Pediatric News
Updates from the Department of Pediatrics - 2022 Vol. 11
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Nebraska Perinatal Quality Improvement Collaborative Receives $1.375M Grant from CDC |
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Funds to be Used for Collaboration with Culturally Matched Doula Groups for High-Risk Pregnancies
A UNMC supported entity, the Nebraska Perinatal Quality Improvement Collaborative (NPQIC), was awarded a five-year, $1.375 million Center for Disease Control and Prevention grant to improve maternal and neonatal outcomes in Nebraska.
The NPQIC is a health, advocacy and research organization founded to improve the quality of care for mothers and babies in Nebraska. The U.S. has increasing maternal morbidity and mortality, and Nebraska’s neonatal mortality is significantly higher than the national average and rising, according to Ann Anderson Berry, MD, PhD, neonatal medical director of the NPQIC and executive director of the Child Health Research Institute, a collaboration between Children’s Hospital & Medical Center and UNMC.
Multiple recent government studies show that many of the poor outcomes in the perinatal period are worse in African American and Native American populations.
“Disparities in outcomes are not driven by race, but by social determinants of health. Access to care, quality of delivered care, communication with the health care team and other associated factors play a huge role in health outcomes,” Dr. Anderson Berry said. “Additionally, across all people of childbearing age, current millennials and Generation Z populations are entering pregnancy with an increased risk for developing hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and pregnancy associated diabetes. These conditions dramatically increase the risk to both mother and baby throughout pregnancy.”
To address these issues, the CDC grant awarded to the NPQIC will enable a collaboration with I Be Black Girl (IBBG), a support organization for Black mothers and women, and fund a trial integration of culturally matched doula assistance in high-risk pregnancies. A doula is a trained professional who supports a pregnant person during pregnancy, throughout the delivery and post-delivery when complications can arise. Doulas also assist in establishing breastfeeding, when needed. Doula programs across the country have shown decreased cesarean section delivery rates, increased breastfeeding success and decreased rates of premature delivery.
“This funding will have a profound impact on the health of women and infants in Nebraska,” Dr. Anderson Berry said. “We will now have the opportunity and the resources to develop programing and partnerships with our communities to improve pregnancy and neonatal outcomes, to engage patients and to decrease the disparities in health outcomes that persist in our state.”
IBBG Director Ashlei Spivey welcomes the opportunity to address inequitable maternal outcomes through the opportunities the grant affords and the inclusion of her organization.
“I Be Black Girl is centered on those most impacted by the issues this grant seeks to address, and we are excited to bring the voices of the Black mamas and those with the capacity for pregnancy to this work,” Spivey said.
Sara Howard, policy advisor, First Five Nebraska, an organization focused on bringing about improvements in early child development, believes the NPQIC funds will have a real impact on neonatal outcomes for Black and Native American families.
“Doula programs are among the most efficient and effective assets available to us for improving the health care trajectories of entire communities. This grant is an important step toward making the best possible use of these important and highly skilled professionals to overcome the challenges of delivering and accessing neonatal health care supports where they are most needed,” Howard said.
Chad Abresch, PhD, executive director for CityMatCH, a national public health organization based at UNMC, echoes the excitement around the CDC grant.
“I congratulate the diverse team assembled to implement this grant. Their work represents advances in care we have seen to be effective in other states and will help ensure we move in the right direction for Nebraska families,” Abresch said.
In addition to the CDC grant, United Health Care of Nebraska has given a one-year grant to supplement the work around culturally matched doula support. At this point, doulas are not covered by state insurance, and only some private insurance companies/providers will cover this cost.
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DEI spotlight: UNMC Department of Pediatrics |
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This month, UNMC Today featured the work done our department and Children’s Hospital & Medical Center to advance diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). What follows is the story that ran in UNMC Today.
