Dear Colleagues,

 

I hope you have had some time away with friends and families this month. I know many of you have had spring break plans. Personally, I have spent many hours at the baseball field with my youngest son who is graduating from high school this year. 

 

For the past two weeks, we have had a significant increase in our overall inpatient census. Staffing continues to be an issue in some areas, but is improving. Please use Rex for admissions, when appropriate. Thank you to those who have been managing the inpatient census and caring for the children and families.

 

The Pediatric Emergency Department move has been extremely successful and the larger rooms have been helpful during these high census periods. We have had many children boarding in the ED as they await beds. Thank you to Cheryl, Dan, Pedro and all the ED faculty and staff.

 

As announced, we now have one number for outpatient appointments (984-974-PEDS). This is a big accomplishment and will improve access for families. Thank you to Ceila, Sherry, Ed and Jessica!

 

I would also like to share an email I received today from Lindsay Pattison, GI Endoscopy RN. This really highlights our commitment to the mission of caring for children and families.

Massive thanks to all for coming together and showing once again the meaning of the word team and how amazing it is, to be a part of it. So often we hear bad news, well not today!!

As mentioned this week, Grand Rounds is now hybrid. The calendar invite will include both an in-person conference room and a Webex link.

I am looking forward to seeing many of you at the Pediatric Academic Society Conference (PAS) in Denver, Colorado. Please mark your calendar for the UNC Reception on Saturday, April 23^rd, from 7-10pm in the Hyatt Regency, Capitol Ballroom 3. We will also have a booth highlighting the Department. We plan to pass out basketball balls to those who visit the booth!

 

The Evening of Scholarship is on Thursday, May 5^th at the Kenan Center. Wade Clapp is the keynote speaker and we are looking forward to the presentations. Abstracts are due April 14^th. All second and third year fellows are required to submit.

 

Our 13^th annual Touch a Truck is on Sunday, April 10^th, from 12-4pm. Bring your children to the Friday Center to enjoy this event!

 

The match was extremely successful! The medicals students who matched are highlighted below. Thank you to our exceptional Education Team! This team scheduled and facilitated all the virtual visits, 100s of applications and many, many emails. 

 

Finally, please watch the video highlighted on one of our local news channels. One of our patients is wishing good luck to the Tar Heels! I can’t wait to watch the game! Go Heels!

Gratefully,

Dr. Kelley Ward joined the Department of Pediatrics as Adjunct Faculty on March 3, 2022. She received her BS in Biochemestry from the University of Florida in 2012 and her medical degree from the University of Florida College of Medicine in 2016. Dr. Ward completed her pediatric residency at the UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital in 2019. She was most recently with AdventHealth Ocala where she was a Pediatric Hospitalist. Welcome Kelley!

UNC Pediatric Rheumatology and Duke Pediatric Rheumatology have partnered on a cross-institutional outpatient clinic dedicated to pediatric patients with Juvenile Dermatomyositis (JDMS). The clinic is held on the first Wednesday of every other month at the UNC Hospitals Children's Specialty Services at Raleigh, and is staffed by Duke Associate Professor, Dr. Jeffrey Dvergsten, and UNC Assistant Professor, Dr. Laura Cannon. In addition to collaboration of clinical care, this initiative will also enable continued collaborative research efforts to improve understanding and care of JDMS patients.

UNC has been awarded the prestigious title of Center of Excellence in Pediatric Sedation by the Society for Pediatric Sedation. There was a very competitive application process that scored our Sedation Service on metrics related to safe, effective, efficient, timely and equitable patient-centered pediatric procedural sedation.

This is truly an honor! We are very proud of our team and what has been accomplished since its 2010 inception. A special thanks to Michele Kimmel, RN for leading the application efforts.

North Carolina Integrated Care for Kids (NC InCK) launched in January 2022 for children who are insured by Medicaid or CHIP (NC Health Choice) in Alamance, Orange, Durham, Granville, and Vance counties. A coalition of partners – including families, local organizations, and state leaders in the health, social, and educational needs of children – spent more than two years designing the model.

