Six-year-old Sara Martinez, a cancer patient, is pictured with Dr. Leanne Embry, a licensed psychologist and associate professor of pediatrics/hematology-oncology in the School of Medicine at the UT Health Science Center. Sara made one of the handprints on the poster, which celebrates the $100,000 Hope Grant for psychosocial support services.
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Contact: Will Sansom, 210-567-2579

SAN ANTONIO (Sept. 28, 2011) — Hyundai Hope on Wheels® and local Hyundai dealers presented UT Medicine San Antonio and CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Children’s Hospital a $100,000 “Hope Grant” to fund language translation and psychology services for children with cancer. UT Medicine San Antonio is the clinical practice of the School of Medicine at the UT Health Science Center San Antonio.

Hyundai Motor America representatives, hospital officials and UT Medicine San Antonio physicians announced the grant Sept. 28 at the CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Children’s Hospital. Several San Antonio-area children affected by cancer placed their handprints in paint on a canvas to commemorate their brave battles with cancer.

This is the fourth year of Hope Grants to the CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Children’s Hospital and UT Medicine San Antonio, which includes faculty of the Department of Pediatrics in the School of Medicine. Previous grants supported clinical services as well as research programs at the Health Science Center’s Greehey Children’s Cancer Research Institute (CCRI).

From left, Gail Tomlinson, M.D., Ph.D., and Leanne Embry, Ph.D., of the Department of Pediatrics visit with Frank T. Ferrara, executive vice president customer satisfaction, Hyundai Motor America, at the Hyundai Hope on Wheels® grant announcement.

Strong psychosocial team
The Hope Grant will expand services of a team directed by Leanne Embry, Ph.D., a licensed psychologist and associate professor of pediatrics/hematology-oncology in the School of Medicine. “We have a very strong psychosocial team that Leanne leads,” said Gail Tomlinson, M.D., Ph.D., professor of pediatrics and Greehey Distinguished Chair in Genetics of Cancer. “This grant will fill in gaps in our services to children.”

The Hope Grant will improve translation and psychology services to patients in the Howard A. Britton, M.D., Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center, which serves a 60,000-square-mile area of South Texas, including several of the poorest counties in the country.

“Our children’s cancer and blood disorders program is one of our significant programs at CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Children’s Hospital,” said Marcy Doderer, FACHE, vice president and administrator at CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Children’s Hospital.

Faculty who provide care in the Britton Center include Amanda Blair, M.D., Anne-Marie Langevin, M.D., Anthony Infante, M.D., Ph.D., Dr. Tomlinson, Gregory Aune, M.D., Ph.D., Melissa Frei-Jones, M.D., Paul Thomas, M.D., and Shafqat Shah, M.D.

Enhancing communication
Grant funding will hire a Spanish-language interpreter to provide medical and general translation for medical staff, to help assess children’s understanding of the treatment provided and to gauge family members’ satisfaction with the care.

Sara Martinez, 6, was present with her mother, Melissa. At the age of 2, Sara was diagnosed with neurofibromatosis, a genetic disorder that causes tumors to grow in the nervous system. In 2010, Dr. Shah diagnosed a tumor at the optic nerve of Sara’s right eye. The little girl has received chemotherapy weekly for more than a year.

“One does not wake up in the morning and think something so devastating can happen in their family, but it can,” Melissa Martinez said.

State-of-the-art center
The Britton Center includes a 19-bed, all-private-room inpatient unit and an outpatient clinic that has approximately 7,000 patient visits each year. The center also houses the South Texas Hemophilia and Thrombophilia Program, the Children's Regional Sickle Cell Center, the Children's Immunology Clinic and the Childhood Cancer Survivorship Program, which follows nearly 300 patients who have succeeded in their battle against cancer.

All ancillary services and other pediatric subspecialties are available either in the CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Children’s Hospital or in the David Christopher Goldsbury Center for Children and Families.

In partnership with the Department of Pediatrics, the multidisciplinary team at the Britton Center includes hematologists, oncologists and immunologists, hematology-oncology fellows, surgeons, nurse practitioners, registered nurses, psychologists, a genetic counselor, social workers, child life specialists, chaplains and RN case managers.

The team works in conjunction with the Greehey CCRI, which is conducting novel research into the origins and treatment of childhood cancer.

Supporting the war on cancer
Hyundai Hope on Wheels® is the united effort of Hyundai Motor America and its more than 800 dealers across the U.S. to raise awareness about childhood cancer and to celebrate the lives of children battling the disease. By the end of 2011, Hope on Wheels will have committed more than $43 million in donations to pediatric cancer research, since the program began in 1998. Hyundai Hope on Wheels is an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

Representatives of the Red McCombs Hyundai and World Car Hyundai dealerships were present at the Hope Grant announcement. Thomas Mayes, M.D., M.B.A., professor and chair of the Department of Pediatrics, the Sister Angela Clare Moran Distinguished Chair in Pediatrics, and physician-in-chief of the CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Children’s Hospital, also spoke about the children’s cancer services.

In September, during National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, Hyundai Hope on Wheels donated $7.1 million to support 71 pediatric cancer research projects and programs at Children’s Oncology Group institutions across the country.

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The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, one of the country’s leading health sciences universities, ranks in the top 3 percent of all institutions worldwide receiving federal funding. Research and other sponsored program activity totaled $228 million in fiscal year 2010. The university’s schools of medicine, nursing, dentistry, health professions and graduate biomedical sciences have produced approximately 26,000 graduates. The $744 million operating budget supports eight campuses in San Antonio, Laredo, Harlingen and Edinburg. For more information on the many ways “We make lives better®,” visit www.uthscsa.edu.