Physician-in-Chief's Message
February 2020
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Dear Colleagues,
2020 continues to see the Children’s Hospital with higher than average inpatient volumes and continuous growth in our outpatient practices. Our physicians and all of our providers are doing an amazing job. While growth and high volumes are a great sign for the future of UNC Children’s, we also know it can result in stressful situations. I encourage everyone to remember to support one another.
We’ve taken the first steps to implement our new Faculty and Staff Meeting plans with great success. Over the past few years we have worked hard to pull together UNC Children’s faculty and staff across Department and Hospital silos. We are looking forward to the All Children’s Faculty and Staff meeting on
Thursday, March 19 at noon in G100 Bondurant
. Please encourage everyone involved in the care of children at UNC to attend! Lunch will be served.
In the spirit of working together across Children’s, this message is being rebranded as the Physician in Chief message instead of the Chair’s Message. We want to be sure to include good news coming out related to UNC Children’s from all of your specialties.
Please forward all updates to
unc_childrens@med.unc.edu
as you have them
so we can all celebrate each other’s successes, welcome new faculty, recognize unsung heroes, and share announcements with all colleagues each month.
As always, thank you for all you do for children and families.
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UNC Children's Missions Update
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Please Welcome our New Providers!
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Marsha Russell, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor
Infectious Diseases & Hospital Pediatrics
Dr. Russell joined UNC on February 10th. She is dividing her effort by working both as a Pediatric Hospitalist at UNC Rex and in Infectious Diseases at the UNC Medical Center.
Marsha studied medicine and began her pediatric residency in Kingston, Jamaica. She completed her Med/Peds Residency at Yale in 2007. She completed a Pediatrics Infectious Disease Fellowship at University of Pittsburgh in 2010 and has been working at Betsy Johnson Memorial Hospital for past 9 years.
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Sheree Berckmans, RN
2019 School Of Medicine Nursing Award Winner!
Over the decades Sheree has spent caring for children at UNC, she has developed from a competent and trusted inpatient nurse, to a valued leader in Pediatric Pulmonology nursing at UNC.
Sheree has been a major force in successful care and outcomes for patients. She has served as a true physician extender, particularly in Cystic Fibrosis but is not limited to that disorder. She handles everything from insurance issues to prescription refills to monitoring of lab studies in patients on IV antibiotics at home.
F
or many patients she serves as an almost surrogate parent, calling with reminders about key lab studies or appointments. There is no doubt that many cystic fibrosis patients' courses have been improved and lives extended directly by her work. Sheree is also a nationally recognized figure in cystic fibrosis nursing, with multiple presentations at the North American Cystic Fibrosis Conference and as part of the CFF-sponsored national collaborative QI network.
Sheree Berckmans RN is a consummate professional and a true nursing leader - we are so proud her years of work at UNC has been recognized with this award.
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The
Day of Scholarship
is
May 28th
and will follow a different format from previous years.
New for 2020
- 8:00-9:00 - Four Oral Presentations (Clinic Auditorium + breakfast)
- 12:00-1:30 - Case Report Poster Session (Bondurant Hall + lunch)
- 5:30-6:30 - QI and Research Poster Session (Rizzo Center)
- 6:30-8:00 - Dinner and Keynote Address (Rizzo Center)
The keynote speaker is
Dr. D. Wade Clapp
, Chair of Pediatrics at Indiana University. Dr. Clapp is a neonatologist and a physician/scientist with an active laborabory and NIH grant support focusing on translational research. Dr. Clapp's lab focuses on the molecular pathogenesis of neurofibromatosis type 1 and neurofibromatosis type 2.
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Match Day is March 20th!
There will be a celebration at
1p in Curnen Denny
All faculty and staff are invited!
We will be matching 31 residents - 17 pediatrics, 6 medicine-pediatrics, 4 primary care pediatrics, 2 child neurology, and 2 preliminary pediatrics.
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UNC Children's at the Society for Pediatric Anesthesia Meeting
The Division of Pediatric Anesthesiology proudly represented UNC Children's Hospital at the international society conference with numerous committee leaders and participants: 2 PBLDs presenters, and 15 accepted abstracts covering topics related to pediatric pain management, congenital cardiac anesthesia, perioperative management of HiPEC patients, and numerous other topics. Attendees included
9 faculty (2 not pictured below), 1 fellow (not pictured), 2 Pain and sedation NPs, 5 residents , and 1 medical student.
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David B. Peden, MD MPH
Harry S. Andrews Professor of Pediatrics
Professor of Medicine, & Microbiology/Immunology
Division Chief for Pediatric Allergy/Immunology, and Rheumatology
Associate Dean for Translational Research for UNC School of Medicine Director - Center for Environmental Medicine, Asthma, and Lung Biology
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Eve Wu, MD MPH
Associate Professor of Pediatrics
Allergy-Immunology & Rheumatology
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Check Out These New Awards and Publications
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Thomas Alexander, MD, MPH – Assistant Professor in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology
- awarded an Oncology K12 an institutional K award program focused on the developing of careers in academic oncology.
