What do you get when one of the nation’s largest freestanding healthcare systems partners with leading research universities?

In the case of Children’s, and our affiliations with Emory, Georgia Tech and other leading research institutions, the answer is “breakthroughs.”

Healing children together
Since 1956, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Emory University School of Medicine have collaborated to train tomorrow’s doctors, advance pediatric research, and develop treatments that save kids’ lives. In a true, homegrown collaboration, more than 380 physicians carry titles at both institutions, solidifying a bond of shared passion, dedication, and constant innovation.

In 2022, Children’s primary academic partner, the Emory University School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics, ranked No. 1 nationally in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding for pediatric departments, growing from 28 in just 12 years. Together, Children’s and Emory University have produced hundreds of groundbreaking clinical trials.

Making tomorrow possible
Every medical treatment available today was discovered through research. That’s why ongoing research, across 35 pediatric specialty areas, is central to who we are at Children’s. In fact, innovation is a crucial part of our city’s identity. Atlanta is home to some of the nation’s leading researchers, creating a rare environment of collaboration through our affiliations with Georgia Institute of Technology and Morehouse School of Medicine. While committed to healing our patients today, we’re also determined to help shape the tools and treatments of tomorrow. Some of our notable achievements:

• The Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center is home to one of the nation’s largest brain tumor and leukemia/lymphoma programs in the country.
• Our Sickle Cell Disease Program is the country’s largest, and has treated nearly 100 children through blood and marrow transplant (BMT).
• The Children’s Center for Advanced Pediatrics, opened in 2018, maintains a dedicated pediatric research unit to provide a convenient and comfortable venue for clinical trials, including a lab devoted to breathing and airways to support research in pulmonology, allergies and immunology, cystic fibrosis, and sleep.
• In 2022, 59 new clinical trials were activated and 2,089 Children's patients were enrolled in clinical studies.

While we celebrate these achievements, we’re far from done.

Our transformative North Druid Hills campus and Arthur M. Blank Hospital, opened in September 2024, will help accelerate our research efforts by creating dedicated space for breakthroughs to happen.

Together with our neighboring academic and scientific institutions, we’ll make even greater strides to ensure swifter recoveries, develop more effective treatments, and even discover cures. It’s not just a hospital we’re building. It’s a home for hope. 

Building on Medicine’s Frontier

Emory University’s Health Sciences Research Building II (HSRB-II) will house an innovative biomedical research program, dedicated to studying the prevention and treatment of disease and understanding the genetic and environmental factors that shape our health. Together, we’ll continue to advance pediatric research.