Grand rounds starts this week, please try to attend. We will have grand rounds in person in the Old Clinic Auditorium as well as on web-ex. As we have done the past two years, we launch our grand rounds with personal stories from faculty members. This year we will have the pleasure of hearing career stories from Elisabeth Dellon and Ginny Moyer.

Please mark your calendar for our next All UNC Children’s meeting on August 19th from 12-1pm. We will be sharing hospital and departmental updates. Please let me know if there is an agenda item you would like to discuss.

Dr. Frazier joined the Department of Pediatrics as faculty on July 5, 2021. Dr. Frazer received her BS in Biology from Georgetown University in 2005 and received her medical and PhD degrees from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in 2014. Her Pediatric residency was completed at UNC Chapel Hill in 2018 and, in June 2021, she completed a fellowship in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard University. Welcome Back Lauren!

Dr. Allison joined the Department of Pediatrics as faculty on July 12, 2021. Dr. Allison received her BA in Social Anthropology from Harvard University in 2010 and completed her medical degree at the University of Michigan Medical School in 2016. She joined UNC as a Pediatric Resident until 2019 and subsequently completed her National Research Service Award fellowship at UNC in 2021. Congratulations Bianca!

We are excited to announce that, effective July 16, 2021, Dr. Edwin Kim is now primarily appointed in the Department of Pediatrics as our new Division Chief of Pediatric Allergy-Immunology. Dr. Kim is familiar to many as he has been an Allergist in the UNC Department of Medicine since 2011. Dr. Kim received a BS in Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston in 1996. He went on to receive his MS in Health Policy and Administration from Harvard University in Boston in 2001 and his medical degree was received from UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in 2005. Dr. Kim completed his Pediatric residency at Duke University School of Medicine in 2008 as well as a fellowship in Allergy & Immunology in 2011. Dr. Kim is an exceptional clinical researcher with national and international recognition as one of the leading experts in food allergy immunotherapy, in particular sublingual immunotherapy. He has led the Fool Allergy Initiative at UNC since October 2015. We are so pleased to have Edwin firmly established with UNC Children’s in his new leadership role!

Congratulations to our Pediatric Hospitalists! The inception of this new protocol at Rex has proven invaluable for physician management of situations in which adolescents patients need medical stabilization prior to admission. According to one admitting physician:

"It has been seamless to have these kids admitted. The protocol is standardized with room for flexibility as needed, and patients seem to do well. I was thrilled to discover that Dr. Perry or Dr. Ferrin consults on each patient admitted. This has also allowed for bridge management in the outpatient setting, when beds here have been tight. I hope this service will remain in place, and I look forward to continued collaboration in the care of these challenging patients."

In collaborations with UNC Children's providers in Neurology, Radiology, and Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, providers in Pediatric Rheumatology, Infectious Diseases, Critical Care, Emergency Medicine, and Palliative Care have recently published: Fatal Pediatric COVID-19 Case With Seizures and Fulminant Cerebral Edema. Kudos to Peyton Thompson, Timothy Gershon, Natalie Ford , William Mills, Eveline Wu , Alyssa Tilly , Jeremy Sites, Daniel Lercher, Katherine Clement, Tracie Walker, Paul Shea , Benny Joyner , Rebecca Smith

The novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, can present with a wide range of neurological manifestations, in both adult and pediatric populations. We describe here the case of a previously healthy 8-year-old girl who presented with seizures, encephalopathy, and rapidly progressive, diffuse, and ultimately fatal cerebral edema in the setting of acute COVID-19 infection. CSF analysis, microbiological testing, and neuropathology yielded no evidence of infection or acute inflammation within the central nervous system. Acute fulminant cerebral edema (AFCE) is an often fatal pediatric clinical entity consisting of fever, encephalopathy, and new-onset seizures followed by rapid, diffuse, and medically-refractory cerebral edema. AFCE occurs as a rare complication of a variety of common pediatric infections and a CNS pathogen is identified in only a minority of cases, suggesting a para-infectious mechanism of edema. This report suggests that COVID-19 infection can precipitate AFCE, and highlights the need for high suspicion and early recognition thereof.

