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The Link - March 2026

Our March issue features the latest news and updates on pediatric care from Children's Mercy clinicians.

Vaccine Update: What Is New in mRNA Vaccines

The Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research announced Feb. 18 that it will review Moderna’s biologics license application for mRNA-1010, a seasonal influenza mRNA vaccine. A week prior, the FDA declined to review the application. After a meeting between Moderna and the FDA and agreement on a revised regulatory approach, the FDA made the determination to proceed to review. The revised regulatory pathway will be based on age and will seek full approval for adults aged 50-64 years, with accelerated approval for those >65. The hope is to have approval to use this product for the 2026-2027 influenza season. mRNA-1010 has also been accepted for review in Europe, Canada and Australia.

Evidence Based Strategies: Of Wax and Wayward Objects: Best Practices for Averting Shakespearean Tragedies in the Pediatric Ear Canal

Prologue

Friends, physicians, advanced practice providers, lend me your ears...
On the humble stage of the external auditory canal (EAC), two dramas unfold: cerumen impaction and ear foreign bodies. Though these players appear innocuous, they possess the capacity to cause chaos most foul. Thus, Children’s Mercy crafted two clinical pathways: Cerumen Impaction and Foreign Body - Ear. Both conditions alike in dignity, but each requiring slightly different approaches. Pray, read on to learn our recommendations for approaching these matters small in stature but oft perplexing in nature.

Pediatric Bioethics: Better Medicine Through Philosophy - Improving Care for Patients With Medically Unexplained Symptoms

“The best physician is also a philosopher.” -Galen

Clinicians regularly encounter patients who believe they are sick (or, in pediatrics, children whose parents believe they are sick) but whose symptoms cannot be linked to a known organic pathology. Indeed, studies suggest that perhaps 30-50% of somatic symptoms are medically unexplained. There is a familiar cyclical pattern to such medical encounters: (1) patients present with symptoms, (2) clinicians conduct a standard examination and order the usual tests and (3) everything from the exam and tests comes back “normal” (i.e., there is no indication of organic pathology), which then leads to (4) clinicians assuring patients, implicitly or explicitly, that “nothing is wrong with them.” Unfortunately, from the perspective of many patients in these encounters, there very much is something wrong with them—namely, the undesired symptoms that they are experiencing, which the familiar pattern above has done nothing to address. In addition to leaving patients with unresolved, or even exacerbated, symptoms, such encounters have many unfortunate consequences for patients and clinicians alike, including unnecessary tests and procedures (which can lead, in turn, to higher costs and greater risks of iatrogenic harm and false positive results), exam-room antagonism, clinician burnout/turnover, and loss of trust in the medical community.

Wise Use of Antibiotics: Using Your Village: How Antimicrobial Stewardship Collaboratives Benefit Everyone

We’ve all heard the adage “it takes a village to raise a child.” Antimicrobial stewardship collaboratives apply this same principle of using a “village” to achieve their goals. Improving judicious antimicrobial use is not something any one clinician, clinic or hospital can accomplish alone. Just as children benefit from the collective strengths of their community, the impact of stewardship efforts increases when individuals from different clinical settings and locations join forces.

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The Link - 2026
The Link - March 2026