Children's Wisconsin

What it reported doing in 2024

As a children's hospital in an academic medical center, research is interwoven into the care we provide every day. Children's allocates a portion of its annual budget to pediatric research in order to stimulate research activity which is focused solely on improving child health outcomes. This research is focused on improving diagnostics, discovering and testing new therapies, and improving the way we prevent and manage some of the most complex medical conditions. Physician-scientists, nurse-scientists, researchers and technicians at the children's research institute (cri) seek answers to the toughest questions in pediatric medicine. This innovative culture helps to attract and retain the best and brightest minds to our organization. Since its inception in 2003, cri has grown to include more than 150 researchers spanning all diagnostic, medical, and surgical specialties. Together they form the largest concentration of 100% pediatric research in Wisconsin. Children's research institute provides infrastructure and financial support for pediatric researchers conducting child health research. Cri's academic partners include the medical college of Wisconsin, uw-milwaukee, and marquette university. Types of support include the following:- supplemental grant support for early stage investigators- competitive pilot grants to help investigators test new ideas- shared services, including a pediatric translational research unit staffed by pediatric nurses trained on the complexities of regulated clinical research- dedicated laboratory space for pediatric researchersa few examples of ongoing research projects are described below.children's has significant efforts in childhood cancer research, including improving survivorship and quality of life for children battling some of the toughest forms of the disease. Ongoing laboratory research efforts include cancer immunotherapy projects, where our labs engineer novel antibodies and incorporate them into antibody-based products for therapy such as bispecific antibodies and chimeric antigen receptors that function to redirect potent immune effector cells toward elimination of tumor cells. In addition, our researchers are active with the therapeutic advances in childhood leukemia & lymphoma (tacl) consortium. This national consortium was established to develop and conduct phase i /ii clinical trials of new drugs and novel drug combinations for recurrent childhood leukemia or lymphoma. Our researchers also continue to participate in the cog (children's oncology group) consortium for clinical trials of novel pediatric cancer therapies.research in improving nursing care is also part of our research portfolio, including one project studying an intervention, to help parents engage with their infants in the nicu and the transition to home. This intervention, h-hope (hospital to home: optimizing the preterm infant's environment), has established efficacy, and has a standardized protocol, making it ready for widespread implementation. The infant-directed component of h-hope provides auditory (voice), tactile (moderate touch massage), visual (eye to eye), and vestibular (rocking) stimulation starting when infants are ready for social interaction. This intervention can help to support early brain maturation, health, and development for babies in the neonatal intensive care unit. In this nih-funded research, h-hope improved growth, developmental maturity and mother-infant interaction, and reduced initial hospitalization costs and acute care visits through 6-weeks corrected age. This research is now testing whether h- hope can be implemented and sustained in five diverse nicus. Additional researchers in the neonatal intensive care unit continue to improve understanding of persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn (pphn), a life-threatening condition which results from failure of pulmonary vascular resistance to decrease at birth. Impaired angiogenesis in the lung is a key contributor to the failed adapt

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 94.9%; rating input score 95
• Program expense ratio: 96.7%; rating input score 97
• Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 68th percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: 6 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 100
  • Compensation committee: Pass
  • Independent consultant: Pass
  • Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
  • Written employment contract: Pass
  • Compensation survey or study: Pass
  • Board or committee approval: Pass
• Foreign activity oversight: Limited
• Grant itemization coverage: Limited
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
• Related-party transparency: Yes; rating input score 100

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 86.4%; rating input score 86; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Pass
  • Document-retention policy: Pass
  • CEO compensation review process: Pass
  • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
  • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
  • Audit committee oversight: Pass
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

• Operating margin: 1.9%; rating input score 42; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.53; rating input score 20; 20th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.81; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 4.8%; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 9.1% per year; rating input score 100; 71st percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 9.1% per year; rating input score 100; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 5.5% per year; rating input score 100; 41st percentile among comparable filings