Rehma received outstanding care at Boston Children’s Hospital, one of the top pediatric hospitals in the world. We were deeply touched by the level of professionalism and compassion the staff at Boston Children’s Hospital showed both to Rehma and to us, her family, during the most difficult time in our lives. It is our sincere hope that in the unfortunate circumstance when a parent faces a situation where their child is ill in the hospital, they can receive the same level of medical care, expertise and compassion that we did.
To that end, the Rehma Fund is supporting OPENPediatrics™, an innovative, global initiative headed by Dr. Jeff Burns, the Chief of Critical Care at Boston Children’s Hospital. Dr. Burns and his medical team were responsible for Rehma’s care at the Boston Children’s Hospital ICU.
OPENPediatrics™ is a free, open access, digital learning platform that uses the latest innovative technology to provide robust continuing medical education in critical care to pediatric caregivers globally. OPENPediatrics™ addresses the global shortage of trained pediatric clinicians by making “best practices” available to everyone and is currently used by clinicians in over 120 countries.
The Rehma Fund has funded the creation of a unique online curriculum, the Non Accidental Trauma Module. This is aimed at teaching clinicians how to recognize signs of child abuse, which is an under-addressed but very urgent issue in pediatrics. Through a series of video lectures by experts in trauma surgery, ophthalmology, critical care, neuroradiology, and child protective services, the curriculum helps clinicians identify possible instances of abuse, manage injuries associated with abuse, and correctly document these findings. The ultimate goal of this project is to fill a gap in training and awareness that directly affects children impacted by non-accidental trauma worldwide. The curriculum is used as a training tool at multiple academic pediatric training hospitals worldwide and has been accessed from over 50 countries.
Building on the Non Accidental Trauma module, the Rehma Fund provided a five year grant to fund an annual ‘World Shared Practice Forum’ on Non Accidental Trauma. World Shared Practice Forums are live, monthly, discussion-based, virtual video forums that are led by international physician and nurse experts. Clinicians from around the world participate in these forums with their global colleagues and share their own experiences and approaches. The long term benefit of this degree of interaction and skill-sharing is immeasurable as providers are better equipped to treat children under their care for years to come and will often also pass on their improved knowledge and expertise to their colleagues.