On June 24, a team from UAB Department of Pediatrics and the School of Medicine traveled to Livingston, Alabama for a third year as Workshop Presenters with rising high school juniors in the West Alabama Rural Health Initiative's health career exploration experience. Attendees hail from Choctaw, Marengo and Sumter Counties in the Alabama Black Belt where infant mortality and life expectancy are among the worst in the nation. They will be first in their families to attend college and from our trainees, received living proof and true encouragement they can change the outcome as adults. Faculty, residents and students then visited the Rush Rural Medical Group's Livingston Clinic where providers Todd Vaughan, M.D. and Sharon Henson, FNP discussed the eye opening unpredictable challenges of primary care delivery in a harshly underserved area along with the immense rewards.
Attendees included: Morissa Ladinsky, M.D., Academic General Peditrics, Tina Simpson, M.D., Adolescent Medicine, Jaime McKinney, M.D., Academic General Pediatrics, Derrill Wilson, Patient Relations, David Windler, M.D., MedPeds PGY-4 Resident, Leen Matalka, M.D., Pediatric PGY-3 Resident, Catherine Gooch, M.D., PedsGenetics PGY-3 Resident, and students from the UAB Schools of Medicine and Public Health.
Congratulations to Claire Keith, M.D., Pediatric PGY-3, on winning the 2018 Quality Improvement Project Award for her project titled Use of Quality Improvement Process to increase influenza Vaccination in Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease Patients. Her mentor on this project was Traci Jester, M.D., Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition.
Pictured L to R: Drs. Susan Walley, Claire Keith and Traci Jester
Congratulations to the recipients of the 2018-2019 Founder's Fund Grants!
The Founders' Fund was established by the UAB Department of Pediatrics to honor the exceptional lifetime achievements of the founders Drs. John W. "Bill" Benton, Ralph E. Tiller and Paul A. Palmisano. For more than a decade, the Founders' Fund has been used to encourage and support educational endeavors in the Pediatric Residency Program through educational grants. These educational grants support new, innovative educational research or programs related to the curriculum or quality and outcomes research of the residency program.
11 Founders' Fund Awards were given this year:
Principal Investigator and Project Titles
Emily Bufkin, M.D.- Creating a Medical Home for Children with Medical Complexity within Primary Care Clinic.
Eunice Dixon, M.D.- Infant Safe Sleep QI: Exit Counseling to Reduce Unsafe Sleep Habits.
Austin Doss, M.D.- Procedural Competence in Pediatric Residents.
Eric Jorge, M.D.- Improving Firearm Safety Counseling in Primary Care Clinic.
Will Sasser, M.D.- Introduction of an Ultrasound Fundamentals Training Session to the Pediatric Intensive Care Education Curriculum Supplemented with a Vascular Access
Training Model.
Kristyn Jeffries, M.D.- All-Terrain Vehicle (ATV) Injury Prevention through Education in Schools.
Sai Surapa-Raju, M.D.- Teaching residents Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) cardiac arrest guidelines using Rapid Cycle Deliberate Practice (RCDP).
Rashmi Patil, M.D.- Baby Shower for Young Mothers Program.
Kristyn Jeffries, M.D.- Pediatric Research Academic Program (Pediatric RAP).
Candice Dye, M.D.- Use of Mental Health Simulation to Improve Pediatric Primary Care, Resident Reflection on Suicide Prevention, and Development of Support Groups.
Michele Nichols, M.D.- Spanish Class for Residents.
Congratulations to William Britt, M.D., Pediatric Infectious Disease, and Waldemar Carlo, M.D., Neonatology! Both were appointed as Distinguished Professors in the School of Medicine in recognition of their outstanding academic accomplishments and peer recognition.
Congratulations to Carolyn Ashworth, M.D., Academic General Pediatrics, on being appointed as Professor Emerita in the School of Medicine! She was appointed to this role in recognition of her outstanding service and years of dedication to the Department of Pediatrics.
