2020 - December Edition
D. Rajasekhar, MD, FAAP
AAP-CA2 President
President's Message

Dear fellow pediatricians and chapter members,

Help is on the way to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, with the FDA approval of vaccine this week. It is sad that many lives were lost this year because of this pandemic.
2020 is coming to an end with multiple holidays to celebrate.
“Wish you all Happy Holidays and a wonderful New Year”.

I would like to welcome our new chapter members and encourage them to join any of our various committees.
 
Changes to our affiliation with the AAPCA: I would like to let you know that our Chapter board voted to withdraw our membership with the AAPCA (The 501c4 corporation). We are not withdrawing from AAP District IX. Read more > >

Our Chapter is now recruiting practices to participate in two AAP-sponsored ECHO projects offering CME credit. The Telehealth ECHO and the Project Firstline ECHO Projects will begin January 2021. These will be engaging discussions held during the lunch hour. If your practice is interested in taking part in these projects, please see the ECHO section below or contact Tomas at chapter2@aap-ca2.org for details.
 
Melissa Ruiz, MD, FAAP, Pediatrician from Ventura is featured in this month's Member Spotlight. Anila Chaudhary, MD from UCLA is featured in the Residency Corner. I hope to see more of you participate and make this part of the newsletter interesting, by submitting your personal narratives to be published.  Please read the submission guidelines below and contact chapter2@aap-ca2.org for more information.

I would like to welcome Chris Cabunag as the newest member of our team. Chris is the new Chapter 2 Administrative Assistant and will be an integral part of our projects.
 
Our next Advances in Pediatrics Symposium will take place virtually via Zoom on February 27, 2021 - broadcast from Tamkin Auditorium at UCLA. Please save the date. We have a plenary session with nationally recognized scientist and vaccine advocate Paul A. Offit, MD to address SARS-CoV-2 vaccines, and many other distinguished speakers on other topics. I also encourage you to look into all upcoming lectures mentioned on this newsletter, and watch the topics that may interest you.

Best wishes,
D. Rajasekhar, MD, FAAP
Kris Calvin to Depart AAP California
After 30 years of indispensable service, Kris Calvin, the CEO of AAPCA has decided to retire. Her last day will be January 6, 2021. Under her direction, our District has worked tirelessly to advocate on behalf of children in all of California.
Kris has supported our State Government Affairs (SGA) Committees, organized our annual Legislative Days in Sacramento, and taught pediatricians how to speak to legislators on important child-related bills.

Beginning in 2001, Kris trained hundreds of pediatric residents on child advocacy skills as part of their residency curriculum, and she is the reason many residency graduates join the AAP and get involved. Her achievements include working on SB 277 and 276, the vaccine bills, and getting them passed. Kris is also a successful mystery book author and in retirement plans to dedicate her time to writing. We are ever so grateful for the time she spent with AAP District IX, and we will miss her!
 
Our Chapter 2 leadership wants to assure our members that we will continue to support our statewide advocacy efforts. We have many advocacy leaders in our chapter who are active both locally and at the state level. Over the next few months, we will work with the other California chapters to strengthen our leadership at the District level. Please feel free to reach out with any questions you may have about this transition.
All That Fall: A Thriller (Emma Lawson Mystery) By Kris Calvin
Kris will continue pursuing her gift of writing and launch 2 new fiction books, one of which you can pre-order today! “I can’t say yet whether being an author will be my new career,” she said. “But to give it the best chance, I want to show my new publisher that I can create a “buzz” around my first book with them by jump-starting sales.”

 
Member Spotlight Articles
The Member Spotlight is written to highlight our chapter membership. Chapter members can submit personal narratives about themselves with a focus on how they maintain their physician wellness in the face of everyday struggles and challenges. Authors may also choose to highlight a practice, volunteer activities, QI projects, etc. The purpose of the spotlight series is to encourage and foster unity and support within the chapter.
Member Spotlight - Ventura County
The Long Days of Winter 
Melissa Ruiz, MD, FAAP

I’m a morning person, so the earlier sunshine is just what the doctor ordered for my early mornings! Getting up and exercising helps me start my day with much more positive energy and gives me the patience to work with my partner to get our three boys ready and two of them to where they need to be. These days, that is constantly changing and that has been challenging for our two full-time working parent family. Read more > >


Please Share Your Story
The AAP-CA2 Newsletter Committee is asking you:
-- The days are getting shorter, but the work hours seem to be getting longer. What do you do to stay balanced during the busy winter respiratory season?


