Dear Colleagues,
I hope that each of you have had a wonderful start to the fall! We continue to have a number of initiatives occurring within UNC Children’s. Our strategic planning process is going well with a new Vision and Mission statement.
Our Vision is
Transforming care and inspiring hope for all children.
Our Mission is
To promote the health of all children through compassionate family-centered care, tireless advocacy, scientific discovery, and education of future leaders.
We have three active working groups: Triangle Growth, Statewide Network Optimization and Research/Innovation. Our strategic planning should be finalized soon. I would like to thank all that have been involved.
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On September 6
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, we had our Division Chiefs retreat. The Chiefs presented their strategic plans for the next several years. I would like to thank each Chief for their leadership and commitment to Children’s.
As you have likely noted, we are now sending weekly announcements of Departmental events each Friday. This weekly announcement includes lectures, grant opportunities and other important deadlines. We hope this will improve communication within our Department and reduce duplicate emails.
Finally, please attend our New Faculty Welcome Reception at the Carolina Club on October 3
rd
at 5:30 PM. I look forward to seeing you there.
Thank you for all that you do!
With sincere gratitude,
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Pediatric Missions Update
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Please welcome our new faculty!
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William Stoudemire, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor,
Pediatric Pulmonology
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Dr. Stoudemire is well known to the Department of Pediatrics; he completed his Doctor of Medicine with Distinction here at the UNC and went on to join the Pediatrics Residency program, serving as Chief Resident in 2015. He later completed a Quality and Safety Fellowship at the UNC Institute for Healthcare Quality Improvement while also completing a Pulmonary Fellowship in 2019.
Dr. Stoudemire will focus on Quality Improvement, UNC
Children’s Pediatric Lung Transplant, as well as Cone Outreach Clinics for Pediatric Pulmonology.
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Please congratulate our newly promoted faculty!
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Kori Flower, MD, MS, MPH
Clinical Professor
General Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine
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Dr. Flower was promoted to Clinical Professor effective August 14. 2019. Dr. Flower is a general pediatrician with expertise in preventative medicine and quality improvement. She is interested in multiple public health issues involving children.
She works with Population Health Improvement Partners as a Senior Improvement Advisor. Dr. Flower has provided expertise in measurement for an oral health collaborative and maternal and child multi-state projects.
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In Other Clinical News...
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Effective September 2019, UNC Children’s Hospital Pediatric Pre-Care Clinic moved to the second floor of Children’s Hospital in the Children’s PCS. Appointments are available on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Currently, it is focused on cardiac surgery, neurosurgery, and dental surgery preoperative anesthesia evaluations. In the past, pre-care visits for children were combined with adult surgical patients. This is a big win for children and the Children’s surgical program. If there are questions please contact:
Pediatric Anesthesiology
919-923-6714
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The
NCCC Angel Eye Camera was installed nearly two years ago and has given families and loved ones the ability to view infants in our UNC NCCC from remote locations. Nearly 2000 individuals have signed up, viewing their infants from almost every state in the USA and from many countries around the world.
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Congratulations to our Cystic Fibrosis team who were recently awarded the 2019 Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s Quality Care Award:
Recognizing Outstanding QI Processes and Accomplishments.
This initiative was led by Dr. Elisabeth Dellon, CF Center Director, Dr. George Retsch-Bogart, Dr. Scott Donaldson and Dr. Jennifer Goralski.
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Pediatric Anesthesiologist and Perinatology-Neonatology had the first combined Journal Club in September and it was a tremendous success! What a great demonstration of UNC Children’s Hospital services coming together to promote fellow education and improve patient care and organize like unified children’s services across departments. A special thanks to Dr. Price and Dr. Lupa for making this event happen and to Dr. Pittenger for sending this in.
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In the 2018-2019 academic year, our pediatrics residents and students had exceptional scholarship achievement with 113 posters and platform presentations at national and regional conferences
The Education office is in the midst of reviewing residency applications for interview season. Resident Interviews begin October 25
th
, however, faculty volunteers are still needed to interview candidates for Pediatrics and Med-Peds residencies.
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As a Department, we've had a productive research year!
We had 124 new grant submissions with 170 current active awards this year. Half of our divisions have NIH funded research faculty and approximately ¼ of our faculty have >50% of their time funded for research. We have six faculty on junior faculty K awards and Matt Laughon received a K24. In addition to the research funding, our faculty published 348 peer reviewed manuscripts and wrote over 40 book chapters. The Children’s Research Institute has had tremendous growth with now over 25 trials either underway or proposed.
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Congratulations to
Dr. Charles Esther and Dr. Ronit Freeman
, who will receive the NC TraCS $5-$50K Notice of Grant Award for their investigation “Understanding the mechanisms of mucus flake formation.”
Congratulations to
Dr. Katherine Clement, who will receive an NIH grant to fund her project,
"PROSpect (PRoneand OScillation Pediatric Clinical Trial)", a two-by-two factorial, response-adaptive, randomized controlled clinical trial of supine/prone positioning and CMV/HFOV. This clinical trial will provide the definitive evidence necessary for the field to consider a major change in clinical practice in the care of critically ill children with severe PARDS.
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Congratulations to
Dr. Andrew Smitherman who was awarded a two-year, $200,000 Hyundai Young Investigator Grant to research approaches to identifying patients most at risk for late stage side-effects.
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REMINDER:
The
CRI
will host its Open House this Tuesday, October 1st
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Save the Date!
A full day clinical symposium on the State of Transgender Health at UNC will occur on October 25
th
at the Carolina Ballroom in Morrisville. Dr. Nina Jain has helped put together a fantastic line-up of speakers discussing patient care from pediatrics through adulthood, including psychological support, medical care and surgical management. A variety of professional credits will be offered for attending.
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October is LGBT History Month. There's more to come in the Diversity Memo later this week. Dr. Gold will guide us through best practices for communicating with patients and families.
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Our unsung hero this month is nominated by Dr. Molly Berkoff.
Jessica Guice-Albritton is the newest member of the NC Child Medical Evaluation Program (CMEP), a statewide system to train, register and reimburse providers from across the state on child abuse evaluations. She is the new CMEP Program Manager in the Child Maltreatment Section of the Division of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. Before joining us at UNC, Jessica was a child welfare supervisor and child welfare state policy team member. Jessica has already been a critical part of improvements in office management as well as provider support. Jessica has developed a strong connection with the Medicaid Policy team and has assisted with multiple provider enhancements such as electronic submission of CQI reports, reimbursement for advanced practice providers, and other elements frequently needed for assessments of child maltreatment. When she’s not in the office, Jessica is traveling the state providing training to all new NC DSS social workers on the medical aspects of child maltreatment. We are very lucky to have her as part of the team!
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