Chair's Message

January 31, 2019

Dear Colleagues,   I hope you have had a great start to the New Year! I would like to thank all of you for your hard work as we have seen a significant increase in inpatient volumes. A special thank you to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and the Emergency Room as both units have had record volumes this past month. UNC Children’s Raleigh urgent care recently opened its doors along with the inpatient unit at Rex! We are now offering inpatient, outpatient specialty care and urgent care services to children and families closer to home.    I wanted to share how much I enjoyed the January Junior Faculty lunch. I am looking forward to meeting with more of our junior faculty in the coming months.    For those of you who are SPR members, please consider voting for both Mike Kappelman and Keisha Gibson, both of whom are running for council this year! Congratulations to both for being nominated!   Finally, the Krispy Kreme Challenge was this weekend! There were over 5000 runners; monies earned from this race are donated to UNC Children’s! Congratulations to Benny Joyner who met the challenge and ran the race in less than 1 hour after eating a dozen donuts.    Please attend the 18th Annual Carolina for the Kids Benefit Reception at the Carolina Inn this Friday, February 7th!    Thank you for all that you do for the children and families cared for at UNC Children’s.   Gratefully,

Pediatric Missions Update

Please Welcome our New Providers!

Alex Ahearn, MD, MPH Clinical Assistant Professor Hospital Pediatrics Dr. Ahearn joined UNC on January 15th. He is primarily working as a Pediatric Hospitalist at UNC Rex. Alex earned his medical degree with us at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill before completing his pediatrics residency the University of Colorado. He has been working as a Nocturnist at the University of Colorado for the past 2 years.

Virginia Crowder, MD Clinical Assistant Professor Hospital Pediatrics Dr. Crowder joined UNC on January 15th. She is primarily working as a Pediatric Hospitalist at UNC Rex. Virginia graduated from Duke University before completing her medical education with us at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She completed her pediatrics residency at at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital of Oakland. Over the past 3 years she has worked as a Hopsitalist covering 3 different hospitals, including Children's of Oakland.

Emilee Lewis, MD Clinical Assistant Professor Hospital Pediatrics Dr. Lewis joined UNC on January 6th. She is primarily working as a Pediatric Hospitalist at UNC Rex. She is the Medical Director of UNC Children’s Raleigh inpatient service at Rex Emilee completed her under graduate and medical degrees here, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She completed her pediatrics residency at Children’s National. S he has been faculty at the University of Connecticut as a Hospitalist for the past 4 years.

We now have Inpatient Pediatrics at Rex! Our newly renovated 10 bed pediatric inpatient unit opened on January 20th. A core group of UNC Hospital Pediatric faculty led by Dr. Emilee Lewis are working hard in partnership with Rex staff to safely bring high quality inpatient pediatric care closer to home for many of our patients. The team has already cared for patients admitted through the Rex Emergency Department as well as transfers originally slotted for Chapel Hill which helped all our patients get the care they needed in the most appropriate location in a more timely manner. Please keep the Rex unit in mind for lower acuity patients - scheduled elective admissions and acute needs. Reach out to Emilee Lewis or Lindsay Chase with any questions.

Urgent Care at UNC Children’s Raleigh is Open!

We have also seen out first patients in the Urgent Care at UNC Children’s Raleigh. We've had up to 7 patients a day so far in the after hours Urgent Care. Weekends have been busiest. The age distribution of patient seen is 15% infants (less than 1 year), 35% toddler /preschool (1-4y), 40% school age (5-13y), and 10% high school (14-18y). Most patients so far have come from Raleigh and points southeast, a few from Durham    There is plenty of capacity - so w e encourage everyone to send patients about whom you receive calls after hours to the Urgent Care - we are open into the late evening.

Congratulations to Dan Park , Afsaneh Pirzadeh , and the progress in the ED in time to fluid administration and time to antibiotics. Thanks for pushing forward to excellence in this life saving therapy.

These Kid Reporters Steal the Show!

We just couldn't help it...it's all too cute NOT to share! You may have seen some of the social media coverage of our Open House at UNC Children's Raleigh in December. In case you missed it we've included one of the online videos. There is no doubt that these little reporters were a really big hit!

New Handheld Ultrasounds Have Arrived! Thanks to a generous donation secured by the UNC Development Office (thank you Keela Lyon!) Dr. Park and colleagues throughout the Department of Pediatrics will create an interdisciplinary point of care ultrasound (POCUS) workgroup driven by the use of handheld ultrasound devices (Butterfly IQ). Champions from across the Children’s Hospital will include representatives from the NICU (Drs. Mary Terrell and Sean Shannon), PICU (Drs. Dan Lercher and Paul Shea), Hospitalist service (Drs. Eric Zwemer, Jen Fuchs, and Steve Weinberg), the Resident Continuity Clinic (Dr. Amy Liu), Rheumatology clinic (Drs. Eve Wu and Lenny Kovalick), and Peds ED/Urgent Care Clinic (Dr. Park). The Children’s POCUS Workgroup will create a robust educational curriculum involving a lecture series, image review sessions, and the production of scholarly output demonstrating the value of this emerging technology for our patients. This is a unique opportunity for cross-specialty collaboration and innovation in our department and we’re looking forward to what this group can accomplish together! Please pass along any ultrasound “wins” that occur in your areas as we roll out this program.

