Melissa Williams
Tissue Navigator

Our Center of Excellence at Lurie Children’s

In the 2019-2020 U.S.News & World Report rankings of the best children’s hospitals, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago continues to be the top pediatric hospital in Illinois, ranked in all 10 specialties. Lurie Children’s provides superior pediatric care in a state-of-the-art hospital that offers the latest benefits and innovations in medical technology, family-friendly design and research through the Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute. As one of the largest programs of its kind in the country, Lurie Children’s Brain Tumor Program provides holistic, multidisciplinary care and support to approximately 175 new patients each year. In the last year, Lurie Children’s has expanded their clinical facilities, added new faculty and broadened research endeavors, all in the quest to bring innovative, life-saving treatments to children battling brain tumors.

Lurie Children’s is one of only 5 Centers of Excellence within the Gift from a Child network and a member of the Children’s Brain Tumor Network. In December 2017, the Swifty Foundation funded the role of a tissue navigator at Lurie Children’s to inform families of their options in regards to tissue donation and to manage the logistics to relieve families of the responsibility. At Lurie Children’s, the tissue navigator sensitively guides and educates families about the importance of tissue donation. Should a family choose to participate, the tissue navigator remains at their side throughout the process. This work is crucial to Lurie Children’s efforts to collect a sufficient volume and diversity of specimens vital to research efforts to cure childhood brain tumors. Learn more the program at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital  here.