HJAR Sep/Oct 2024

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF ARKANSAS I  SEP / OCT 2024 55 For weekly eNews updates and to read the journal online, visit HealthcareJournalAR.com and general counsel for the state’s nationally ranked pediatric health system. Solomon developed Arkansas Children's first Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) program and served as a key member of the leadership team on numerous strategic initiatives and crisis man- agement situations. Before joining Arkansas Children’s, Solomon was in private practice and acted as CEO and gen- eral counsel for Legacy Spine & Neurological Spe- cialists in Little Rock. He was also a partner with Rose Law Firm. A graduate for the University of Arkansas at Fay- etteville, Solomon earned a law degree at the UA School of Law. He also holds a Master of Pub- lic Service from the UA Clinton School of Public Service. East North Street Foundation Donates $1M for Arkansas Children's Hospital Expansion The East North Street Foundation, co-founded and operated by David Hendrix and Doug Hen- drix, has donated one million dollars to Arkansas Children's Hospital (ACH) in support of the hospi- tal’s $235.2 million expansion project. The family foundation has strong ties to Arkan- sas and is a long-time supporter of Arkansas Children’s. The Hendrix brothers shared their appreciation for the opportunity to support the hospital and contribute to the growth of the local community. "This partnership with Arkansas Children's Hos- pital is a profound honor for us,” said David Hen- drix. “Contributing to the hospital's expansion project is not only an investment in advanced medical care but also a commitment to building a brighter, healthier future for families across Arkansas.” Phase one of construction on the ACH and ACNW campuses began earlier this year and is scheduled to be completed in 2026. Cori Keller Joins Baptist Health as Physician Relations Representative Cori Keller has joined Baptist Health as a physi- cian relations representative. Keller, a Stuttgart native and former Miss Amer- ica, holds a bachelor’s degree in exercise science and a master’s degree in radio/TV mass commu- nications from Arkansas State University. Before joining Baptist Health and her service as Arkansas’ official goodwill ambassador, Keller worked as an account coordinator for Little Rock- based advertising agency CJRW and as a free- lance reporter for ESPN. ACRI Receives $3.3 Million fromNIH to Identify ‘Immunologic Fingerprint’ Arkansas Children's Research Institute (ACRI) has received $3.3 million from the National Insti- tutes of Health (NIH) to run a five-year study that will clarify which viral and host factors lead to severe disease among children infected with the virus that causes COVID-19. The research will improve health outcomes of children worldwide. Josh Kennedy, MD, principal investigator, and Peter Mourani, MD, co-investiga- tor and president of ACRI, will lead this study that will identify common features in children with mul- tiple respiratory viruses, including SARS-CoV-2. Kennedy, an associate professor of allergy and immunology in the University of Arkansas for Med- ical Sciences (UAMS) College of Medicine, treats patients with asthma and allergies at Arkansas Children’s Hospital (ACH). Through deep sequencing of host and viral RNA obtained from respiratory specimens, the researchers aim to uncover an immunologic fin- gerprint for SARS-CoV-2 that can be used to identify it as the infecting virus in symptomatic children who have multiple viruses identified by clinical testing at the time of illness. In the future, this profile could be added to current clinical tests to guide treatment. The study will also iden- tify patient characteristics, viral features and host immune responses that predispose a child to more severe disease. “The clinical implications of co-detection of viruses in children are still not fully understood,” Kennedy said. “With new treatments emerging, it can be difficult to know whether a positive test actually identifies a new or old infection. We aim to create a much clearer picture with our study, which we believe will help inform future treatment strategies.” Even years after the peak of the COVID-19 pan- demic, clinicians still struggle to identify the dom- inant virus causing an immune response in chil- dren with respiratory illness when their lab results show multiple viruses. This lengthens recovery times and leads to care patients may not need. Kennedy’s research has been moving discov- ery from the bench to the bedside for almost a decade. He received the Marion B. Lyon Young Investigator Award at Arkansas Children’s in 2016. That award annually promotes new, innovative pediatric research and has launched careers for young researchers for more than two decades. The program is one of the first award opportu- nities at Arkansas Children’s for new scientists to gain funding for their projects. With funding from the NIH NIGMS and the ACRI Center of Biologic Research Excellence (COBRE) (PI: Alan Tackett), Kennedy’s lab sequenced over 40% of the publicly available SARS-CoV-2 variants from Arkansas. Mourani leads a team that has identified one of the earliest host-microbe classifiers that distin- guish lower respiratory tract infections among chil- dren in intensive care requiring mechanical venti- lator support. Kennedy will join Mourani and their Ryan Solomon, JD, MPS Cori Keller