Shriners Children’s Doctor Colleen Ryan Breaks New Ground in Burn Care

This article is part of an ongoing series spotlighting the innovative research of providers throughout the Shriners Children's system.

Often, when a doctor dedicates more than 35 years of their career to studying and personally treating a particular condition, they have a personal tie to it, something that drives them day in and day out. Perhaps a family member was impacted by it, or they themselves were. Or maybe it’s a concern to their local community or region of the country.

But that isn’t quite the case with renowned burn surgeon and researcher Colleen Ryan, M.D. The Doylestown, Pennsylvania, native was a resident at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and conducted her burn rotation at Massachusetts General Hospital when she discovered her affinity for the field.

“I just liked the field since the beginning,” she said. “There is so much you can do for the patients and their families at a time in their life where it is desperately needed.” Not only that, but she also found burn care intellectually and scientifically fascinating. “One medical student likened the burn care field to the space program, because solving the burn problems has often led to technology that is applicable to many other areas of medicine.”

She clearly took those words to heart. Since retiring from surgery in 2010 after about 20 years of operating on burn patients at Shriners Children’s Boston, she still actively sees patients in the clinic. In addition, her large, internationally renowned research laboratory allows Dr. Ryan, who is also a professor at Harvard Medical School, to study long-term outcomes in burn patients, and she hopes to better define the long-term needs of children living with burn injuries and improve the pathway to recovery.

“When I first started treating burn patients, the only important outcome was surviving to discharge,” she said. “As I have grown older with my patients, I see that they encounter difficulties related to their injury and their scars. Their health needs had not yet been described. After publishing landmark papers in mortality, I began to focus on long-term quality of life. That is one reason I work in this area of the field.”

Since 2016, Dr. Ryan has led research on multiple studies focused on long-term outcomes for burn survivors, with the hope that the rehabilitation and recovery process can be made easier for patients and their families. Two of her recent studies, which are part of a three-year grant, are Preschool Life Impact Burn Recovery Evaluation Profile (LIBRE), focusing on how children ages 1-5 handle the consequences of burns and the impact on their development. The second, Measuring Health Outcomes for Teenagers With Burns, examines the challenges associated with current methods to capture data.

“There needs to be an objective way to direct our resources to the problems that matter most: the children and their families,” she said. “We are developing and using new measurement tools to optimize the care we provide.”

Another focus of her current research involves monocytes, a type of blood cell that “undergoes changes after burn injury and might be a very needed clue to the presence of infection versus inflammation, a critical question in very ill children that impacts treatment,” she said.

Her work has garnered many accolades, the most recent of which was the 2024 Harvey Stuart Allen Distinguished Service Award from the American Burn Association. The prestigious honor “goes to an outstanding scientist who makes significant contributions in their field,” per a Shriners Children’s press release.

After receiving the award, Dr. Ryan said: “I am very honored since this is such a special recognition. This lifetime award by the ABA showcases how Shriners Children’s is the leading provider of burn care across the globe. Our staff are dedicated to our patients, and not just from the clinical side, but through research as well. It’s been very rewarding to be a part of groundbreaking developments for the care of burn patients. I have helped lead the charge on several studies and publications on a variety of topics including prevention, disaster preparedness, acute surgery, critical care, rehab, reintegration, metabolic response and infection.”

The wife and mother of two has also been very active in disaster preparedness research and remains concerned should a civilian mass casualty event occur. “There are less than 300 actively practicing surgeons in North America who are trained in the treatment of burn injuries,” she said. “Only a small portion of them treat children. The presence of the Shriners Children’s burn care system is a critical reservoir of this knowledge should a mass casualty event with a burn surge of children take place.”

Dr. Ryan also noted that pediatric burn-trained nurses, therapists and nutritionists are rare, as well as specialized equipment and beds for burn patients. “The system should train more providers at all levels,” she said. “Systems of evaluation, triage, patient movement and austere care for children with burns need to be developed and exercised.”

Of course, when it comes to reflecting on her achievements in burn care, they aren’t solely limited to the laboratory. “Last, and certainly not least, I have provided care to thousands of people with burn injuries,” she said.

In the meantime, what words of advice would she offer civilians caught in the path of wildfires, such as those in California? “Evacuate when told to,” she said. Dr. Ryan also implored parents to remember this step in case their child suffers a burn: “First aid is 20 minutes of cool running water.”

Although Dr. Ryan has accomplished a tremendous amount of work in burn care over the past 35 years, she doesn’t quite see it that way. “I have only scratched the surface,” she said.