Health Scan: The teddy bear hospital shows kids what to expect

New research shows children who face hospitalization are significantly less anxious if they first encounter a "hospital" in which stuffed animals are the patients.

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
teddy bear 88 (photo credit: )
teddy bear 88
(photo credit: )
Pre-school children who face hospitalization are significantly less anxious if they first encounter a "teddy bear hospital" in which medical students or doctors "treat" their favorite stuffed animal, according to research at Soroka University Medical Center in Beersheba. Dr. Yuval Bloch and Dr. Asaf Toker published their study in the latest issue of the Israel Medical Association Journal (IMAJ) about children's fears of separation from their family, undergoing injections and blood tests, being hospitalized for a long period and being told bad news about their health. The Soroka pediatricians studied 41 children aged three to six and a half from three kindergartens in the Negev city. They were all invited to a "simulated hospital" for teddy bears where the doctors' role was filled by medical students from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev's health sciences faculty. The students wore lab coats with name tags and carried stethoscopes, bandages and syringes (without needles) and were told to speak in language understandable to a young child. The students met the children outdoors in a covered hospital courtyard, near an ambulance, so as not to expose them to pathogens or patients in pain. The researchers assessed the baseline of the children's anxiety levels and compared anxiety levels of those who had gone through the teddy bear encounter and those who had not. The teddy bear intervention was "equally effective" for boys and girls. Although they didn't know of long-term effects, it was reasonable to speculate that by giving a periodic "booster" in kindergartens or by repeating it before a scheduled non-emergency hospitalization, the effect could be maintained for a longer period. AIMING AT A 'KIDNEY FACTORY' A Sheba Medical Center physician/researcher who has focused on eliminating cancerous stem cells from pediatric kidney cancers has won the $135,000 Israel Cancer Research Fund's Clinical Research Career Development Award. Dr. Benjamin Dekel will get the funding over three years and formally receive the award at a Knesset ceremony at the end of October. He is regarded as a world leader in adult and embryonic kidney stem cell manipulation, with which he seeks to cure renal disease and not have to depend on donor kidneys for transplant; more than 100 Israelis are waiting for a kidney donor. Stem cells are what all cells from all organs and tissues were in the very beginning of their lives. They can renew themselves, as during cell division, and create identical copies of themselves - primitive, undifferentiated stem cells just like the ones they arose from. "We are thrilled that Dr. Dekel's world-leading research in cancerous stem cells and in pediatric nephrology is being recognized in this way. Six years ago, Sheba identified him is one the brightest young clinicians and research scientists in Israel, and we selected him for the first class of our Talpiot medical leadership advancement program," says Sheba director-general Prof. Zeev Rothstein. "Clearly, the investment has paid off." Dekel is a senior physician in the pediatric department and the pediatric nephrology unit, and founder of the pediatric stem cell research institute at Sheba's Safra Children's Hospital. While completing his doctoral studies at the Weizmann Institute, he was one of the first in the world to succeed in isolating adult kidney stem cells. His studies on the growth and differentiation, immunogenicity and function of embryonic organ kidney precursors following transplantation (published in Nature Medicine in 2003), paved the way for the "growing kidneys" concept, where functional miniature human and pig kidneys were developed, and these could lead to replacement therapy for patients with end-stage kidney disease. MOVIE-STRUCK CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL Haim Saban, the Israeli-American billionaire who made his fortune from the Power Rangers cartoon characters, has "paid back" young customers here by building the Negev's first children's hospital. The Saban Pediatric Medical Center was dedicated at Beersheba's Soroka University Medical Center recently in a ceremony that included his wife Cheryl and other members of the Saban family, President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Clalit Health Services officials and other notables. The new facility will serve the 370,000 children living in the Negev - a population due to increase significantly in the coming years. Previously, the Saban Foundation established a pediatric medical research institute in Los Angeles. "My wife and I decided years ago to contribute to children's health," he said. "Our main target - of establishing a children's hospital in the Negev - was geared to provide the best and most advanced care for children." The new hospital will work in collaboration with the pediatric research facility in California, Saban said. Peres said that without Soroka and the Ben-Gurion University Faculty of Health Services nearby, Beersheba would not have turned into the "capital of the Negev." Saban, said the president, "lives in the world of films, but for him, Israel is not a movie but home... You have invested not only capital, but also your hearts."