Xiaojing Zheng, PhD – Associate Professor in Pediatric Infectious Diseases -
awarded TraCS
$5-$50K grant entitled: “Determination of genital mucosal T cell responses involved in protection from Chlamydia trachomatis in women using single cell RNA sequencing analysis”
George Hucks, MD – Assistant Professor in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology -
project funding awarded through the Department of Defense Peer Reviewed Cancer Research Program for the Office of the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) entitled: Phase I Study of Autologous Activated T-cells Transduced With a 3rd Generation GD2 Chimeric Antigen Receptor, Co-expression of IL-15 and iCaspase9 Safety Switch
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Find Funding in ONE PLACE
The Department is trying to keep emails to a minimum by collecting information into newsletters like this one and others through out the month. Likewise, rather than sending multiple funding opportunities to your email we recommend that you always check the
CRI Website
for
the latest funding notices,
listed alphabetically.
We centrally collect information from the School of Medicine Office of Research, the UNC Office for the Vice Chancellor of Research, NC TraCS, Corporate and Foundation Relations Office, and others.
Even new notices may have rapidly approaching deadlines!
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Gold, Hayes-Jordan, and Sharma Honored -
Triangle Business Journal
2020 Health Care Heroes
We are so proud that the Triangle Business Journal has named three UNC Childrens providers to its list of
2020 Health Care Heroes in the Physician/Physician Practice Groups category. Honorees were presented with the award at a dinner event at the Umstead Hotel and Spa in Cary in
February 13.
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UNC Pediatrics's
Stuart Gold, MD, Chief of the Division of Hematology-Oncology, Vice Chair for Patient Engagement & Diversity, Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics, was honored for his long and exemplary service to the children of North Carolina. Dr. Gold is an accomplished clinical research specialist with special interests in acute leukemia’s brain tumors and late effects of cancer therapy. With the assistance of Gwen Konsler, RN, Gold opened a late effects clinic to serve the needs of children long off treatment but at risk for late occurring side effects of their chemotherapy. Gold also heads a comprehensive brain tumor clinic that meets monthly. This clinic brings together experts from the disciplines of neurology, neurosurgery, radiology, psychology and sociology. Patients receive comprehensive, multidisciplinary evaluation, treatment planning and therapy. Gold also runs a monthly clinic in Wilmington and Raleigh that serves the pediatric oncology needs of those communities.
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UNC Surgery’s
Andrea Hayes-Jordan, MD, Chief of the Division of Pediatric Surgery and Surgeon-In-Chief of UNC Children's Hospital, was honored for her international leadership in pediatric surgery and pediatric oncology. Dr. Hayes-Jordan was the first African American female pediatric surgeon board certified in the United States. She was the first surgeon to perform cytoreductive surgery and Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy (HIPEC) in a pediatric patient. She specializes in treating desmoplastic small round cell tumors (DSRCT), a rare sarcoma, which spreads throughout the abdominal and chest cavity. The procedure, which can last from 12 to 22 hours to remove hundreds if not thousands of tiny tumors, has since doubled the survival rates for patients. Dr. Hayes-Jordan has treated patients from across the globe and traveled extensively in the United States and abroad, teaching the operation to other surgeons.
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UNC Surgery’s
Mahesh Sharma, MD, Chief of Congenital Cardiac Surgery, Co-Director of the NC Children’s Heart Center, and Director of Pediatric Heart Transplantation and Mechanical Circulatory Support was honored for his profound effect on the congenital cardiac surgery program. His special interests include neonatal, infant, pediatric cardiac surgery, adult congenital cardiac surgery and pediatric transplantation. In the past year Dr. Sharma has had a profound effect on the congenital cardiac surgery program that touches the lives of multiple patients across North Carolina. He breathed new life into the pediatric heart transplantation program at UNC Children’s Hospital and his surgery record stands as testament to his skill and expertise.
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Do you have an idea for a pediatric program but need funding to make it happen?
The
Carolina for the Kids (CFTK) grant application
is open. This opportunity to fund a project is open to anyone who works with children—not just physicians. Grant requests between $1,000 and $15,000 will be considered.
Application window closes at midnight on March 13
.
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Health Care
Safe Zone Training
March 5, 2020 from 11a - 3p
Mary Ellen Jones 3116
Health Care Safe Zone is a four-hour alternative to Standard Safe Zone that similarly introduces concepts, terminology and resources related to sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression. The curriculum also covers LGBTQ health disparities, health resources, and common health professional scenarios, along with a terminology primer and strategies for allyship.
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This training is intended to address concerns particular to Health Care professionals, though it is open to all campus and community members.
Safe Zone trainees develop:
- A deeper awareness of personal ideas, stereotypes, and assumptions related to gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer and asexual (LGBTIQA) individuals
- An increased comfort level in addressing concepts and language regarding LGBTIQA communities with the university community and with individuals
- An increased awareness of services on campus that support LGBTIQ and allied individuals
- A network of community and campus staff, faculty, and students to support people of all sexual orientations, gender identities and gender expressions on campus
This is a prerequisite for the two-hour Safe Zone Continuing Education
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