News You Can Use
(From the August 2025 issue of MedStat)
Patient-centered Care Lies at the Heart of Food Allergy Treatment Center
by David Stukus, MD, Director, Food Allergy Treatment Center
Our Food Allergy Treatment Center opened at the Lewis Center Close To HomeSM in April 2021. We developed this center to offer dedicated space and comprehensive services for the most up-to-date evaluation and management of food allergies. Since opening, we have had over 10,000 visits including 3,000 new consultations and 2,100 oral food challenges. Additionally, we have over 300 patients receiving treatment to help protect them from potentially life-threatening allergic reactions.
Misdiagnosis of food allergy remains common and can lead to unnecessary dietary avoidance, anxiety and poor quality of life. We love helping families clarify if their child is truly allergic to a food. Every symptom that occurs due to food allergy can occur for unrelated reasons and that is a main reason why we “undiagnose” suspected food allergy in 50% of our new patient visits. We often serve as a second or third opinion for children diagnosed with multiple food allergies and almost always find a way to reintroduce many of those foods back into their diet.
Managing food allergies is no longer a passive endeavor. While a cure for food allergies does not exist, we offer oral immunotherapy to desensitize children and lower their risk of reaction from an accidental ingestion. Some children are even able to move on to freely eat the same food that caused a reaction just a few months earlier. There is also now a medication, omalizumab, which binds and removes IgE antibodies, to treat food allergies and protect against accidental ingestion. With all these options available, we take pride in participating in shared decision making to help each family make the best choice for their needs and preferences.
The Food Allergy Treatment Center is fortunate to have support from Nationwide Children’s, as there are only a handful of similar centers across the United States. Since opening, we have hosted teams from nationally acclaimed academic centers, helping them learn from our experience. Our faculty members are routinely invited to educate peers at national conferences and have published dozens of peer-reviewed articles and book chapters since our center opened. Most importantly, our practice is continually evolving, and we strive to offer new approaches as evidence changes.
Other highlights that make our Food Allergy Treatment Center unique:
- Oral immunotherapy for infants
- Threshold challenges to identify each child’s personal level of reactivity to a food
- Proximity challenges for children with severe anxiety (showing that they do not react when a food to which they are allergic is nearby or touches their skin)
- Clinical trials investigating cutting-edge therapies
- National reputation – our director, David Stukus, MD, is the current vice president of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology and serves on the Executive Committee for the Section on Allergy/Immunology within the American Academy of Pediatrics
Our goal is to offer comprehensive, evidence-based and personalized food allergy management and support for families and our community. If you’re caring for a family with concerns related to food allergies, please consider referring to our Food Allergy Treatment Center. Families may also self-refer through our online portal. We have the time, expertise and experience to clarify the diagnosis, review management options and support every child and family on a positive path forward.
Follow on Instagram: Farah Kahan, MD (@farah.khan.md) and David Stukus, MD (@AllergyKidsDoc)
Molly Fuchs, MD, Named New Pediatric Urology Department Chief
Molly Fuchs, MD, has been named the new chief of the Department of Pediatric Urology at Nationwide Children’s, effective August 1. She will also serve as chief of the Division of Pediatric Urology at The Ohio State University College of Medicine.
Dr. Fuchs succeeds Rama Jayanthi, MD, who has served as chief since 2012 and led the department through a period of remarkable growth and collaboration. Dr. Jayanthi will continue his clinical work at both Nationwide Children’s and Dayton Children’s Hospital.
Dr. Fuchs joined Nationwide Children’s since 2017 and currently serves as director of clinical operations for the Department of Urology and urology director of the Myelomeningocele Clinic. She is a board-certified pediatric urologist and clinical associate professor at The Ohio State Wexner Medical Center. Her clinical and research interests include neurogenic bladder, cloacal malformations and anorectal anomalies. Through her collaborative leadership in the Center for Colorectal and Pelvic Reconstruction, she has helped shape national standards of care and improve outcomes for children with complex congenital conditions.
2025 Physician Recognition Awards
Tuesday, September 16 | Nationwide Children’s Conference Center - Allen Auditorium B
4:30 p.m. Social Hour | 5:30 p.m. Program Begins
Nationwide Children’s and the Medical Staff Office cordially invite you and your guest to join us for this special event as we celebrate the accomplishments of our fellow physicians to present the following honors:
- Bruce P. Meyer, MD, Family Art of Medicine Award
- Golden Stethoscope Award
- Career Contribution Award Recipients
- Outstanding Community Based Physician Award
In addition to recognizing our honorees, we welcome the new physicians to our medical staff and celebrate the significant milestone anniversaries of those who have served on Nationwide Children’s Medical Staff for 25 years or longer. Register at NationwideChildrens.org/awards-rsvp.
Entrepreneurship Educational Sessions From The Innovation Center
The Innovation Center at Nationwide Children’s kicks off its Entrepreneurship Bootcamp, starting August 8. This three-month course is designed to strengthen the commercial readiness of concepts by overviewing customer discovery, market validation, regulatory strategies and funding opportunities.
There will be six free virtual educational lectures available for Nationwide Children’s employees, focused on technology commercialization given by guest lecturers.
Program Details:
Each free educational session for Nationwide Children’s employees will be available on the Innovation Center ANCHOR page and run from noon to 12:45 p.m. via a Microsoft Teams meeting. Calendar invites for will be available prior to each of the sessions below:
- August 8: Identification, Value Proposition, Customer Discovery Overview
- August 22: Stakeholder/Market Analysis
- September 5: Economics/Reimbursement
- September 19: Medical Device Regulatory Overview
- October 3: Intellectual Property
- October 17: Timeline/Milestones
Visit the Innovation Center ANCHOR page for more information or to add the meeting to your calendar.