October 2020
Dear Colleagues,
It is hard to believe today is November 2nd as we move into election week. These past weeks have been intense for many if not all of us. As we move into the month of November, with the COVID numbers increasing and the continued social unrest, take care of yourself, your family and your colleagues.
 
Please attend the State of the Department on November 12th! I will highlight successes of this past year and anticipated plans for 2021.
 
A special note of congratulations to Dr. Eve Wu who is now serving as the Division Chief of Rheumatology. 
 
Finally, I would like to thank Allen Habif who has served as the ACA for the Department since 2015 when Allen joined the Department under Dr. Burks. Allen has decided to retire at the end of November. Allen has been deeply involved in Departmental finances and compliance issues, overseeing the transition to funds flow and numerous revisions and implementations of the faculty compensation plan. He was instrumental in starting and then guiding dramatic growth of outreach clinical contracts, overseeing the opening of our new Children’s subspecialty clinic in Raleigh and has led through an overall dramatic expansion of the faculty and clinical programs. Thank you Allen for your service!
 
Gratefully,
UNC Children's Missions Update
Please Welcome our New Children's Providers!
David Muccino, MD
Assistant Professor
General Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine

Dr. David Muccino joined the General Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine faculty on October 7thDr. Muccino received his medical degree in 2012 from the Stritch School of Medicine at Loyola University in Chicago. He completed his Pediatric residency at the University of Connecticut/ Connecticut Children's Medical Center in 2017. Prior to starting fellowship, he worked as a general pediatrician. In 2020, he completed a fellowship in Pediatric Hospice and Palliative Medicine with the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital at University of Michigan. His interests include prenatal palliative medicine and clinical education surrounding symptom management at the end of life. He will be joining the Palliative Care Consult Service as well as the Children’s Complex Care Program.
Kaitlin Campbell, MSN, RN, CPNP-PC
Advanced Practice Practitioner
Pediatric Critical Care Medicine

Kaitlin Campbell joined the Department of Pediatrics on October 19th. Ms. Campbell completed her BSN at Georgetown University in 2011 and worked as a nurse in the Georgetown PICU and then in a variety of nursing roles at UNC Health, including within the PICU. Ms. Campbell completed her MSN at the Duke University School of Nursing in 2017. Subsequently, she completed a Post-Masters Certificate as a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner in Acute Care at the University of Virginia in 2020. Ms. Campbell will be joining the Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care team.
New Child Neurology Providers
The Division of Child Neurology would like to welcome new physicians and advanced practice practitioners to NC Children's.
Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Neurology
Dual appointment with the Carolina Institute of Developmental Disabilities
Interests
  • Children with autism spectrum disorders
  • Tuberous sclerosis complex and related neurodevelopmental and neurogenetic conditions
Assistant Professor
Child Neurology and Epilepsy
Interests
  • Evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment of children with seizure disorders
  • Anti-seizure medications, specialized diets, clinical trials and surgical options Working with parents to find the best seizure management for each child
  • Research into epilepsy neurogenetics, neonatal seizures
Assistant Professor
Child Neurology and Epilepsy
Interests
  • Surgery for medically refractory epilepsy
  • Precision therapeutics for genetic epilepsies
  • Integrative medicine in neurology – integrating complementary and alternative medicine approaches for a holistic treatment plan

  • Practicing in the Child Neurology clinic at the UNC Hospitals Children's Specialty Clinic

  • Practicing in the Child Neurology clinic at the UNC Hospitals Children's Specialty Clinic

New Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care & Children’s Heart Center Providers
The Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Unit and the Children’s Heart Center are happy to announce some new members of our clinical team. 
  • Shawna Beck, PharmD BCPPS, who has served the UNC Pharmacy group over the last 10 years, will be transitioning to the Lead Pharmacist for the PCICU and 5 Children’s Cardiac Patients
  • Jen Franks, RD, CSP, LDN, CNSC, will bring her 20 years of dietetic experience to become the Lead Dietitian for the PCICU and 5 Children’s Cardiac Patients
  • As mentioned above, Kaitlin Campbell, MSN NP joins us as a new nurse practitioner. Kaitlin was formerly a heart nurse in the PICU and trained at Duke and UVA for her Acute Care Nurse Practitionership. She is married to our very own, Dr. Andrew Campbell (Med Peds).  
Please congratulate and welcome Shawna, Jen, and Kaitlin as they support our efforts toward continuing to be a Pediatric Cardiac Center of Excellence. 
Congratulations!!
We are very proud to announce that Maureen Kelly, MS, CPNP, in the Pediatric Division of Gastroenterology, is this year's recipient of the Susan Peck Excellence in Nursing Award, presented at the North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition (NASPGHAN) annual meeting. Please join us in warmly congratulating Maureen for this well-deserved recognition of her efforts in advancing the care of children with IBD at a local and national level.
Janey R. Phelps, MD, Associate Professor of Anesthesiology and Pediatrics, has been appointment as Medical Director of the Pediatric Sedation Service and Head of the Pediatric Sedation Committee. Dr. Phelps is returning to this role after a 2 year hiatus and brings with her tremendous expertise and enthusiasm for promoting safe and efficient pediatric sedation. Welcome back Dr. Phelps!
Eveline Wu, MD, MSCR, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, has formally accepted the role of the inaugural Division Chief of the Rheumatology Division at UNC Children’s. Eve has been at UNC since 2013 after completing her combined Rheumatology and Allergy/Immunology fellowships at Duke. She has also completed a Masters of Science in Clinical Research. She is currently funded as part of the UNC KL2 program; her project is elucidating vasculitis pathogenesis. Furthermore, she has multiple roles in numerous other federally funded studies as well as pharmaceutical trials. Eve was recently named the UNC Department of Pediatrics Mentor of the Year! Finally, Eve has helped lead the UNC Children’s COVID response team.
 
The Rheumatology Division currently has two physicians and one APP, serving patients across the state. A third physician, Laura Cannon, will be joining the group in 2021; there are active plans for expansion into the eastern part of the state including New Bern and Wilmington. The group will be leading development of a Clinical Immunology Inpatient and Outpatient program. The Rheumatology Division works collaboratively in several multi-disciplinary clinics with nephrology and pulmonology among others to care for patients with systemic rheumatologic syndromes.  Congratulations to Eve!
Guideline & Standing Orders for Pediatric Hypersensitivity & Anaphylaxis Reactions

In efforts to prioritize medication safety for the patients of UNC Children’s Hospital, we are pursuing a more consistent approach when responding to pediatric infusion reactions. Attached is a proposed protocol titled “Guideline and Standing Orders for Pediatric Hypersensitivity and Anaphylaxis Reactions.” The purpose of this protocol is to standardize response to hypersensitivity reactions based on the severity of the reaction. This protocol would apply to all pediatric patients receiving chemotherapy, biotherapy, and IV iron. Each section lays out specific actions nursing staff should take when a reaction occurs including medication administration.
 
Reducing the variety and number of infusion reaction order sets will help better ensure the order set remains up to date based on any changes to medication recommendations, shortages, and/or doses. Standardization will also optimize nursing response by simplifying their actions to a more consistent approach, vs being drug specific. Please review the proposed guideline and let us know if there are any strong objections or patient population specific factors that need to be considered. If no comments are received by 11/13/20, we will move to update existing order sets/order panels with this proposed protocol.  
 
If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to the pediatric pharmacy and/or Chris Falato (Chris.Falato@unchealth.unc.edu).
Exciting News!
Child Neurology
Dr. Yael Shiloh-Malawsky, Director of the Child Neurology Residency Program, has received approval to expand the number of child neurology residency positions to 2 per year.
Pediatric Hospital Medicine
The Department of Pediatric will have a new subspecialty residency program in Pediatric Hospital Medicine beginning next year. The Pediatric Hospital Medicine Division will welcome the two inaugural fellows in July 2021Jen Fuchs, Lindsay Chase and Kenya McNealTrice are leading efforts to develop the fellowship program and attain ACGEM accreditation.
Please Congratulate our Newly Promoted Faculty!
Pediatric Critical Care Medicine
Promotion from Associate Professor to Professor
  • Dr. Joyner is the Division Chief of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, the Vice Chair of Quality and Safety, the Director, Clinical Skills and Patient Simulation Center and the Chief Quality Officer for UNC Children’s
Pediatric Division of Pulmonology
Promotion from Associate Professor to Professor
  • Dr. Loughlin is the Medical Director of the Children's Specialty Clinic in Raleigh and the Medical Director, NC Children’s Allergy & Asthma Center
Division of Child Neurology
Promotion from Associate Professor to Professor
  • Dr. Fan focuses on Child neurology, pediatric sleep disorders, pediatric neuromuscular disorders and neurogenetic disorders. Her research interests include gene therapy in muscular dystrophy, pediatric sleep disorders, and neurogenetics.
Division of Child Neurology
Promotion from Associate Professor to Professor
  • Dr. Gershon works in child neurology and pediatric neuro-oncology. His research interests focus on the neurobiology of cerebellar development and medulloblastoma
Hagood Elected to American Pediatric Society
Dr. James Hagood, a Professor in the Pediatric Pulmonology Division, was recently elected to the American Pediatric Society (APS). APS is one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious academic medical societies. Dr. Hagood has demonstrated strong, sustained leadership in child health, mainly in the area of advancing our understanding of interstitial, fibrotic and rare lung disease pathophysiology in children. These heterogeneous and usually severe disorders are often grouped under the acronym “chILD” (childhood interstitial lung diseases).

