Dear Colleagues,
I hope that each of you have had an opportunity to take vacation or have plans for a vacation this summer! In June, my husband and I flew to visit my son Jackson in Kansas. He is participating in internship in Wichita; it was so nice to travel by plane (I had not been on a plane since February 2020) and visit another part of the country.
This week, the primary care and adolescent clinic officially moved into CPII. I would like to thank Martha Perry and Benjamin Butler for their leadership during this move. The location and clinic will be wonderful and easily accessible for the families and children.
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We also officially opened an 8 bed unit on 6 Women’s for infants in the NICU who are transitioning to home. These single bed rooms are ideal for these families. I would like to thank Karen Wood, Wayne Price, Melanie Dawes, Tracy Frisbee and Jennifer Flippin for their leadership in making this happen!
Our collaborative work with Novant is going well. We are currently working on expanding outpatient specialty capacity in the Wilmington area and discussing how we can work with the pediatric subspecialty group in Charlotte and Winston-Salem. This statewide work is important for our overall mission of improving access for children across NC.
Our interns started their rotations last week and new fellows started on July 1st! I had the pleasure of being on the pulmonary inpatient service last week with new interns and upper level residents. We have a super impressive and diverse group of new trainees.
We have had several research grants and proposals submitted during the month of June. I would like to thank Kira Frediani and Mandy DuPont for their leadership as we hire new grant specialists.
Thank you for your amazing work that occurs at UNC Children’s every day. We are lucky to work in a fulfilling profession serving children and their families, but also very lucky to work with such a terrific group of colleagues. As we put the last academic year behind us, I am truly excited about what the next year holds.
Gratefully,
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UNC Children's Missions Update |
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Please Welcome our New Children's Providers! |
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Nancie J. MacIver, MD, PhD
Associate Professor, Division Chief
Pediatric Endocrinology
Nancie MacNiver joined the Department of Pediatrics on June 30th. Dr. MacNiver earned an undergraduate degree in Mathematics from Johns Hopkins University before pursuing a combined MD/PhD program at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. After completing her medical and graduate degrees, she came to Duke for her residency and fellowship training, which she completed in 2009. Since then, Dr. MacIver has established a well-known research program that studies how malnutrition and obesity impact immunity of T cells and regulation of metabolism. Please join us in welcoming Nancie to the UNC Children’s family!
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Children’s Hospital’s Sepsis Stars
Kudos goes to 6 Children’s for putting sepsis on the differential and recognizing the patients at higher risk for sepsis EARLY!
There was a kidney transplant patient with somnolence and rigors, a neurologically impaired patient with shunted hydrocephalus with tachycardia, lethargy, and hypothermia. These patients had cultures taken, broad spectrum antibiotics, and fluids. One of them had E. coli urosepsis. Awesome catch!
The kudos stars are:
Lia Kenyon, RN; William Kwan, MD; Robin Atha, MD; Patrick O’Shea, MD; Elizabeth O’Neil, MD; Katelyn Maglionico, RN; and Amber M Kirkley, RN.
We are sure there were many others involved in these cases. Please pass on acknowledgements and contact me if you see sepsis stars for future kudos!
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Please help spread the word that early recognition and treatment is key! Specifically,
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Use the peds sepsis orderset which will trigger the labs to send and the antibiotics to choose based on your patient – approved by the ID team!
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Document your thoughts and actions using the .pedsepsis Dotphrase in EPIC
- Don’t forget that a blood gas with lactate can help with identification and management
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Dr. Martha Perry - As COVID Restrictions Ease, RSV and Other Viruses Reemerge
Dr. Martha Perry, Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Medical Director of the UNC Children’s Primary Care Clinic, contributed to an article in Medscape: As COVID Restrictions Ease, RSV and Other Viruses Reemerge. Clinicians across the nation have noticed that as COVID-19 restrictions ease and masks come off, as crowds gather and vacationers travel, with so many viruses kept at bay with COVID-19 mitigation efforts, the more common viruses may now start circulating simultaneously. “We are seeing an increase in presentation to our primary care clinics, our emergency room and urgent care settings with viral-type illnesses,” according to Dr. Perry. “The concern is,” she added, “are we going to see a summer and winter wave at the same time?” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a health advisory to notify clinicians and caregivers about an increase in cases of interseasonal RSV across parts of the southern United States.
Perry said that experts are keeping a close eye on RSV in the United States because Australia, where seasons are opposite those in the United States, already saw summer spikes in RSV after COVID-19 restrictions lifted there.
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Jost Receives Cefalo House Officer Award
We are pleased to announce Diya Jost, MD, Med-Peds Resident, is the latest recipient of a Robert C. Cefalo House Officer Award! Residents and fellows are nominated for this award based on the criteria of demonstrated empathy for patients and their families; demonstrated effectiveness in listening to and communicating with patients and families; advocacy for and demonstration of the highest standards of patient care; and exemplary professional and interpersonal interactions with colleagues, staff, patients and visitors.
The award includes a $1,000 stipend to be used over a 3-year period to cover reimbursement of expenses associated with professional development, attendance at scientific conferences or meetings, and reimbursement of materials used to support education and professional development. Congratulations!
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Leandro to Serve on Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Education Committee
Jennifer Leandro, RN, a long-term member of the Pediatric Pulmonology team, has been selected to serve on the CFF educational committee for a 3 year term! She was "selected from numerous well-qualified applicants because of your experience with CF education, skills, and knowledge."
