About one in 200 hospitalized children develop deep vein thrombosis or other types of blood clots and one in 10,000 children overall encounter these problems. The Children’s Hospitals’ Solutions for Patient Safety network identified deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism (DVT/PE) as the second leading cause of preventable harm among its greater than 100 participating children’s hospitals.

Neil Goldenberg, M.D., Ph.D., became interested in disorders of “thrombosis and hemostasis” (clotting and bleeding) as a medical student. Now an associate dean for Research at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, professor of pediatrics and medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and collaborating professor of pediatrics at the University of South Florida College of Medicine, he has devoted his career for the past 25 years to improving the prevention, treatment and evidence in the field of DVT/PE in children and young adults.

Goldenberg has now been appointed to an additional role as chair of the pediatric/neonatal scientific and standardization committee (SSC) of the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH).

“It’s an honor and privilege to serve in this leadership role through our international society, working with colleagues from around the world who share a passion for advancing knowledge and improving prevention efforts and outcomes in clotting and bleeding disorders impacting children,” Goldenberg says. “The COVID-19 pandemic is illuminating to a broader audience the importance of these disorders in patients at all ages and has sparked unprecedented national and international collaboration among clinicians and scientists.” 

Founded in 1969, the ISTH is the leading worldwide not-for-profit organization dedicated to advancing the understanding, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of conditions related to thrombosis and hemostasis (clotting and bleeding). ISTH is an international professional membership organization with more than 5,000 clinicians, researchers and educators working together to improve the lives of patients in more than 100 countries. The ISTH committee Goldenberg leads is charged with developing and advancing clinical and research standards to address bleeding and clotting issues among babies and children. 

“Our working groups have made great strides over the past several years in synthesizing evidence in pediatric DVT/PE as well as in establishing standards and stimulating new collaborative research in the field,” says ISTH president Jeffrey Weitz, M.D., FRCP(C), FACP, a professor of medicine at McMaster University in Ontario. “I’ve had the pleasure of working with Dr. Goldenberg on the Medical and Scientific Advisory Board of the National Blood Clot Alliance and the Antithrombotic Leadership and Steering Committee (ATLAS) Group, and look forward to supporting his efforts and those of his colleagues on the Pediatric SSC. I believe that over the next several years, we will see unparalleled progress in the field of pediatric DVT/PE treatment and prevention.”

During the ongoing coronavirus disease pandemic, the dramatic increase in DVT/PE cases among adults hospitalized with COVID-19 has led Goldenberg and colleagues to rapidly mobilize an effort to study the safety and preliminary effectiveness of an anti-clotting medication regimen via a national clinical trial in children hospitalized for COVID-19 in the United States, including the hyper-inflammatory subtype of the disease multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C). Johns Hopkins All Children’s collaborator and pediatric intensive care physician Tony Sochet, M.D., serves as multi-center principal investigator for the trial, and Goldenberg chairs the trial’s Steering Committee. 

Johns Hopkins All Children’s is a 259-bed teaching hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida, and one of three academic medical centers in the Johns Hopkins Health System. Goldenberg joined the faculty in 2012 and also leads a multinational randomized trial on duration of therapy with anti-clotting medications for DVT/PE in patients under 21 years old (the Kids-DOTT trial).

“Dr. Goldenberg’s appointment to lead the ISTH’s Pediatric SSC is a key demonstration of the shared commitment by Johns Hopkins All Children’s and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine to recruit top leaders in pediatric health care, research, education, quality and patient safety our campus, for the benefit of children throughout Florida, Maryland, the United States and beyond,” says George Jallo, M.D., internationally recognized pediatric neurosurgeon, vice dean and physician-in-chief at Johns Hopkins All Children’s, and professor of neurosurgery in the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “Through his work and the work of his mentees at many of the nation’s top-ranked children’s hospitals, Neil continues to make a tremendous impact toward improving children’s health.”