Dr. Matthew Gillman: Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) A Nationwide Resource for Child Health Research Speakers: Matthew W. Gillman, MD, SM National Institutes of Health Director, Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program         Key Takeaways: Founded in 2016, the ECHO Program has brought together over 100,000 participants and […]

Drs. Young and Devlin: Opportunities to ACT NOW for Infants with Neonatal Opioid Withdrawal Syndrome Key Takeaways:  The opioid crisis has increased the number of infants who are exposed to opioids during pregnancy. Opioid-exposed newborns may develop symptoms of neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome (NOWS), which includes tremors, excessive crying and irritability, and problems with sleeping […]

Dr. Claudia Thompson: Identifying and Responding to Climate Change as an Emerging Children’s Health Issue Key Takeaways:  Dr. Claudia Thompson's presentation will focus on the following topics: Overview of the NIH Climate Change and Human Health Initiative Overview of climate change on children’s health broadly Examples of climate change impacts on respiratory and neurodevelopment outcomes […]

Dr. Wei Perng: Understanding the natural history of cardiovascular health across early-life Key Takeaways:  This talk describes cohort-specific findings regarding the natural history of cardiovascular health in children and adolescents, presents objectives of a related ECHO-wide analysis, and provides an overview of pursuits for extramural funding to identify targets for primordial prevention of CVD through […]

Prenatal Air Pollution Exposure and Risk of Autism: New Insight from ECHO Cohorts Key Takeaways:  In the past decade, air pollution has substantially declined in the US because of policies informed by environmental monitoring and research. A recent analysis of EPA data shows a reversal of trends, confirming that a national decade-long trend toward better […]

Using Knowledge-Driven AI to Predict and Explain Environmental Health Outcomes in Mothers and Children Key Takeaways: As increasingly rich and complex environmental health data are collected for secondary analysis, new methods are needed to translate these data into clinically actionable knowledge. The recent explosion in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) applications hold great […]

Untargeted Analysis of Microsamplers: The Utility of Dried Capillary Blood Spots for Exposome Research Key Takeaways: Researchers use blood samples to measure the levels of various chemicals and metabolites related to environmental exposures and track those exposures over time. However, it can be logistically and technically challenging to continuously collect venous blood samples over critical […]

Cross-Cohort Mixture Analysis: A Data Integration Approach with Applications on Child Health Outcomes Key Takeaways:  Integrating data across multiple studies can enhance the statistical power of analyses and help researchers better understand the association between a mixture of chemical exposures and health outcomes. It can be challenging to combine data from multiple studies, especially when […]

Penn-CHOP ECHO: Applying causal inference methods to address pressing questions in environmental children’s health Key Takeaways:  Exposures during early life can set the stage for lifelong health outcomes and well-being. A variety of environmental factors—including macro-physical environmental factors (e.g., greenspace, pollution, water quality), macro-social environmental factors (e.g., discrimination, income, education), and micro-environmental factors (e.g., diet, […]

Unveiling Maternal Health Disparities: Addressing the Impact of Racism Key Takeaways*: Dr. Amutah-Onukagha noted that: Historically, women of color have disproportionately experienced reproductive injustices exacerbated by medical bias, unequal distribution of resources, and a lack of consistent, timely prenatal care and obstetrics. There are still many challenges and inequities occurring today, including under-resourcing and underfunding […]