When a parent discovers her child has a chronic autoimmune disease, finding top-quality, specialized care to help treat and manage the disease is crucial.
That’s where Children’s Hospital of Michigan proves to be the best option, with a pediatric-specific rheumatology department, and a Vasculitis Clinic, which is a combined effort of the pediatric rheumatology and nephrology departments treating teen patients and those in early adulthood.
“We have a clinic twice a month where we co-manage patients who have lupus and other diseases with kidney involvement,” says Dr. Matthew Adams, chief of pediatric rheumatology at Children’s. The Vasculitis Clinic has helped cut down the number of visits these patients have to have by half. “We think it’s a great service. It brings all the experts into one place.”
The rheumatologists and nephrologists can work together to discuss management and medication for diseases like lupus that may be impacting kidney function.
Teens with lupus and other autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, periodic fever syndrome and more would see a doctor in the pediatric rheumatology department.
“Most states have no pediatric rheumatologists. Detroit has us,” Adams notes. “That’s a good resource both for the patients and the community physicians who need someone to speak with.”
And Children’s Hospital of Michigan is just that: A children’s hospital. “We work with, really, the best caretakers and clinicians for children,” he says. That team of specialists works together to provide the specialized care children need.
Adams says there are certainly too many lupus patients to count, but lupus is just one of the many diseases Children’s specializes in treating. “We treat a unique set of diseases that other people really don’t have the overall experience to treat.”
To learn more about Children’s Hospital of Michigan’s pediatric rheumatology department, and the rheumatology/nephrology Vasculitis Clinic, visit ChildrensDMC.org/pediatricrheumatology, ChildrensDMC.org/vasculitisclinic, or call 313-745-KIDS.
