Getting to Know the Pediatric Innovation Community: Jo Ann Davis

Jo Ann Davis, MS, APRN, CPNP-AC, CCRN, a leader in pediatric cardiac care at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, is dedicated to improving outcomes for children with single ventricle physiology.

Through the PedsMrkt Community, she’s built a collaborative space where providers can share insights, ask questions, and exchange best practices.

We asked Jo Ann about her vision for collaboration, why community matters in advancing care, and how platforms like PedsMrkt are changing the way providers connect.

If you are interested in starting a community for your specialty area, please reach out to PedsMrkt for more information.

Can you share a bit about your role at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and what drew you to specialize in single ventricle care?

My first nursing job was at the University of Iowa on the pediatric cardiopulmonary unit. I moved out of the state after a year, but exposure gave me an affinity for children with complex cardiac differences. I was a pediatric critical care nurse for 23 years before coming to Nationwide Children’s Hospital as an acute care pediatric nurse practitioner in 2012. When I saw the position posted for the single ventricle (SV) nurse practitioner role, it was the perfect opportunity to marry my passion to support patients and families in a comprehensive manner and make an impact on their day-to-day care as well as improve their long-term trajectory. My intensive care unit background helps me understand the co-morbidities that frequently accompany SV congenital heart disease (CHD) and identify how we are best able to support their complex needs.

Single ventricle physiology presents unique challenges for patients and families. What do you see as the most critical needs in improving care for these children?

Patients with SV physiology require constant vigilance during the interstage period to monitor symptoms and identify early changes that portend worsening of cardiac function or other physical issues that can impact their health negatively. These symptoms are typically subtle and may be misinterpreted as gas pains, teething, viral symptoms, or other common, benign infant concerns. I don’t think it’s being dramatic to say that you can never let your guard down with these children. Our goal is to get them safely to their stage 2 palliative surgery with good growth and preserved cardiac function. Educating all SV caregivers to ensure they respect the fragility is one of the most important aspects of managing the care of infants with SV CHD.  

What motivated you to use PedsMrkt Community as a way to foster collaboration among providers?

Several years ago, I wanted to easily communicate and network with single ventricle team members at other centers around the U.S. and the world. The SV patient population is the highest risk in cardiac centers and unique in their needs. The majority of centers with single ventricle teams participated in a collaborative with many active projects to improve quality and quantity of life. However, it was difficult to easily reach out to peers with questions about protocols or team composition. I had the email addresses of a few nurses and nurse practitioners from other centers and started emailing, asking if they would be interested in corresponding to dialogue over common challenges and work together. The response was overwhelmingly positive, and the list grew steadily over the years. The main challenge was that emails were difficult to reference later and inaccessible for those who joined the online community after those emails were sent. I learned of PedsMrkt from a peer at Children’s Mercy and she helped make the connection. Once I learned of the ability to ensure participants are in the SV community, have secure communications and easily reference prior discussions and shared documents, it was an easy decision to transition our discussions to PedsMrkt.

How are you using the PedsMrkt Community to connect providers and share best practices?

PedsMrkt has been a wonderful solution to allow people to easily post a query or share resources. Our prior method of communicating via email tended to clutter up in-boxes and wasn’t easily queryable. PedsMrkt allows us to tag conversations and attachments making it easy to reference or for newer members to find.

What gaps in communication or resources does this platform help address for clinicians working with complex congenital heart disease?

Congenital heart defects develop with many variations, coupled with additional genetic differences or other physical issues. Providers may see a patient whose unique features haven’t been seen at their center previously. Being able to reach out to other centers and pool knowledge improves the care being provided. I strongly believe we are better together. Without this platform, centers are limited by the small number of peers they may know, and communication would take longer. PedsMrkt enables a participant to post a query which may be viewed by 100 members within a day.

Can you share an example of a meaningful collaboration or insight that emerged through PedsMrkt?

I believe there will be many meaningful collaborations to come through PedsMrkt. There have been numerous insights shared regarding feeding practices, family support, team structure and education to name a few. My favorite feature is the photos attached to member profiles. Recently we had our annual in-person learning health network meeting with a luncheon for collaborating. Being able to recognize peers and having interacted with them on the PedsMrkt forum made the networking event much more profitable!

What role do you see technology and community platforms playing in advancing care for single ventricle patients over the next five years?

I think AI will be integrated into the routine monitoring of interstage patients to identify signals difficult to identify with the naked eye. I know there have been research studies done on this already, but it isn’t mainstream yet. There is opportunity both in the hospital and at home to integrate machine learning to improve care.

If you could implement one innovation tomorrow to improve outcomes for these children, what would it be?

The first innovation I’d like is modifiable pulmonary artery bands. Currently the stage 1 palliative procedure commonly performed at my center entails bands placed on the newborn’s pulmonary arteries to restrict pulmonary blood flow. Typically, the bands are a “loose” when first placed, so that there is excessive blood flow to the lungs. As the infant grows, the bands remain fixed so with time, there is not enough pulmonary blood flow.  If adjustable pulmonary bands could be developed, that would enable better management of the blood flow to the lungs in that interstage period without undergoing an additional cardiac catheterization or surgery.

What advice would you give to other providers looking to engage in collaborative care initiatives?

It seems obvious, but the best way to engage is to begin. Reach out to a center(s) with an introduction and open desire to dialogue and network. I’ve grown my “formal” network to >200 multidisciplinary peers a few at a time. The overwhelming majority have welcomed the opportunity to collaborate with others in this demanding field. The growth tends to have a snowball effect. As people find value in the network, they share with others that they know who then join.