Dr. Bush a an M-PI of the NIH-funded ECHO PATHWAYS study, along with colleague M-PI Kaja LeWinn at UCSF, and M-PIs Fran Tylavsky at UTHSC, Sheela Sathyarayana, and Catherine Karr at UW. She is also a site PI for a second NIH-ECHO study, based out of NYU, with PI Leo Trasande. More information on these national prenatal cohort projects will be posted soon. General information on ECHO is provided at the link below.
Understanding the effects of environmental exposures on child health and development is a priority for the National Institutes of Health. To advance knowledge in this area, NIH has launched a new seven-year initiative called the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program. While the goals of ECHO are consistent with those of the former National Children’s Study, the approach is different. ECHO is designed to capitalize on existing participant populations, and support approaches that can evolve with the science and take advantage of the growing number of clinical research networks and technological advances.
ECHO will support multiple, synergistic, longitudinal studies using existing study populations, called cohorts, to investigate environmental exposures — including physical, chemical, biological, social, behavioral, natural and built environments — on child health and development. The studies will focus on four key pediatric outcomes that have a high public health impact:
Upper and lower airway
Obesity
Pre-, peri-, and postnatal outcomes
Neurodevelopment
The studies will share standardized core data elements managed by a central coordinating center and an associated data analysis center. The core elements to be addressed across all studies are:
Demographics
Typical early health and development
Genetic influences on early childhood health and development
Environmental factors
Patient/Person (parent and child) Reported Outcomes (PROs)
