Kent Hymel, M.D.
title
Child Abuse Pediatrician, Penn State Health Children’s Hospital
Professor of Pediatrics, Penn State College of Medicine
Phone
717-531-5158Office
Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center
Division of Child Abuse Pediatrics, Mail Code H085
500 University Drive, P.O. Box 850
Hershey, PA 17033-0850
Projects
Implementation Trial of a Validated Clinical Decision Rule for Pediatric Abusive Head Trauma (P50 HD089922)
To increase the accuracy of doctors’ decisions to launch or forgo child abuse evaluations in their young, acutely head-injured patients, Pediatric Brain Injury Research Network (PediBIRN) investigators derived and validated a 4-variable clinical decision rule (CDR) that detects abusive head trauma (AHT) with 96% sensitivity in pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) settings. Applied at PICU admission as an AHT screening tool, the CDR categorizes young, acutely head-injured patients as high risk vs. low risk, and recommends thorough abuse evaluations for all high risk patients.
Our ‘CDR Implementation Trial’ across eight PICUs will assess the CDR’s actual impact on AHT screening accuracy. Our ‘stratified cluster randomized trial’ design will facilitate direct comparison of child abuse evaluations at four, randomly selected, control sites to four matched intervention sites, where we will deploy active, multifaceted, implementation strategies designed to promote CDR acceptability and application. Based on our strong Preliminary Studies, we predict that CDR adoption as an AHT screening tool will increase AHT detection; reduce overall abuse evaluations and their associated risks; reduce unwarranted variation in current AHT screening practices; minimize the adverse impacts of doctors’ inherent biases, uncertainty, and practice disparities; reduce AHT-associated acute health care costs in PICU settings; and save the lives of children who will be reinjured and killed if their AHT is missed or unrecognized.
Selected Grants
2017 – 2021
Penn State’s Translational Center for Child Maltreatment Studies-TCCMS (P50HD089922)
Selected Publications
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Hymel KP, Willson DF, Boos SC, Pullin DA, Homa K, Lorenz DJ, Herman BE, Graf JM, Isaac R, Narang SK and Armijo-Garcia V, for the Pediatric Brain Injury Research Network (PediBIRN) Investigators. Derivation of a clinical prediction rule for pediatric abusive head trauma. Pediatr Crit Care Med 2013;14:210-220
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Hymel KP, Laskey AL, Crowell KR, Wang M, Armijo-Garcia V, Frazier TN, Tieves KS, Foster R, and Weeks K, for the Pediatric Brain Injury Research Network (PediBIRN) Investigators. Racial/ethnic disparities and bias in the evaluation and reporting of abusive head trauma. J Pediatr 2018;137-143.e1 doi: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2018.01.048.
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Cohrs A, Agbese E, Leslie DL and Hymel KP. A cost analysis of a validated screening tool for pediatric abusive head trauma. J Child Fam Studies 2018;27(3):750-755
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Hymel KP, Herman BE, Narang SK, Graf JM, Frazier TN, Stoiko M, Christie LM, Harper NS, Carroll CL, Boos SC, Dias M, Pullin DA and Wang M, for the Pediatric Brain Injury Research Network (PediBIRN) investigators. Potential impact of a validated screening tool for pediatric abusive head trauma. J Pediatr 2015;167:1375-1381
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Hymel KP, Armijo-Garcia V, Foster R, Frazier TN, Stoiko M, Christie LM, Harper MS, Weeks K, Carroll CL, Hyden P, Sirotnak A, Truemper E, Ornstein AE and Wang M, for the Pediatric Brain Injury Research Network (PediBIRN) Investigators. Validation of a clinical prediction rule for pediatric abusive head trauma. Pediatrics 2014; 134(6):e1537-e1544
Brief Bio
Dr. Kent P. Hymel completed his fellowship training in Child Abuse Pediatrics at The Children’s Hospital, Denver, Colorado in 1996. He has served as the U.S. Air Force Medical Consultant for Child Abuse, and has directed child abuse programs at Inova Fairfax Hospital for Children and at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. In 2014, Dr. Hymel joined the Center for the Protection of Children at Penn State Hershey Medical Center. He is a Professor of Pediatrics at the Penn State College of Medicine, a past member of the AAP’s Committee on Child Abuse and Neglect, a past President of the Ray E. Helfer Society—the professional society for child abuse physicians, and the Deputy Medical Editor of the Subboard in Child Abuse Pediatrics of the ABP. Dr. Hymel founded and directs the Pediatric Brain Injury Research Network, and is the Principle Investigator of an NIH-funded clinical trial testing the impact of a novel, PICU-based screening tool for pediatric abusive head trauma.
Education
1977, B.S., General Biology, University of Illinois
1980, M.D., Southern Illinois University School of Medicine
1983, General Pediatrics, Wilford Hall USAF Medical Center
1996, Child Abuse Pediatrics, The Children’s Hospital, Denver
Expertise
child abuse pediatrics
Research Interests
abusive head trauma, child abuse screening and predictive tools