According to Shirley Delair, MD, associate dean of diversity, equity and inclusion, the UNMC Department of Pediatrics has had a multiprong approach to advance their DEI efforts. This includes, in chronological order of creation: a vice chair for culture, the establishment of a department-wide antiracism committee led by three co-chairs, and a vice chair for DEI. Children’s Hospital & Medical Center has a director of culture & inclusion, a position that collaborates with, but is independent of the department.
The goal is to create an inclusive interprofessional environment that fosters belonging in education across the learner spectrum. These efforts include faculty and staff and focus on physician and allied health recruitment and retention as well as community engagement.
“The intent is to make sure we all are aware of what each is doing and to think about how we can accelerate and amplify one another’s work,” Dr. Abresch said.
The department’s efforts to build diversity focus not only on workforce but diversifying content among medical students. The department’s antiracism committee – open to faculty, staff, residents and learners – is exploring efforts such as visibility activities, preventing and addressing discrimination, discussing the social determinants of health within the medical school curriculum and strategic diversity building. Through the education subcommittee, the committee is doing a thorough review of the M3 pediatric clerkship lectures through a DEI lens to make sure learners consistently have DEI concepts integrated into the broad range of pediatric lectures they receive.
The antiracism committee, meanwhile, under the auspices of co-chairs Helen Grace, DO, Ruben Quiros-Tejeira, MD, and Geetanjali Rathore, MD, is focusing on efforts such as visibility activities, curriculum improvement, strategic diversity building and preventing and addressing discrimination incidents.
Sharon Stoolman, MD, vice chair for DEI at UNMC pediatrics, said she has noticed progress just over the past year among the students she teaches.
“For M4s, I do a lecture on the social determinants of health,” she said. “For years, I’ve received comments from students such as ‘Thank you so much for giving this lecture, we haven’t had this content in any of our training to this point.’ But just this year, I’m starting to see comments that say, ‘Hey, we had a lecture similar to this. Glad to see we’re having this content on the social determinants of health more than once.’ We see this as a positive indication that our efforts are coming together.”
Dr. Stoolman said it was a powerful motivator to know that she isn’t working alone on these issues.
“You can have that racial exhaustion of ‘I can’t be the only one who cares about this,’ so I think it’s really helpful,” she said.
For residents’ education, in addition to increasing lectures that address concepts of advancing health equity in clinical work, case presentations, journal clubs and research, Drs. Stoolman, Abresch and Delair are leading the establishment of a pediatric health equity track for residents who would like more training in academic pediatrics in such areas as community engagement, advocacy, health equity research and more.
For faculty development and to advance learners’ education, the department has hosted guests to address DEI issues during grand rounds, including, most recently, a lunch and learn series on the nuances and use of the terms Hispanic, Latine, Latino, Latina and Latinx.
Shavonne Washington-Krauth, director of culture & inclusion at Children’s Hospital & Medical Center, said she is excited to partner with UNMC pediatrics in their efforts.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever be pleased with where we are, because I always see things we could do, but I think we’re making good progress and I’m told we’re making good progress,” she said.
Washington-Krauth, who oversees diversity and inclusion efforts at Children’s, said she sees promise going forward, and the teamwork with UNMC presents opportunity.
“The opportunity is there for us to make a huge impact,” Washington-Krauth said. “We are the leaders of the work, but this is everybody’s work – everybody has something that they can contribute.”
“We have a lot of work to do and a lot of progress to be made,” Dr. Abresch said. “But I see indications that we are making progress.”
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Check This Out:
Professor Teresa Hartman, MLS, created an interactive presentation using the Wakelet tool that provides all the information a member of the Department of Pediatrics would need for using the McGoogan Library at UNMC. It's a wonderful resource, and you can access it by clicking here. |
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Check This Out:
Linked below is a recording of the UNMC retirement plan investment changes seminar on October 31st, 2022 for those of you who could not attend or would like to watch the seminar again.
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Department of Pediatrics Chair Update:
Kari Simonsen, MD, MBA
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As November has arrived, it's time to reflect and consider with gratitude on what has been accomplished over the year.