For the ninth consecutive year, Children’s of Alabama is ranked among the nation’s best children’s hospitals by U.S. News & World Report. Eight of Children’s pediatric specialty services – Cancer, Cardiology/Heart Surgery, Diabetes and Endocrinology, Gastroenterology/GI Surgery, Neonatology, Nephrology, Neurology/Neurosurgery and Pulmonology – were placed among the top 50 in the United States in the magazine’s 2018-19 Best Children’s Hospital rankings. Currently, U.S. News & World Report ranks 10 specialties. The complete listing and corresponding rankings may be found at https://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals/pediatric-rankings.
Read the story at Childrensal.org
The Primary Care Extra Mile Award winner for this quarter is David Windler, M.D., PGY-3 Med/Peds Resident. The following was Dr. Windler's nomination from colleagues in Primary Care Clinic:
"A severely autistic child came in for her depo and Tdap shots. She was very agitated on this particular day, and staff had a hard time even getting her into the room. When it came time for her shots, Dr. Windler immediately volunteered. He stayed in the room until family and staff were able to come up with a safe plan for administering her shots. The mom was distressed, and he was calm and reassuring with both the family and staff. Thank you for your positive attitude and teamwork, Dr. Windler!"
Congratulations to Jegen Kandasamy, M.D., Neonatology, on being selected for an award under the Perinatal Research Society Young Investigator program to attend the upcoming Perinatal Research Society Annual Meeting and the NIH - Abbott Nutrition Pre-meeting Workshop September 5-9, 2018 in Englewood, Colorado. Selection into this program is highly competitive. This is the third year in a row that one of our neonatal junior faculty have been selected to attend the pre-meeting workshop.
The Department is pleased to announce that Gregory Friedman, M.D., Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, has been appointed the new Phase 1 PI at Children's of Alabama and approved by the DVL Executive Committee of the Children’s Oncology Group effective June 18. In addition, Dr. Friedman will lead Developmental Therapeutics in the Division of Hematology-Oncology and the Department of Pediatrics.
Clinical trials follow a typical series from early, small-scale, Phase 1 studies, which may be the first in human trials to assess safety, to late-stage, large scale, Phase 3 studies. Phase 1 studies are the first step in clinical drug development after pre-clinical studies are complete. Patients referred to the Developmental Therapeutics Program typically have recurrent or refractory cancers that have failed standard therapies. Other patients may be diagnosed with rare tumors for which no effective therapies have been established. As one of only 21 premier pediatric oncology programs in the country that are selected through peer review by the Children’s Oncology Group Phase 1 and Pilot Consortium, we are able to provide patients access to innovative therapies not widely available.
Dr. Friedman’s research focuses on improving outcomes for children with malignant brain tumors. His goal is to develop and improve targeted immunotherapeutics such as oncolytic engineered herpes simplex virotherapy and then translate these therapies to clinical trials, benefiting children with brain tumors and other solid tumors. Dr. Friedman has received funding from the FDA and St. Baldrick’s Foundation for these Phase 1 studies.
Dr. Friedman is a nationally known scholar who has demonstrated clinical, teaching and research success at UAB and Children’s of Alabama. In addition to providing specific leadership for this program, he will also participate as part of the leadership team for a growing division of Hematology-Oncology. The Division has added 7 new faculty in the last three years and four more will join this summer.
The Pediatric Residency Program is excited to announce that Will Sasser, M.D., Pediatric Critical Care, will be joining the program as an Assistant Program Director as of July 1, 2018.
When asked about his new role, Dr. Sasser said "I'm thrilled about the opportunity to work more closely with our residents alongside faculty and staff that have meant so much to me as a trainee and junior faculty member."
Dr. Sasser joins Michele Nichols, M.D., Program Director, Nancy Tofil, M.D., Senior Associate Program Director, Candice Dye, M.D., Associate Program Director, and Lauren Nassetta, M.D., Associate Program Director as leadership of the program.
Prior to this role with the Residency Program, Dr. Sasser served as the Director of the Acting Internship and Elective Program with the Pediatric Clerkship. He attended the Medical University of South Carolina for medical school and completed both his pediatric residency and pediatric critical care fellowship at UAB.