While individually rare, these disorders form a significant part of the clinical and research portfolio of the discipline of Pediatric Pulmonology. Dr. Hagood’s career focus in basic research has been in understanding the biology of pulmonary fibrosis, which is the final (and often fatal) stage of many interstitial lung diseases. Dr. Hagood did early pioneering work in the molecular basis of fibroblast heterogeneity relevant to fibrosis. Part of that work demonstrated the importance of epigenetic regulation of cell phenotypes, and Dr. Hagood has leveraged that understanding to explore epigenetic regulation of lung alveolar development. As a result of his research, our understanding of the cellular and molecular pathophysiology of ILD has grown substantially. Dr. Hagood has also been a tireless advocate for improving chILD clinical care and research, and for mentoring pediatric pulmonary physician scientists.
IHQI Improvement Scholars Program

We would like to encourage talented clinicians who want to improve clinical care, learn improvement science and develop leadership skills to consider applying for Improvement Scholars.
 
The UNC Institute for Healthcare Quality Improvement (IHQI) invites letters of intent from clinicians interested in IHQI’s Improvement Scholars Program. Letters are due Dec 3, 2020.
 
Improvement Scholars is a structured, experiential learning program. Improvement Scholars learn clinical improvement leadership by proposing, designing and leading a project with guidance and support from experienced clinical improvement leaders. IHQI provides project management and mentorship to Improvement Scholars.
 
Projects are intended to improve clinical care and outcomes for a population of patients by implementing proven and/or expert-recommended strategies and approaches.
 
Selected Improvement Scholars will participate in the program and lead a clinical improvement project from Sep 1, 2021 – Aug 31, 2022.
 
Application Process
The first step in the application process is to submit a letter of intent. If your letter of intent meets initial selection criteria, you will be invited to submit a full project proposal. The full application and more details are available here.
Please contact Laura Brown laura.brown@unchealth.unc.edu for more information.
Check Out These New Publications
Kathy Bradford, MD - Pediatric Hospital Medicine - contributed as an author and participated in the conceptualization of "Challenging Cases in Pediatric Hospital Medicine". Other Pediatrics faculty, Drs. Sarah Adams, Daniel Lercher and Jennifer Vincent, also authored chapters in the newly published book.

Cynthia Powell, MD - Pediatric Genetics & Metabolism - The results of a 5-year NIH-funded research study, with co-principal investigator Jonathan Berg (Department of Genetics), that investigated the utility of genomic sequencing in newborn screening are published in the October issue of the American Journal of Human Genetics (Roman et al. PMID: 32853555). The project, North Carolina Newborn Exome Sequencing for Universal Screening (NC NEXUS), examined the potential benefits and limitations of using this technology and how it may impact future approaches to precision medicine.  

Megan Rabuli, PhD - Pediatric Division of Allergy/Immunology and the Center for Environmental Medicine, Asthma and Lung Biology - is first author on the recently published "E-cigarette Use Alters Nasal Mucosal Immune Response to Live-Attenuated Influenza Virus (LAIV)" in the American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology with Terry Noah, MD in Pediatric Pulmonology and senior author Ilona Jaspers, PhD in the Pediatric Division of Allergy/Immunology and the Center for Environmental Medicine, Asthma and Lung Biology.