It's been a continued year of growth in the Department of Pediatrics, and I'm grateful for the new faculty and trainees who have joined us this year. They move us further in our journey toward becoming a truly academic health center for children, realizing our goals for developing research and innovations that drive the future of pediatric care and expanding our educational programs as our teams develop new fellowships—most recently Pediatric Critical Care Medicine and Pediatric Emergency Medicine.
I'm grateful that we are building our capacity in research as evidenced by the successful CHRI Research Conference last week. It was an absolute joy to see the faculty and trainees from our department, along with those from around the University of Nebraska system campuses, presenting their scientific achievements in person, developing new collaborations and engaging actively with the audience. Kudos and thanks to the CHRI team for this excellent event.
I'm also grateful for everyone who is working diligently to care for the many children who have contracted respiratory illnesses so far this fall. It’s already been a very busy RSV season and influenza seems to be approaching quickly, all while COVID-19 continues to be a threat. We are fortunate to have such a talented group of primary care pediatricians, urgent care and Emergency Division physicians and inpatient specialists caring for children across the continuum of care. Thanks to all of you for your contributions to keeping kids healthy and helping them recover from illness.
I am also grateful for my own family and kids this November, and I hope you will also be able to find some balance and time away from work to enjoy some downtime with your own loved ones during this season of gratitude.
Thanks again,
Kari
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Dr. Russell McCulloh Featured in Article on Antimicrobial Stewardship Initiative |
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Russell McCulloh, MD, professor, Division of Hospital Medicine, was recently featured in a Healio article about an antimicrobial stewardship study in which his lab participated.
The Better Antibiotic Selection in Children (BASiC) project is a quality improvement program involving 133 hospitals managed through the American Academy of Pediatrics' (AAP) Value in Inpatient Pediatrics (VIP) Network, designed to improve antibiotic prescribing for common pediatric infections. Dr. McCulloh is chair of the VIP Network for the next two years.
The study's goal is to increase the percentage of children who receive appropriate antibiotics for three common pediatric infections seen in the emergency department and hospital setting: community-acquired pneumonia, skin and soft tissue infections and UTIs.
To gauge whether the BASiC project is working, the study team analyzed data from 126 participating hospitals, which reported on approximately 45,000 children who presented to emergency departments or were admitted as inpatients. The hospitals submitted 18 months of baseline data from July 2019 to Dec. 2020, and an additional 12 months of data after the intervention was implemented, from March 2021 to Feb. 2022. Input from a multidisciplinary expert working group and review of existing AAP and Pediatric Infectious Disease Society recommendations were instrumental in determining the measures to assess the program's success.
As a result of the BASiC projects, adherence to the recommended duration of antibiotic therapy for the three common infections increased on average by 1.05% month over month in the hospitals involved in the study. No such improvement was seen during the baseline period.
Dr. McCulloh is quoted in the article saying, "What we demonstrated was that partnering across disciplines to improve antibiotic use is effective." He adds, “When you look at all three infections combined, we didn't see changes in empiric therapy or definitive therapy, but when you split them out, we saw improvements.”
To read the full article, click here.
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Community Engagement News:
Get to Know Our Community Partner - Northstar Foundation
NorthStar’s overarching focus is on preparing North Omaha’s school-aged boys, traditionally beset by significant barriers to academic success, to complete ninth grade on level and graduate high school on time. By employing a model of high-touch, multi-year extended learning, the foundation focuses on accelerating core academic and social-skill competencies of every young man they serve. NorthStar’s 70,000 square foot campus is located on 49th and Ames Avenues. The campus includes the multisport synthetic turf Fritz Field athletics complex, the Fred C. Buffett.
Northstar's mission is to change young men’s lives through programming that supports, challenges, inspires and instills a life rooted in education, self-discipline and service to the community. Its founding vision is to dramatically increase the proportion of male students in North Omaha who graduate high school on time, positioned to begin post-secondary education or immediately enter the workforce.
Since programming began in 2014, NorthStar has developed a scalable after-school and summer program model centered on rigorous, student-centered academic and social-emotional development to transform the educational and life trajectories of the young men it serves. NorthStar programming focuses on three key areas: academics, adventure and athletics.
