SPeCTr Spring 2026 Newsletter
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I am realizing that my schedule for sending these newsletters is kind of at the end of the previous season/beginning of the next season. So, I'm not sure if this should be the "Spring" version, or the "Summer", or maybe "Sprummer"? I guess I have settled on, this is reporting on activities in the Spring, so therefore it makes sense to be the Spring newsletter. Hope you agree :-)
Here is what you will find in this installment:
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SPeCTr Current/Upcoming Studies |
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| Talk With Me Baby (TWMB)
TWMB is a pilot study to demonstrate the efficacy of embedding universal language promotion (TWMB) in well-child care (WCC) visits for enhancing the home language environment. It is a multicenter trial in primary care clinics that serve rural/underserved children and families. Our second site for the study is West Virginia.
As a site, we enrolled 42 infant/parent dyads. We have 26 dyads remaining for our site. The following are no longer in the study:
9 had baseline LENA scores above our cutoff
1 moved out of state
4 unable to continue seeing study primary care doc
2 terminated due to non-compliance with study procedures
Participants completed baseline Language ENvironment Analysis LENA assessments and have been receiving the TWMB intervention at their well-child checks. We are almost completed with post-intervention LENA assessments.
Study/Site PI: – Dr. Brenda Salley Coordinator: Kristina Foster
NCT06479278
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| Phentermine's Impact on Treatment in Teens (PhiTT)
PhiTT is the network's first FDA/IND study with a planned launch any day. It is a Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trial of Phentermine for Adolescents with Obesity.
I have been on the protocol writing team, and we are participating as one of 9 network sites for this study. We have approval from NIH to run the study from Children's Mercy and use the PCRU with the stipulation that we enroll teens living in Kansas from primary care clinics (not weight management clinics).
Site PI: Dr. Helena Laroche Co-Investigator: Dr. Bridgette Jones
Sub-Investigator: Dr. Kate Kyler Network Liaison: Kristina Foster
Coordinators: Pete Muenks
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SPeCTr News:
SPeCTr Team currently has 3 proposals being considered for network implementation.
Dr. Lisette Jacobson, former SPeCTr early-stage investigator (ESI), has a breast-feeding proposal (HEAL-I) that is in the expanded concept proposal phase.
Dr. Heather Gibbs presented her brief concept proposal at our spring network meeting and subsequently the network voted for it to proceed to the expanded concept phase (Nutricity: An mHealth intervention in Pediatric Primary Care to Improve Child Diet Quality).
Dr. Brenda Salley's PlayReadVIP proposal is also still under consideration.
Other SPeCTr Team News:
Coming Soon: Dr. Kourtney Bettinger (another former SPeCTr ESI) has a manuscript that was accepted for publication in the KS Journal of Medicine! A qualitative evaluation of infant safe sleep following free crib provision. She has a previous related publication with KJM here.
Dr. Brittany Lancaster (another former SPeCTr ESI) who is now at Mississippi State recently presented a poster with ECHO sleep data at the Society of Pediatric Psychology Annual Conference (photo).
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Network News:
NIH ECHO Director, Matthew W. Gillman, MD, SM retired effective May 31, 2026. Acting Director is Dr. Josh Denny with Dr. Sara van Driest as Senior Advisor. Other network program staff remain (Drs Sonia Arteaga, Tonse Raju, Linda Fu and Preetha Abraham).
ECHO ISPCTN recognized his retirement as well as the 10-year anniversary of the network at our Spring meeting April 29-30 in Bethesda, MD (photos below).
Our NIH Program Officer shared an announcement about the biennial National IDeA Symposium of Biomedical Research Excellence (NISBRE 2026) being held June 14-17. This conference is funded by NIGMS and is organized by the National Association of IDeA Principal Investigators (NAIPI).
Recordings & Resources from the May 6, 2026 ECHO Symposium: Translating Science to Action Plastics, Air Quality, and Child Health can be found at NIH VideoCast.
Other featured news from the ECHO Newsroom can be found at this link.
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Information from our Colleagues |
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Professional Development
Heartland DCOC has transferred the UAMS DCOC Professional Development materials into a new ECHO ISPCTN portal. Let me know if you would like access kfoster6@kumc.edu.
ECHO Discovery: monthly webinar series with educational presentations for the ECHO community by internal speakers. Both upcoming and past presentation information can be found here.
Educational Resources on ECHO website.
SPeCTr Research Training page has many resources.
SPeCTr YouTube channel.
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For questions or comments, contact Kristina Foster at: kfoster6@kumc.edu or 913-485-4216 (cell)
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