The Pediatrics 2025: AMSPDC Workforce Initiative was created in 2020 with the goal to increase the number of high-quality students who enter training in categorical Pediatrics, Medicine-Pediatric, and Combined Pediatric Subspecialty training programs, as well as improve recruitment of pediatric residents into pediatric fellowship programs, with an emphasis on those fellowship programs that are not filling their training positions.

The spring summit of the Pediatrics 2025: AMSPDC Workforce Initiative met on Friday, May 14, 2021, and welcomed over 50 participants from 24 organizations. This initiative is being Chaired by Laura Degnon, CAE and Bob Vinci, MD and is comprised of four domains. Domain 1 is being led by APPD (Becky Blankenburg, MD): Changing the Educational Paradigm, with Impact on Attracting Trainees into Pediatrics and Undersubscribed Pediatric Subspecialties. Domain 2 is being led by CoPS and ABP (Jill Fussell, MD and Laurel Leslie, MD): Workforce Data/Needs and Access. Domain 3 is led by AMSPDC (Mary Leonard, MD, MSCE): Economic Strategies. Domain 4 is led by COMSEP (Joseph Gigante, MD): Other Considerations for Attracting Medical Students into Pediatrics. 

This third summit was focused on Domain 3: Economic Strategies, and participants heard from several speakers. Dr. Leonard, Domain 3 lead, gave an overview of the topic area. The guest speaker was Congresswoman Kim Schrier (WA-8) who spoke on support of H.R. 1025, the Kids’ Access to Primary Care Act of 2021, and answered several questions. Plus, attendees heard from Colin Orr, MD, MPH, who summarized data on the intersectionality of race, ethnicity, and debt, and Hal Simon, MD MBA, who spoke on workforce issues and earnings potential, comparing 2007 data with 2018. Finally, Tumaini Coker, MD MBA, discussed the work she is involved in within NASEM (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine) examining the current state of primary care, and setting the stage for Joe St. Geme, MD, to introduce the Initiative’s plan to launch a NASEM Consensus Study on the Subspecialty Workforce. Attendees went into breakout sessions to talk more about the eight topics suggested in the study, as well as additional data sources and potential sponsors. To learn more about this Initiative and read previous summaries and presentations, visit https://amspdc.org/workforce/.

Dr. Melissa Bauserman, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, with her colleagues in the Organization of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Program Directors, have discussed the current needs for NPM fellowship programs and recommend innovations for the future and shared their thoughts - see attached.

Michelle Hernandez, MD was promoted to Professor of Pediatrics effective July 16, 2021. Dr. Hernandez has been a faculty member in Pediatric Allergy-Immunology since 2007. She is the Faculty Director of Clinical Research Unit of the Children’s Research Institute (CRI). In addition, she is the Director of the NC Child Health Research Network, the Associate Medical Director of the NC Children’s Allergy and Asthma Center, and the Associate Director of Clinical Research for the CRI. Dr. Hernandez’s research interests include asthma and the development of novel therapeutics for difficult-to-control asthma in children and teenagers, including effective interventions that can target environmentally induced inflammation to prevent disease in susceptible populations.

Ria Dancel, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics has been awarded the Educational Excellence Award. She will be presented the award at this year's national Pediatric Hospital Medicine Conference. The nomination was a combined effort of her learners in recognition of everything she does for POCUS teaching.

Tisungane Mvalo, MBBS, MMED, Assistant Professor in General Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, is the newest member of the editorial board of the African Society of Paediatric Infectious Diseases Bulletin. Dr. Mvolo is a pediatrician based and clinically practicing at Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH) in Lilongwe, Malawi. He is a Senior Clinical Research Investigator with the UNC Project Malawi (UNCPM) a biomedical

research institution based in KCH.

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.

Daniel Park, MD, Associate Professor in Pediatric Emergency Medicine, has been selected as a Member-at-Large of the UNC Medical Staff Executive Committee.  Dr. Park was chosen by his peers to represent them for a 2-year term beginning in July 2021.