Academics
NorthStar Academics aims to provide educational and social opportunities for student enrichment. Key components of NorthStar Academics programming include academic achievement, arts immersion and career readiness.
Adventure
NorthStar Adventure works with our youth and our community to teach transferable skills in leadership, collaboration and communication. The foundation encourages individuals and teams to transcend self-imposed limits and reach new heights.
Athletics
Sports provide opportunities for young men to develop values of respect, responsibility, reliability, teamwork, and character. NorthStar Athletics offers three sports for young men in grades 3-12: soccer, lacrosse and basketball.
Involvement with the Department and CHRI
The Department of Pediatrics and CHRI have supported NorhStar on multiple occasions. Recently we provided volunteers for the Foundation's Parent's Day and back to school event. Last year we sponsored a field day to celebrate the opening of NorthStar's soccer/lacrosse field and held a coat and winter supplies drive benefitting the foundation, among other community partners. We look forward to continuing and expanding our relationship with NorthStar.
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This month we feature Beatrice Egboh, MD, assistant professor, Division of Developmental Pediatrics, and Jordain Gordon, administrative operations associate for Child Health Policy (CityMatCH) and Developmental Medicine; website associate, Department of Pediatrics and travel coordinator, Pediatric Research Office.
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Meet Dr. Beatrice Egboh
Meet Dr. Beatrice Egboh
What brought you to your given specialty/role?
The cultural expectation of a “normal child” drives my passion for Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics. I did not always know that my life goal would be to relentlessly advocate for the most vulnerable children at the highest risk of being left behind. Both my parents are physicians, and I observed a Cesarian section for the first time when I was 13; I thought I would become an OBGYN in medical school.
I grew up in Nigeria, where there is a stigma surrounding individuals with disabilities. I moved to the U.S. and found that same stigma in place here. I believe every child is unique, wonderful and worthy of being heard. It became a passion for me to understand families' beliefs, values and practices while respecting and empowering them in ways that will help their children.
What's your favorite place in the world?
Dubai. It holds a lot of beautiful memories. It will always be that “very special place.”
What are you a fan of or very interested in?
I am a wanderlust.
Is there any book, music or TV series, or movie that you admire and would recommend to others, particularly if it relates to the medical world?
I recently watched Extraordinary Attorney Woo on Netflix, a hilarious Korean series about a brilliant lawyer with autism. It describes the struggles individuals with disabilities go through in a satirical way. Society still sees her disability before seeing the amazing person that she is. I recommend it first because you won't stop laughing or checking your biases or looking beyond the disability, like asthma and other chronic illnesses.
What was the most important lesson taught to you during your medical training?
When I don't know what to do, ask Dr. Needelman! He knows it all!!!
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Meet Jordain Gordon
What brought you to your given specialty/role?
I have been with UNMC and Nebraska Medicine since 2016 and joined Pediatrics in July 2022. My new role highlights my administrative experience and provides me with new challenges daily.
What’s your favorite place in the world?
My backyard in the fall. I enjoy bonfires and movies on the projector with my husband and daughter and making s’mores!
What are you a fan of or very interested in?
I collect different types of plants and succulents and enjoy painting them as well.
Is there any book, music or TV series or movie that you admire and would recommend to others?
I love horror and psychological thriller movies, but my favorite classic is The Shining.
What was the most important lesson taught to you during your career?
One quote that has always stuck with me and applies to all aspects of life is, “You can’t pour from an empty cup.”
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Our Successes:
Department Celebrations
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Please click on the link below to see achievements by Department of Pediatrics faculty and staff, including awards, certificates, publications, grants and more. |
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Staff Milestones:
Recent Service Anniversaries
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Congratulations to those celebrating recent work anniversaries. We wish you all the best for continued success! |
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University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Medicine Department of Pediatrics
982155 Nebraska Medicine
Omaha, NE 68198-2155
402-955-3933
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