Children's Hospitals Today - Fall 2022 - 30

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" INSPPIRE "
HOPING TO
The University of Iowa leads
an international study group on
pediatric pancreatitis.
" When we formed INSPPIRE (INternational Study Group
of Pediatric Pancreatitis: In Search for a CuRE) in 2009,
our mission was to improve the lives of children and
their families, " says Aliye Uc, MD, professor of pediatrics
and gastroenterologist at University of Iowa Stead Family
Children's Hospital. " We wanted to find therapies for
pediatric pancreatitis. "
Since then, Uc has become a world-renowned pediatric
gastroenterologist and has led INSPPIRE in creating
the first and most comprehensive natural history study of
the disorder.
The research project consists of 25 sites in the U.S.,
Canada, Australia, and Israel. The project team has more
than 100 team members, including roughly 45 pediatric
gastroenterologists, radiologists, and endocrinologists.
Currently, INSPPIRE is following nearly 800 participants,
the most of any study on pediatric pancreatitis.
" It's exciting to work with a disease process that so
little was known about, " says clinical research nurse
specialist Gretchen Cress, MPH, one of five team members
located in Iowa City. " This group is creating the knowledge
database about the disease. The majority of research
out there is coming from INSPPIRE. Children's quality
of life is so affected by this disease. To have the hope of
helping these kids is pretty amazing. "
The University of Iowa INSPPIRE research
team: Gretchen Cress, MPH; Aliye Uc, MD;
Katie Larson-Ode, MD; and Karen Scudiero.
Forming INSPPIRE
In the beginning, it was only Uc blazing
a hopeful new trail. Working in a
National Institutes of Health (NIH)funded
laboratory studying cystic
fibrosis-related pancreatic disease in
the 2000s, she realized that the field
of pancreatitis was " very underserved. "
" When I started INSPPIRE, there
was very little understanding of
pancreatic disease in children, " Uc says.
" Children would not get the proper
tests and treatments because no one
would think of pancreatitis. "
In 2012, Uc and her colleagues
published a paper in the Journal of
Pediatric Gastroenterology and
Nutrition that established criteria for
diagnosing pancreatitis. That same
year, Uc received a competitive R21
grant from the NIH to fund INSPPIRE,
and the project took off.
Among its accomplishments, the
INSPPIRE project has demonstrated
that pediatric pancreatitis can be
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