Kenneth R. Cooke, MD

Dr. James Fackler is a professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. His areas of clinical expertise include acute respiratory distress syndrome, novel respiratory therapies, and critical care informatics.Dr. Fackler received his undergraduate degree in biology from the University of Illinois and earned his M.D. from Rush Medical College in Chicago. He completed his residencies in pediatrics and anesthesiology and then fellowships in pediatric intensive care and pediatric anesthesia at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. His first faculty position was at the Children's Hospital in Boston where he was an early leader in use of the internet for health data exchange and critical care monitoring.Dr. Fackler returned to the Johns Hopkins faculty in 1996 to run the Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation program and Respiratory Therapy.He took a "sabbatical" from 2002 to 2006 and worked for the Cerner Corporation developing their critical care and device integration solutions. He has founded three health care informatics-based startups and consults for other device and information integration companies.Dr. Fackler's research interests include optimizing team performance in pediatric critical care. He has mentored pediatric residents, critical care fellows, and biomedical engineering undergrads, Masters and PhD students. His current major focus is on sepsis.He serves as an associate editor for Pediatric Critical Care Medicine and as an ad hoc journal reviewer for many notable publications including New England Journal of Medicine and Critical Care Medicine. He is a member of American Association of Artificial Intelligence, American Medical Informatics Association and the Society for Critical Care Medicine. He helped found, and is on the Board of the non-profit, Machine Learning for Healthcare.Dr. Fackler is a frequent lecturer and panelist on the subject of critical care informatics. He is an expert in data integration and its use.

Chen's primary area of research focuses on bone marrow transplantation (BMT), a highly complex and specialized aspect of pediatric oncology that, in recent years, has become an accepted form of therapy for an increasingly broad range of cancers. In addition to the myriad ways BMT is currently being utilized at Hopkins, Chen is working to refine novel approaches to the therapy and apply them to some of the toughest cases. "One hypothesis is that, in patients receiving a transplant using their own stored stem cells, we can induce an immunologic response from their own cells that mimics the graft received from a healthy donor," Chen says. "We're also excited about the ability to foster immune tolerance when the only available healthy donors aren't perfect matches for the patient."In a quest to solve some of the rarest and most troubling treatment challenges facing pediatric oncology, Chen and fellow pediatric oncologists at Hopkins have joined forces with others around North America in the Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant Consortium. "We're trying to develop multi-institutional studies to improve the effectiveness of BMT for cancer. The study we're working on now will help us to understand why some patients relapse in spite of BMT for acute myeloid leukemia," says Chen, who chairs the Oncology Strategy Group of this consortium.Chen also immerses himself in several Hopkins-based initiatives. Recently, he was named Chair of the Oncology Clinical Research Review Committee, a group mandated to oversee all patient-oriented research in the comprehensive cancer center to ensure it meets the center's standards of scientific merit and priority.He also chairs the Performance Improvement Committee. This multi-disciplinary group consists of physicians, nurses, and pharmacists who examine practical ways to reduce errors and improve patient outcomes. The committee recently joined forces with Hopkins' information technology professionals to apply a computerized order entry system—even to complex treatment protocols like chemotherapy."We've seen an amazing improvement; a number of potential medication errors decreased dramatically," Chen says. Currently, the committee is analyzing ways to reduce bloodstream infections in pediatric patients, which can create potentially life-threatening complications. Despite the hectic pace of Chen's professional life, he has managed to find a way to leave behind the stress of his job and bond with his own children. He and his sons began taking Kung Fu classes when his older son began middle school. He's since grown up and left for college, but Chen continues the practice as both a student and a teacher.Regardless of where Chen is, he's never too far removed from the challenges that await him at work. "Sometimes, in the wee hours of the morning, I suddenly realize why a complication has occurred," he says.

Dr. Brian Ladle is a pediatric cancer specialist in Baltimore, caring for patients with pediatric sarcoma. Dr. Ladle received his undergraduate degree in molecular biology from Brigham Young University. He earned his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He completed his residency at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and performed a fellowship in pediatric hematology and oncology at Johns Hopkins and the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Ladle joined the Johns Hopkins faculty in 2013.Dr. Ladle's research focuses on translational immunology, with the goal of developing novel immunotherapies for the treatment of pediatric malignancies. His lab currently focuses on augmenting anti-tumor T cell responses to solid tumors such as osteosarcoma, Ewing sarcoma and rhabdomyosarcoma.He is a member of the American Association for Cancer Research, the American Society for Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the Children's Oncology Group.