Presenter Profile
Kyran Quinlan, MD, MPH
Illinois Department of Public Health
kyran.p.quinlan@illinois.gov
After three decades as an academic general pediatrician, injury researcher and child safety advocate, Kyran Quinlan MD, MPH now serves as the Pediatric Medical Advisor to the Director of the Illinois Department of Public Health. He was Chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Council on Injury Violence and Poison Prevention. Dr. Quinlan trained in Pediatrics at the University of Chicago, received his Masters in Public Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago and completed the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service training in child injury epidemiology and prevention at the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. He provided clinical care for over 20 years at Federally Qualified Health Centers on the South and West sides of Chicago. His research and advocacy have focused on the epidemiology and prevention of death and severe injury of children with particular focus on low resource settings. In the last decade, Dr. Quinlan has focused his work primarily on the prevention of Sudden Unexpected Infant Death with an emphasis on addressing disparities and risk perception. He serves on the Child Death Review for Cook County, and he was the Principal Investigator for the CDC-funded Sudden Unexpected Infant Death-Case Registry for Cook County, Illinois.
Presentations
Connecting Data to “Close the Loop” with Birth Hospitals to Prevent SUID
Gina Lowell, MD, MPH
Rojin Ahadi, MPH
Meredith Reynolds, MD
Christie Lawrence, DNP, RNC-NIC
Kyran Quinlan, MD, MPH
Each year in the US, about 3,400 infants die from Sudden Unexpected Infant Death (SUID). In Cook County IL, SUID occurs on average nearly once a week. Education and prevention opportunities exist for hospitals who birth these infants, yet birth hospitals rarely hear when an infant they discharged dies from SUID. We leveraged access to available data sources to calculate SUID rates of Cook County birth hospitals and their geographical proximity with those communities most impacted by SUID.
Data from the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office for SUIDs that occurred between 1/1/2019 and 12/31/2021 were analyzed for hospital of birth. The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) provided resident live birth data by Cook County birth hospital for the 11 birth hospitals with the greatest number of infants discharged who subsequently died from SUID during this time frame. SUID rates (cases/1,000 resident live births) were calculated for each birth hospital. SUIDs in Cook County during this time period were mapped using RStudio and compared with Chicago Health Atlas data visualizing community areas of high economic hardship and with mapping of Cook County birth hospitals.
From 2019-2021, the eleven hospitals included in this analysis delivered between less than 1,000 to over 35,000 infants per birth hospital. SUID rates for birth hospitals ranged from 0.34 to 6.8 cases per 1,000 resident live births. Geographical distribution of SUIDs showed high concentration in areas geographically associated with those birth hospitals with the highest SUID rates, and with those community areas experiencing high economic hardship. The birth hospital with the highest SUID rate was 3 times that of the birth hospital with the second highest SUID rate, and 20 times that of the birth hospital with the lowest SUID rate. The birth hospital with the highest SUID rate experienced a pandemic-related closure of its labor and delivery unit, as did the birth hospital with the 7th highest SUID rate.
Birth hospitals in community areas most impacted by SUID experience variably and disproportionately high SUID rates. SUID occurs in areas of high economic hardship where closures of labor and delivery units reflect disinvestment and deepen inequitable access to trusted care. No system currently exists for birth hospitals to learn of SUIDs that happened to babies they discharged. Describing this data is the first step towards “closing the loop” with birth hospitals. Leveraging different public health data sources to describe these disparities creates opportunities to reach stakeholders at birth hospitals invested in preventing SUID through sharing data, clinical practices, hospital policies, community approaches and passion to promote safe sleep during the critical opportunity birth hospitals have surrounding the birth of a baby.
1. Recall 3 data sources used to illuminate the SUID rates for infants discharged from Cook County birth hospitals.
2. Understand the non-uniformity of SUIDs experienced by infants discharged from Cook County birth hospitals serving communities with varying economic hardship.
3.Consider how historical disinvestment, economic hardship and the pandemic intersect to impact hospital systems serving communities most impacted by SUID.
Pioneer Award Keynote / Getting There Without a Map: Adventures in Child Injury Prevention
Kyran Quinlan, MD, MPH
While the last three decades have seen remarkable advances in child injury prevention, much work remains to be done to further protect children. Dr. Quinlan will touch on moments of inspiration from those pioneers whose insights and advocacy have led to key advances in our field. He will share examples of how clinical experiences have driven his own research and advocacy efforts. He sees us all as pioneers in this field. Sometimes our efforts are effective, sometimes less so. But together, we continue to chip away at the variety of child injury threats and try to make the world a safer place for kids.
1. Appreciate several specific notable trends in child injury over the past 30 years.
2. Recognize those “pioneers” before us whose work had a significant impact on child safety.
3. Discuss the role of personal clinical experience in driving child injury prevention advocacy work.
4. Acknowledge the varied outcomes of our efforts in child injury prevention.
5. Look forward to some of the future child injury challenges we face in the years ahead.