scary—but researchers at Children’s and Emory know it can be used for good. Satish Viswanath, PhD, and other researchers in his lab are committed to building AI models that help children and the clinicians who serve them.
More specifically, they are focused on developing novel AI machine learning algorithms and computational imaging models to guide clinical decision making, helping clinicians make decisions about patient care and provide highly personalized, precision medicine.
“This offers a way to accurately identify patients at risk of suffering or experiencing complications,” he said. “We hope to more proactively identify these patients so we can better help them.”
Dr. Viswanath and his team anticipate it could also help people better understand the benefits of a particular treatment and boost confidence in outcomes. Recommendations are very personalized, based on a patient’s specific data.
Thanks to a $21.9 million grant from the late Bernie Marcus and The Marcus Foundation, Marcus Autism Center, a subsidiary of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, announced they will conduct the largest-ever study of behavior, brain and genomic biomarkers in children across the autism spectrum and associated genetic neurodevelopmental conditions to better understand what causes autism severity and elicits a treatment response in those with profound autism. The goal is to identify mechanisms that can be changed to optimize outcomes and generate new therapies. In a collaboration with Children’s Behavioral and Mental Health and Neurosciences Research Programs, Emory University School of Medicine’s Department of Human Genetics, and the Tri-Institutional Center for Translational Research in Neuroimaging and Data Science (TReNDS), 7,500 children from birth to 12-years of age will participate.
Marcus Autism Center