Evelyn Wu, MD - Pediatric Rheumatology - ongoing research was cited in the article "Researchers Seek ANCA-Associated Vasculitis Subtype Markers" in The Rheumatologist. The article quotes Dr. Wu and references her earlier publication (Measuring circulating complement activation products in myeloperoxidase and proteinase 3 antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody vasculitis. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2019 Nov;71(11):1894–1903.)
The Living Room Conversations - Election 2020

This will be an interesting week as we work to navigate the results of the upcoming election. The 2020 Presidential Election brought unprecedented attention to our political system and put our differences into stark reality. Many observed that in the past four years, we’ve become even more divided as a country. Many have also been working toward restoring relationships around shared hopes and dreams, seeking to get our country re-focused on the work of governing and finding common ground. Now, after another socially polarized election, this conversation allows us to start exploring ‘what’s next.’ While we have our differences, let’s look for deeper unities we can rest upon and promote, such as Generosity, Kindness, Dignity, Respect, Freedom and Equity. And let’s explore how common values and a shared desire to solve common problems might help us move forward together.

To help us prepare for the emotions that come with an election Diversity, Equity and Inclusive (DEI) is holding “The Living Room Conversations”- aimed to highlight and inspire unity through having important conversations, especially when we may disagree with one another. The Date/Time are TBD. The format includes a large group open session for 10 min with small group breakouts for 40 min and a large group close for 10 min. More details will follow...
Diversity Spotlight: Dr. Stuart Gold

Stuart Gold was destined to become a doctor. At the tender age of just two, he had a prescient realization while observing his pediatrician uncle making house calls. So impressed was he by his uncle's demonstration of service to their Atlanta...

Read more
diversity.unc.edu
Announcing the Santa Sack Program!

More than 100 children will spend their holidays in the hospital this year. With needed visitor restrictions, it’s a great year to make their time a little better by choosing something from this Amazon wish list. The Santa Sack program is an excellent way to support our patients throughout the holidays, while minimizing risks for the patients, staff and donors themselves.

12 Years of Success -The Healthcare Transition Conference
The 12th Annual Healthcare Transition Conference was a big success this year. There were around 150 attendees! Being virtual allowed for many more international presentations/posters.

The conference is part of the STARx Program. Founded in 2006, the main focus of the program is to develop and improve self-management skills and disease knowledge among adolescents and young adults with chronic health conditions. The program has self-management and transition readiness assessment tools that identify areas of knowledge and skill deficits among patients ages 12 and older. The program is for patients as well as providers seeking to support their patients.

Many congratulations to Dr. Maria E. Diaz-Gonzalez de Ferris, Professor of Pediatrics and Director/Founder of STARx, on the ongoing and increasing success of this important service to children and young adults.
The UNC Children’s COVID-19 Squad
UNC Children's Hospital

The COVID-19 Squad is a multidisciplinary group that has been working collaboratively to develop algorithms for the evaluation and management of children with acute COVID-19 infection and the COVID-19-related MIS-C. Members include faculty from Pediatric Critical Care (Benny Joyner, MD, MPH, Becky Smith, MD, Jenny Boyd, MD, Afsaneh Pirzadeh, MD), Pediatric Infectious Diseases (Zach Willis, MD, MPH), Pediatric Pulmonology (Tim Vece, MD, Jim Hagood, MD), Pediatric Cardiology (Ryan Shea, MD), Pediatric Hematology/Oncology (Yasmina Abajas, MD, George Hucks, MD), Pediatric Emergency Medicine (Cheryl Jackson, MD, Dan Park, MD), Hospital Pediatrics (Lindsay Chase, MD), Pediatric Allergy/Immunology (David Peden, MD, Tim Moran, MD, PhD), and Pediatric Rheumatology (Eve Wu, MD, MSCR, Aliese Sarkissian, MD, MBOE). In true UNC Children’s spirit, they have spent hours to ensure UNC Children’s is providing the most comprehensive and up-to-date care for children across the state!
Farewell and Congratulations to Suzan Henson!
In October, the folks in Pediatric Emergency Medicine celebrated PEM Pioneer, Suzan Henson, BSN, RN, CPEN, FNE in appreciation for her many years of service and unwavering dedication to providing the highest standard of care to all sick and injured children in the UNC Pediatric Emergency Department.

We're sorry to see Suzan go! We are grateful for the time, effort, and care she's shared with us and with her patients.