Residency Corner
The Residency Corner is dedicated to highlighting resident voices and providing an opportunity to find peer connections across the residency programs in the chapter. It is a space for residents to publish articles on their topics of interest. Submissions from all areas are welcome, including sharing ideas to stay socially connected during residency, describing personal hobbies or passions, highlighting resident research or QI projects, describing advocacy efforts, or providing advice and perspective on transitions during residency. The Residency Corner will rotate monthly to showcase a representative from each of the residency programs in the chapter.
Name: Anila Chaudhary, MD
Year in Residency: PGY3
Residency Program: UCLA Mattel Children's Hospital 
Medical School: Johns Hopkins School of Medicine 
Hometown: Upper Darby, Pennsylvania

A Recent Meaningful Moment in Residency
I recently took care of an adolescent patient with complex psychosocial issues, who is not typically comfortable opening up about her concerns with her providers. Read more > >
CATCH Grants
2021 CATCH Grant Cycle opens November 4, 2020
The CATCH Call for Proposals will be open November 4, 2020 through January 27, 2021 at 3:00pm CST. Funds are available for pediatrician-led community-based programs that address a wide variety of child health issues.

Application Deadline is January 27, 2021 @ 3:00pm CST
If you have an idea to make a difference in your community, consider applying for a CATCH grant! The CATCH Program is a national initiative of the AAP that supports pediatricians to collaborate within their communities to advance the health of all children. Through the CATCH Program, pediatricians are empowered to identify promising solutions that work in their individual communities. The application can be found at https://www.aap.org/en-us/advocacy-and-policy/aap-health-initiatives/commpeds/catch/Pages/CATCH-Grants.aspx 

If you have questions, please reach out to your CATCH Chapter Facilitators Melissa Ruiz (ruizmj@gmail.com) or Christine Thang (cthang@mednet.ucla.edu), or staff at CATCH@aap.org.

Thank you for what you do on behalf of children!
Project ECHO - News!
Attention all pediatricians and pediatric subspecialists

AAP-CA2 has been approved as an official Project ECHO Hub (Structured webinars that include a lecture, case presentation and group discussion). We have received funding from the AAP and the CDC to conduct two specific projects:

  • Telehealth ECHO Project - Starts 3rd Week in January 2021
  • Infection Prevention and Control ECHO Project - Starts 4th Week in January 2021

We are now recruiting 10 - 15 practices.

We thank the San Bernardino County Medical Society (SBCMS) for partnering with us to make a greater impact in San Bernardino County. Members from all counties are invited to participate. More details to come. Sign up below to get on the list.
TELEHEALTH
Begins 3rd Week in January 2021
1-Hour lunch sessions every 2 weeks
SESSION TOPICS
  1. Telehealth 101 During COVID (Successful visit/Practice Workflow)
  2. Telehealth 102. (Legal/Coding/Regulations)
  3. Telehealth Platforms/Technical difficulties
  4. Telehealth for Preventive Care
  5. Social/Cultural Considerations
  6. Telehealth After COVID-19
PROJECT FIRSTLINE
Infection Prevention & Control
Begins 4th Week in January 2021
1-Hour lunch sessions every 2 weeks
Session Topics
  1. Basics of COVID-19 Transmission
  2. Transmission-based Precautions
  3. Recognizing Risk in your Daily Work
  4. Applying IPC Guidance for COVID-19 at your clinic
Resources
COVID-19 Dashboards by County
Los Angeles County Immigrant Youth Resource Toolkit
The Immigrant Youth Task Force (IYTF) at UCLA and the American Academy of Pediatrics California Chapter 2 (AAP-CA2) invite you to visit The Los Angeles County Immigrant Youth Resource Toolkit, a website consolidating community resources in the greater LA area for immigrant youth and families. Our goal is to help professionals from all disciplines address the needs of their immigrant youth patients/clients with regards to health care, legal services, education, social services, and more. As our toolkit continues to evolve, we encourage you to explore and use it in your practice going forward.
To All Pediatricians in San Bernardino County
ARE YOU UTILIZING ACES AWARE TOOLS TO IMPROVE THE HEALTH OF YOUR PATIENTS?

Receive $29 per visit reimbursement for each Medi-Cal office visit

To All Pediatricians in San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura County
The Landon Pediatric Foundation received a grant from ACEs Aware to provide supplemental training to providers in Ventura County (and neighboring counties). Through this funding, the ACEs Aware Ventura County training initiative was launched in partnership with the American Academy of Pediatrics- Chapter 2, First 5 Ventura County (Help Me Grow Ventura County), and the Ventura County Health Care Agency... Read more >>>

Learn about the 3-Tiered Medi-Cal Provider Training Reward System, here
Learn about the implementation steps, here
Now Recruiting Providers in Riverside County
Are you a pediatrician in Riverside County? Through a generous grant from First 5 Riverside, the AAP Chapter 2 can provide free books and support to start a Reach Out and Read program at your clinic.
Reach Out and Read works directly with pediatric providers to share the lifelong benefits that result from families reading aloud to their children every day. Through Reach Out and Read, pediatric teams can provide new, age- and language-appropriate books and share literacy advice with children and parents at each well-child visit. Contact our Reach Out and Read Coordinator, Staci Scranton, at info@reachoutandreadie.org or (909) 709-1441.

