PHILADELPHIA, Sep 04: Amy Jo Lisanti, PhD, RN, CCNS, FAHA, Research Assistant Professor in Penn Nursing’s Department of Family and Community Health and at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute, has secured two national research awards to study the implementation of the mental health screening of parents of children born with congenital heart disease. Findings from the two studies will lay the groundwork for a future multisite clinical trial testing strategies to implement universal parent mental health screening across pediatric cardiac centers nationwide.
CNOC Investigator Award: Evaluating System-Level & Clinician Practices
Lisanti was selected as the sole recipient of the 2025 Cardiac Neurodevelopmental Outcome Collaborative Investigator Award, making her the first nurse scientist to earn this national honor. Lisanti is leading an interdisciplinary research team across eight institutions for this two-year project, “Current State of Parent Mental Health Screening in Congenital Heart Disease and Identification of Implementation Strategies to Support a Universal Approach,” which focuses on:
- Predictive Analytics: Using machine learning to identify child, parent, and social risk factors of parental psychological distress from existing CNOC Registry data.
- National Benchmarking: Surveying site leads across all 52 CNOC member hospitals to describe current parent mental health screening practices.
- Identify Determinants of Implementation: Conducting qualitative clinician interviews to identify barriers and facilitators to parent mental health screening.
Saving tiny Hearts Society Grant: Centering the Parent Perspective
Complementing the CNOC study, Lisanti received a one-year, $100,000 research grant from the Saving tiny Hearts Society running from June 1, 2026, to May 31, 2027. Her study, “Parent-Informed Implementation Strategies for Parent Mental Health Screening in Congenital Heart Disease,” addresses family-centered implementation through:
- Parent Interviews: Assessing screening feasibility, acceptability, and emotional safety across four major pediatric heart centers (Boston Children’s, Advocate Children’s, Children’s Hospital Colorado, and Lurie Children’s).
- Co-Designed Protocols: Partnering with an 8–10-member parent advisory board and the CNOC Community Outreach Committee to build standardized, parent-approved screening guidelines and resource referral workflows.
“Parents of children with congenital heart disease are at increased risk for mental health issues, with a majority experiencing clinically significant psychological distress,” said Lisanti. “Identifying systemic barriers from the perspectives of parents and clinicians will allow us to design scalable, stakeholder-informed strategies so every parent receives the mental health support they need during and after their child’s hospitalizations for congenital heart disease.”