The Education Office has concluded recruitment for the Pediatrics, Medicine-Pediatrics and Child Neurology residency programs. We interviewed over 400 applicants from schools all over the country. The Education Leadership Teams are currently developing rank lists for submission in February.

Match Day is March 20th. There will be a celebration in Curnen Denny at 1:30pm - all faculty and staff are invited!

Joyner receives Craver Professor Award

Benny L. Joyner, MD, MPH, Associate Professor of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine and Director of the UNC Clinical Skills and Patient Simulation Center, has been honored with the Craver Medical Student Teaching Award. The Craver Medical Student Teaching Award was established by UNC School of Medicine graduate Joseph M. Craver, MD, to honor outstanding teachers in internal medicine, pediatrics, and surgery who inspire and change the lives of medical students through their teaching.

Please Congratulate our recently Promoted Faculty!

Michael D. Kulis, Jr., PhD Division of Allergy/Immunology & Rheumatology Effective January 1, 2020 Promotion from Research Assistant Professor to Research Associate Professor Dr. Kulis is a biochemist whose work focuses on the development and mechanistic understanding of novel immunotherapy approaches for children with food allergies. He works closely with Drs. Wesley Burks and Edwin Kim as part of the UNC Food Allergy Initiative.

Xiaojing Zheng, PhD Division of Infectious Diseases Effective January 1, 2020 Promotion from Research Assistant Professor to Research Associate Professor Dr. Zheng’s research focuses on translational research to identify disease biomarkers through combined analysis of multi-omics data, including mRNA, miRNA, and DNA and the identification of the disease susceptibility genes and their regulatory network in infectious diseases for pathogenesis and improved prevention and treatment.

Check Out These New Awards and Publications

Marcus Carden – Hematology/Oncology - Junior Faculty Development Award from the UNC Provost’s office - $10,000; the UNC SOM Research Infrastructure Equipment Allocation grant – provides $40,000 towards purchase of an ektacytometer for research in the UNC Blood Research Center Evelyn Wu - Rheumatology - TraCS KL2 Scholar - awarded 75% protected research time James Hagood - Pulmonology - Collaborative Translational Research Pilot Grant. Project: Role of adenosine in Intubation-associated laryngotracheal stenosis: a pilot study. In collaboration with Xiaoyang Hua, MD, PhD, Duke University Assistant Professor of Surgery.

Carl Bose - Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine - "Low-dose aspirin for the prevention of preterm delivery in nulliparous women with a singleton pregnancy (ASPIRIN): a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial" , in the most recent edition of The Lancet.

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! Check frequently for updated information.

Carolina For The Kids 18th Annual Benefit Reception Friday, February 7, 2020 at 7:00p The Carolina Inn, 211 Pittsboro Street, Chapel Hill The Benefit Reception is a silent and live auction that raises money for the patients and families of UNC Children’s.  The cost of attendance is $70 for an individual, $120 for a couple, or $250 for a group of five.  Checks can be made payable to Carolina For The Kids. Payment can be presented upon arrival or mailed to: Carolina For The Kids P.O. Box 628 Chapel Hill, NC 27514 For more information, please contact Megan Butcher , the 2020 Formal Affairs Chair, at  formalaffairs@carolinaftk.org   or (757) 663-2955.

Click for Details!

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 .

Pediatrics Safe Zone Training February 20, 2020 from 1p - 5p Department Leadership strongly encourages everyone to participate in this workshop at least once. Space is available! Currently we have filled 16 of the required 25 attendee registrations for this workshop. Please RSVP to Jessie Feudale .

The Standard Safe Zone workshop is a 4-hour training designed to introduce concepts, terminology and resources related to sexual orientation, gender identify, and gender expression. 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 LGBTIQA 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.

Our unsung hero this month is Ashley Austin, RN BSN Nominated by Tim Vece, MD Ashley Austin, RN BSN serves as the Clinical Program Coordinator for the Department of Pediatric Rare and Genetic Lung Disease Program. Ashley consistently goes above and beyond for her patients. As the nurse for 3 doctors that see kids with rare lung disease, she is often called upon to collect medical records, obtain imaging, call insurance companies for prior authorizations, and much more. She does this without complaint, and I couldn’t see these complex, often very sick patients without her. She also provides compassionate care, often listening for hours as parents talk with her about truly terrifying diagnoses. Many patients comment on how wonderful, helpful and caring she is during their appointments. In short, she is amazing!

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