David Peden, MD, the Harry S. Andrews Professor of Pediatrics was named the inaugural editor of The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: Global (JACI: Global), a new open-access publication from the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI). JACI: Global will provide authors who are mandated to publish in a fully open access journal or whose work is not suitable for other AAAAI journals, the opportunity to publish in a journal that will reach not only the AAAAI community, but the global community, with no barrier to access for anyone with an internet connection.

Michael Steiner, MD, MPH, the Durfee Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics, was recently interviewed by CBS17 on the increasing number of triangle physicians treating children with viruses typically more active in the fall or winter:

“This summer, we’ve seen RSV and another virus called parainfluenza. Both of those are having a spike at our hospital right now,” explained Dr. Michael Steiner, the pediatrician in chief at UNC Children’s. “We think this is, in part, related to the fact that through the winter season people were socially distancing, and spacing, and wearing masks, and the viruses didn’t have their usual time where they peak.”Read More…

Dr. Smeekens joined the Department of Pediatrics as faculty on July 26, 2021. Dr. Smeekens received a BS in Chemistry from Michigan State University in 2012 and received her Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2017. Since 2017 she has been a Post Doctoral researcher with the Food Allergy Initiative at UNC. Her research interests include the airway as a route of sensitization to foods through environmental exposure and tracking the genetics of susceptibility to food allergy through novel mouse models. Congratulations Johanna!

Charles Esther, MD ,PhD - Pediatric Pulmonology - Zhu M, Echeveste Sanchez M, Douglass EA, Jahad JV, Hanback TD, Guhr Lee TN, Esther CR Jr, Cole M, Roberts AJ, Herman MA. Electronic nicotine vapor exposure produces differential changes in central amygdala neuronal activity, thermoregulation and locomotor behavior in male mice. eNeuro. 2021 Jul 28:ENEURO.0189-21.2021. doi: 10.1523/ENEURO.0189-21.2021. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34321216.

Zachary Willis, MD - Pediatric Infectious Diseases - Wang ME, Felder K, Newland JG, Hersh AL, Rajapakse NS, Willis ZI, Banerjee R, Gerber JS, Schwenk HT, Vaz LE. Pediatric antimicrobial stewardship practices at discharge: A national survey. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2021 Jul 16:1-3. doi: 10.1017/ice.2021.283. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34269167.

Joseph Muenzer, MD, PhD - Pediatric Genetics & Metabolism - Wijburg FA, Whitley CB, Muenzer J, Gasperini S, Del Toro M, Muschol N, Cleary M, Sevin C, Shapiro E, Alexanderian D. A multicenter open-label extension study of intrathecal heparan-N-sulfatase in patients with Sanfilippo syndrome type A. Mol Genet Metab. 2021 Jul 7:S1096-7192(21)00743-5. doi: 10.1016/j.ymgme.2021.07.001. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34247932.

Scott Elton, MD - Pediatric Neurosurgery - Barnett RR, Piazza MG, Elton SW. Pediatric Neurosurgery in Primary Care: Masses of the Scalp and Skull in Children. Pediatr Clin North Am. 2021 Aug;68(4):743-757. doi: 10.1016/j.pcl.2021.04.003. PMID: 34247706.

Maria Ferris, MD - General Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine - Rupp S, Fair C, Korycinski H, Ferris M. "It's What I Have, It's Not Who I Am": A Qualitative Study of Social Support in Education/Employment Settings and Transition Readiness of Young Adults with End-Stage Renal Disease. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Jun 19;18(12):6596. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18126596. PMID: 34205273; PMCID: PMC8296423.

We are so appreciative to Marty for her hard work and dedication to our Division Chief recruitments over this past year! These recruitments require a great deal of time and coordination, but Marty is very organized and makes sure nothing falls through the cracks. She is always professional to the candidates as well as the faculty they are meeting with, and thinks ahead to ensure the interview runs smoothly. She is definitely an expert multi-tasker, often coordinating more than one division recruitment at a time. Thank you Marty!