The NC InCK model (pronounced “ink”) supports integrated care for children by more holistically understanding their needs, supporting and bridging services for children and their families, and investing in what matters most to them. NC InCK builds on Medicaid’s whole-person Advanced Medical Home (AMH) care management model and practice-based incentive programs. NC InCK is bringing in additional data from schools and juvenile justice to supplement existing medical and behavioral health data to better identify children who could benefit from additional care management supports. These children and families will have the chance to work with a family navigator from their AMH or their Medicaid health plan. Read More...

Please check out this engaging and comprehensive document about things happening in the state related to child well-being and mental health and DSS involvement. It is so exciting to read through this and think about these big changes! Dr. Molly Berkoff, Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, and Medical Director for the Child Medical Evaluation Program was instrumental in developing these changes. Thank you Molly!

A Slippery Ladder and a Leaky Pipeline (PG12)

Drs. Stephanie Davis, Ilona Jaspers, and Meghan Rebuli are speaking in an exciting new postgraduate course at ATS 2022 in San Francisco. If you are attending ATS, please consider registering for PG12. Check out the schedule and registration information or register here: https://conference.thoracic.org/attendees/registration/index.php.

The course is called: GENDER EQUITY IN ACADEMIA: A SLIPPERY LADDER AND A LEAKY PIPELINE and it takes place on Saturday, May 14, 2022, 8 AM – 4PM.  This will be an incredibly important opportunity to hear the voices of women in academia and learn about and discuss issues ranging from grant funding challenges and opportunities, the role of academic societies in supporting women, strategies for mitigating harassment, work life integration, mentoring women who are under-represented in medicine and so much more. This is a truly unique opportunity to find ways to move towards a more equitable environment for women in the academic workplace, and is recommended for all levels, from trainees to early and mid-career faculty, all the way to the senior level. If you work with women in any way, this course is for you!

Lenny Kovalick, CPNP - Rheumatology/Immunology - appointed as Adjunct Instructor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Nursing effective for 2022. Currently he is responsible for guest lecturing both PNP and FNP students and precepting PNP students in outpatient pediatric rheumatology and clinical immunology.

Jennifer Mathews, MS, CGC - Assistant Professor - Genetics & Metabolism - awarded the 2021 Outstanding Supervisor Award from the Association of Genetic Counseling Program Directors for her work educating and mentoring graduate students from the UNC-Greensboro Genetic Counseling program through their time at UNC Children's.

Aliese Sarkissian, MD, MBOE, Assistant Professor in Pediatric Rheumatology recently delivered two presentations on engaging with providers, patients, and families on the topic of emotional wellness.

On January 14, Dr. Sarkissian and and Dr. Martha Perry, Associate Professor in General Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, presented “Communicating with patients and families about emotional health and resilience” at the Children’s Hospital of San Antonio. Department of Pediatrics Grand Rounds.

On February 2, Dr. Sarkissian presented “A Project Champion: Engaging Colleagues and Staff to Build Awareness” as a guest speaker for the Children’s Hospital Association Webinar: “Roadmap Four-Part Emotional Health Learning Series Session 2: Assessing Readiness to Effectively Support Emotional Health”.

Melissa Bauserman, MD, MPH - Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine - recently published:

Naqvi F, Naqvi S, Billah SM, Saleem S, Fogleman E, Peres-da-Silva N, Figueroa L, Mazariegos M, Garces AL, Patel A, Das P, Kavi A, Goudar SS, Esamai F, Chomba E, Lokangaka A, Tshefu A, Haque R, Siraj S, Yousaf S, Bauserman M, Liechty EA, Krebs NF, Derman RJ, Carlo WA, Petri WA Jr, Hibberd PL, Koso-Thomas M, Bann CM, McClure EM, Goldenberg RL. BJOG. 2022 Feb 14. doi: 10.1111/1471-0528.17122. PMID: 35157346