The CF Foundation Education Committee is a multidisciplinary team consisting of all members of a CF care team for the purpose of reviewing and recommending patient education materials for the cystic fibrosis community. The committee meets four times. Responsibilities between meetings include: updating content of existing material, drafting and editing new materials, reviewing materials for Education Committee approval, and promoting awareness of materials available. The Committee also looks at areas of educational need for people living with CF and seeks out experts who can help fill in the gaps that have been identified.
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Ajay Gulati, MD was promoted to Professor of Pediatrics effective June 1, 2021. Dr. Gulati has been a faculty member in Pediatric Gastroenterology since 2007. He is a long-standing researcher in the UNC Center for Gastrointestinal Biology and Disease (CGIBD). His research goals include leveraging the relative malleability of the pediatric microbiota to pave the way for microbial modulation strategies to treat pediatric IBD, with hopes that these studies will lead to the development of safer, patient-specific therapies for children with IBD. |
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Amy Levinson, MD has been invited to join the 2021-2022 Academic Career Leadership Academy in Medicine (ACCLAIM) program. The program aims to address concerns that leadership development opportunities for female and under-represented minority (URM) faculty have been previously limited. This one-year program utilizes a multi-faceted approach for leadership development, including a retreat facilitated by leadership experts and standard leadership development tools, followed by executive coaching sessions and interactive weekly presentations by experienced leaders, whose backgrounds span both academia and the private sector. |
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Tim Moran, MD, PhD was promoted to Associate Professor of Pediatrics effective May 1, 2021. Dr. Moran has been a faculty member in Pediatric Allergy/Immunology since 2015. He is a long-standing researcher in the Center for Environmental Medicine, Asthma and Lung Biology (CEMALB). He specializes in the study of the relationship among environmental factors and allergies, airway inflammation and asthma.
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Daniel Park, MD was promoted to Associate Professor of Pediatrics effective May 1, 2021. Dr. Park has been a faculty member in Pediatric Emergency Medicine since 2016. He is the Medical Director of the Pediatric Emergency Department and Director of Pediatric Emergency Ultrasound at UNC. His interests include: point-of-care ultrasound in the setting of medical resuscitation, quality improvement in terms of operational efficiency in the emergency department, and how good design can improve patient care. |
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Anusha Penumarti, PhD was promoted to Assistant Professor of Pediatrics effective May 1, 2021. Dr. Penumarti has been an Instructor in Pediatric Allergy/Immunology since 2014. She is a integral team member in the Food Allergy Initiative.
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Megan Rabuli, PhD has -
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won the Young Investigator Award for the Society of Toxicology’s Inhalation and Respiratory Specialty Section
- been elected as Secretary-Treasurer (2021-2023) to the Society of Toxicology’s Inhalation and Respiratory Specialty Section.
- been selected as American Thoracic Society – Environmental, Occupational and Population Health Assembly’s Planning Committee Chair-elect
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Check Out New Grant Awards & Publications |
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James Hagood, MD - Pediatric Pulmonology - proposal "Fibroblast Phenotypes in the Progression vs Resolution of Fibrosis" has been awarded Boost funding form the SOM. The
Boost award, $25,000, will provide funds to sustain the project and obtain preliminary data. The award is an indication of the confidence of the review committee that the R01 proposal for this project will be funded.
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Arti Pandya, MD - Pediatric Genetics & Metabolism - O’Brien, A., Aw, W.Y., Tee, H.Y., Naegeli, K.M., Bademci, G., Tekin, M., Arnos, K. and Pandya, A., 2021. Confirmation of COL4A6 variants in X-linked nonsyndromic hearing loss and its clinical implications. European Journal of Human Genetics, pp.1-6.
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Connect to UNC Children's on LinkedIn!
Let the world know where you work by editing your position on LinkedIn and choosing UNC Children's from the drop down menu! After you start typing UNC Children's, our page will automatically populate. Click it and be official!
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Sheree Berckmans, RN
Associate Director of Research Administration
Pediatric Research Administration Unit
Nominated by Terry Noah
One of the longest serving members of the UNC CF team, Sheree Berckmans, is retiring this year. While we all knew this time would come eventually, we were sorry to hear the news and it made us stop to consider how much Sheree has done for UNC Pediatric Pulmonology and for the UNC CF Care Center and its pediatric patients and their families, over many years.
Sheree is a North Carolina native who first came to UNC Healthcare as an inpatient nurse in 1980, when the Pediatrics service was located on the 7th floor of the North Carolina Memorial Hospital, and with the exception of a several year hiatus in Florida, she was a fixture on the pediatrics floors for 2 decades. From my days as a trainee, I knew Sheree as a professional who not only carried out her work with dedication and excellence, but also served as a friend and advocate for the children in her care. She was also an effective teacher and reliable resource for those of us learning the ins and outs of children’s lung disorders. As a Fellow and then as attending physician, I knew that I could rest a little easier on nights when Sheree was on duty covering the inpatient service and our sickest kids with CF, who clearly gravitated to Sheree and trusted her.
In 2000, we were absolutely thrilled when Sheree joined the growing Pediatric Pulmonology Division as a nurse specialist, working with our full spectrum of respiratory disorders but with special expertise in asthma and in CF. For a number of years she served as our main asthma education resource for asthmatics at UNC Children’s, providing inpatient and outpatient for asthmatic children followed by the General Pediatrics, Allergy and Pulmonology Divisions, and even doing lung function testing! She helped represent UNC in the NC Asthma Alliance and was instrumental in the implementation of asthma protocols and care tools that we still use, with some modifications, today. READ MORE...
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