Dear Friends,
For generations. That’s how long Nicklaus Children’s has served the South Florida community and beyond. Since our founding in 1950 and through the decades to follow, enduringly, we have been the place where children matter most: the region’s only freestanding children’s hospital.
Even as we provide care for half a million children annually – offering nearly every pediatric specialty and the latest innovative therapies – we continuously reach forward to ensure that we are ready to serve generations to come. Our 2023 momentum included many new initiatives. A Nicklaus Children’s pilot study to assess the impact of rapid whole genome sequencing for critically ill children led to Florida Medicaid funding this innovative testing for undiagnosed children. This is supporting faster diagnoses and more targeted care for children right now, across South Florida.
We opened an Undiagnosed Disease Clinic to help provide answers for families on a diagnostic odyssey and we were the first in Florida to offer new treatments for Duchenne muscular dystrophy and anterior cruciate ligament tears as part of our commitment to bringing leading-edge care to the children we serve.
In our role as the South Florida affiliate of Project ADAM, we trained hundreds of area schools in how to respond to sudden cardiac arrest events. This positioned us to complete training for 100 percent of eligible schools in Miami-Dade County Public Schools in the first half of 2024. As a result of this initiative, three South Florida lives were saved in 2023 by Project Adam-trained school staff, including two teens and an adult.
I hope you will take a moment to review our many 2023 initiatives, as well as patient stories that illustrate the lifesaving and life-enhancing ways we support the children of South Florida and beyond. Our achievements would not have been possible without the commitment and leadership of our Nicklaus Children’s family – physicians, clinical and support teams, donors, board members, and the patients and families who look to us for care and support.
Many exciting developments are underway in 2024 that will move Nicklaus Children’s Forward For Generations! We look forward to sharing more information soon, and collaborating to support healthy tomorrows for the children of our region and beyond.
Sincerely,
Matthew A. Love President and Chief Executive Officer, Nicklaus Children’s Health System