Improving faculty teaching practices: Fostering the "Ideal ICU Teacher" using a positive deviance strategy. Bauserman M, Patterson J, Price W. Acad Pediatr. 2022 Mar 16:S1876-2859(22)00166-8. doi: 10.1016/j.acap.2022.03.007. PMID: 35306186

Laura Cannon, MD - Rheumatology - recently published:

Use of EuroLupus Cyclophosphamide Dosing for the Treatment of Lupus Nephritis in Childhood-onset Systemic Lupus Erythematosus in North America. Cannon, L., Wenderfer, S. E., Lewandowski, L. B., Cooper, J. C., Goilav, B., Knight, A. M., Hersh, A. O., Ardoin, S. P., Sadun, R. E., & CARRA Lupus Nephritis Workgroup (2022). The Journal of rheumatology, jrheum.210428. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.3899/jrheum.210428

Lauren Frazer, MD, PhD - Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine - recently published:

Lewis AN, de la Cruz D, Wynn JL, Frazer LC, Yakah W, Martin CR, Yang H, Itriago E, Unger J, Hair AB, Miele J, Sullivan BA, Husain A, Good M. Neonatology. 2022 Mar 21:1-11. doi: 10.1159/000522560. PMID: 35313308

Misty Good, MD, MS - Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine - recently published:

Integrating longitudinal clinical and microbiome data to predict growth faltering in preterm infants. Lugo-Martinez J, Xu S, Levesque J, Gallagher D, Parker LA, Neu J, Stewart CJ, Berrington JE, Embleton ND, Young G, Gregory KE, Good M, Tandon A, Genetti D, Warren T, Bar-Joseph Z. J Biomed Inform. 2022 Feb 18;128:104031. doi: 10.1016/j.jbi.2022.104031. PMID: 35183765

Matthew Hirsch, PhD - Gene Therapy Center - was recently awarded, by unanimous recommendation of the Nominating Awards Committee, the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy Outstanding New Investigator Awards for 2022. The award will be presented on Tuesday May 17, during the ASGCT Annual Meeting in Washington, DC. Read More about the Hirsch Lab...

Hospital Pediatrics Division has had a significant number of scholarly work accepted for the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) Meeting in April - 6 workshops, 3 panels, 4 platform presentations and 6 posters. Read More Details...

Lenny Kovalick, CPNP - Rheumatology - recently published:

Oral tacrolimus for ocular involvement in pediatric neutrophilic dermatoses. Swaffar C, McShane D, Googe P, Kovalick L, Morrell DS, Wu EY. JAAD Case Rep. 2022;21:136-139. Published 2022 Jan 6. doi:10.1016/j.jdcr.2021.12.020

Matthew Laughon, MD, MPH - Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine - recently published:

Hydrocortisone to Improve Survival without Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia. Watterberg KL, Walsh MC, Li L, Chawla S, D'Angio CT, Goldberg RN, Hintz SR, Laughon MM, Yoder BA, Kennedy KA, McDavid GE, Backstrom-Lacy C, Das A, Crawford MM, Keszler M, Sokol GM, Poindexter BB, Ambalavanan N, Hibbs AM, Truog WE, Schmidt B, Wyckoff MH, Khan AM, Garg M, Chess PR, Reynolds AM, Moallem M, Bell EF, Meyer LR, Patel RM, Van Meurs KP, Cotten CM, McGowan EC, Hines AC, Merhar S, Peralta-Carcelen M, Wilson-Costello DE, Kilbride HW, DeMauro SB, Heyne RJ, Mosquera RA, Natarajan G, Purdy IB, Lowe JR, Maitre NL, Harmon HM, Hogden LA, Adams-Chapman I, Winter S, Malcolm WF, Higgins RD; Eunice Kennedy Shriver NICHD Neonatal Research Network. N Engl J Med. 2022 Mar 24;386(12):1121-1131. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2114897. PMID: 35320643

Margaret Leigh, MD and Lawrence Ostrowski, PhD - Pulmonology - in collaboration with Silvia Kreda, PhD in Biochemistry were recently awarded a Translational Team Science Award (TTSA) for their project, “Oligonucleotide-Based Therapy and Precision Medicine Platform for Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia”. Teams are awarded $50,000 over a 12-month period to begin to fully engage team members in the development of a project and are eligible to submit a proposal for additional TTSA Phase 2 funding ($75,000/1 year) upon the completion of Phase 1.