Visit our website
Watch our new video!
Latest Podcast Episode
"A Good Time To Be Born"
 
It’s easy to think that the way we think about children and parenting is the way it’s always been — the birth of a child is accompanied by the expectation that that baby will grow up happy, healthy, and become an adult. However, a mere century ago that wasn’t necessarily the case. So what changed? How has the role of parenting transformed? Dr. Perri Klass, author of the new book "A Good Time to Be Born", joins us to talk about the social, and medical, events that transformed childhood and parenting.
Support your Chapter and Reach Out and Read on Amazon

Use this link to select us as your charitable organization at AmazonSmile. Then for every eligible purchase you make at AmazonSmile, the AmazonSmile Foundation will donate 0.5% of the purchase price to us.

Upcoming Events
January 7 | ACEs Aware LA Lecture Series
Save the date for January 7, 2021 at 6:00 PM as First 5 LA and AAP-CA2 bring to you the ACEs Aware Peer-to-Peer Lecture Series.

January 7 - ACEs Science – The Physiology of Toxic Stress
  • Christine Thang, MD, FAAP
February 11 - ACEs Policy, Advocacy, and the Future of Trauma-Informed Pediatric Practice
  • Adam Schickedanz, MD

March 18 - After screening: Building ACEs Response Interventions and Overcoming Barriers to Referrals.
  • Carlo DeAntonio, MD, FAAP

April 22 - Burnout prevention/Multigenerational trauma
  • Nirupama Madduri, MD, FAAP
  • Adwoa Osei, MD

January 14 | CHOC Children's Lecture Series
CHOC Children’s Virtual Pediatric Lecture Series provides online CME lectures at no cost. All lectures are at 12:30 PM. Click the links to register.


February 27, 2021 | 32nd Annual Virtual Symposium
Broadcast live from
Tamkin Auditorium at UCLA
Saturday, February 27
7:00 AM - 3:30 PM

Sponsored by
UCLA Child and Family Health Leadership Training Program
Keynote Speaker
Paul A. Offit, MD
Welcome New Chapter Members
Welcome the following NEW members who joined the Chapter in November

  • Kamakshi Devarajan, MD, FAAP - (Rancho Palos Verdes)
  • Carol DeWalt, MD, FAAP - (Torrance)
  • Kelsey Donoho, MD, FAAP - (Houston)
  • James Fritzell, MD, FAAP - (Long Beach)
  • Cecily Gallup, MD - (Pacific Palisades)
  • Meredith Glickman, MD, FAAP - (Oak Park)
  • Katherine Knox-Concepcion - (Loma Linda
  • Ariane Marie-Mitchell, MD - (Pittsford)
  • Jonathan Maynard, MD, FAAP - (Hermosa Beach)
  • Denise Nunez, MD - (Los Angeles
  • Japmeet Sandhu - (Irvine)
  • Maulin Soneji, MD, FAAP - (Loma Linda)
  • Anne Zepeda-Tiscareno, MD, FAAP - (Alhambra)

Thank you for your support!
Chapter Committees and Sections
Chapter committees are great opportunities to get involved in areas that interest you the most. Furthermore, if you are a Fellow member (FAAP), local involvement could position you for leadership opportunities at National AAP. To learn more about our various Committees and Sections, and to sign up, please visit aapca2.org/committees.
New: ADVOCACY
Be the voice in your County. Share local issues that need to be addressed with grassroots efforts. Sign-up here
New: CLIMATE CHANGE
Join discussions on what pediatricians can do to address climate change in our region. Sign-up here
New: MEDIA and COMMUNICATIONS
Do you have an interest in media and communications? Would you like to learn how to structure sound bytes when speaking with the media? Or perhaps how to be a more effective Tweetrician? . Sign-Up here
VAPING and E-CIGARETTES
Engage in the process of local ordinances implementing strict tobacco control. Learn about speaking opportunities at schools to inform/educate students and parents. Sign-up here
Article Submissions
Article submissions will be reviewed on a rolling basis. The newsletter is published the second Sunday of each month.
Please view all Newsletter issues online at https://aapca2.org/publications/
 
You may direct questions and article submissions to the "American Academy of Pediatrics - CA Chapter 2" <chapter2@aap-ca.org>.

The AAP-CA2 Newsletter Editorial Review Board
Established in July 2020. Its goals are to highlight educational content and resources of value to chapter members and to showcase our chapter membership.