Mike O'Shea, MD, MPH - Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine - recently published:

Youth Well-being During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Blackwell CK, Mansolf M, Sherlock P, Ganiban J, Hofheimer JA, Barone CJ, Bekelman TA, Blair C, Cella D, Collazo S, Croen LA, Deoni S, Elliott AJ, Ferrara A, Fry RC, Gershon R, Herbstman JB, Karagas MR, LeWinn KZ, Margolis A, Miller RL, O'Shea TM, Porucznik CA, Wright RJ. Pediatrics. 2022 Mar 18:e2021054754. doi: 10.1542/peds.2021-054754. PMID: 35301542

Innovative computational approaches shed light on genetic mechanisms underlying cognitive impairment among children born extremely preterm. Liu W, Sun Q, Huang L, Bhattacharya A, Wang GW, Tan X, Kuban KCK, Joseph RM, O'Shea TM, Fry RC, Li Y, Santos HP Jr. J Neurodev Disord. 2022 Mar 3;14(1):16. doi: 10.1186/s11689-022-09429-x. PMID: 35240980 

Maternal tobacco smoking and offspring autism spectrum disorder or traits in ECHO cohorts. Hertz-Picciotto I, Korrick SA, Ladd-Acosta C, Karagas MR, Lyall K, Schmidt RJ, Dunlop AL, Croen LA, Dabelea D, Daniels JL, Duarte CS, Fallin MD, Karr CJ, Lester B, Leve LD, Li Y, McGrath M, Ning X, Oken E, Sagiv SK, Sathyanaraya S, Tylavsky F, Volk HE, Wakschlag LS, Zhang M, O'Shea TM, Musci RJ; program collaborators for Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO). Autism Res. 2022 Mar;15(3):551-569. doi: 10.1002/aur.2665. PMID: 35199959

Jackie Patterson, MD, MPH - Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine - recently published:

Effect of resuscitation training and implementation of continuous electronic heart rate monitoring on identification of stillbirth. Patterson J, Berkelhamer S, Ishoso D, Iyer P, Lowman C, Bauserman M, Eilevstjønn J, Haug I, Lokangaka A, Kamath-Rayne B, Mafuta E, Myklebust H, Nolen T, Patterson J, Singhal N, Tshefu A, Bose C. Resuscitation. 2022 Feb;171:57-63. doi: 10.1016/j.resuscitation.2021.12.020. PMID: 34965451

Johanna Smeekens, PhD and Scott Commins, MD, PhD - Allergy/Immunology - were recently awarded a Translational Team Science Award (TTSA) for their project, “Early-life Th2-skewing as a risk factor for allergic sensitizations”. Teams are awarded $50,000 over a 12-month period to begin to fully engage team members in the development of a project and are eligible to submit a proposal for additional TTSA Phase 2 funding ($75,000/1 year) upon the completion of Phase 1.

Matthew Vogt, MD, PhD - Pediatric Infectious Diseases and Microbiology & Immunology - has been granted an R01 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). The 5-year, $3.14 million grant is in support of the project “Human Antibody Cross-Reactivity in Non-Polio Enteroviruses”. The project aims to define the degree to which humans generate antibody responses that are reactive to different enteroviruses, allowing prioritization of vaccine efforts to those viruses with poorer natural response. Read More...

We're happy to announce that Jennifer Mathews, MS, CGC, Assistant Professor in Genetics & Metabolism, has recently welcomed addition to her family!

Jennifer and her husband, Rich, welcomed James Randall Mathews on Sunday, March 13, 2022 at 3:05p. He took after his father at 21.75 inches long and 7,10 oz!

After the 2.5 day labor everyone was tired but doing great!