I am excited to highlight many of our accomplishments through the Department of Pediatrics FY20 Annual Report.

I am truly proud of our achievements this year. The report covers activities in the Department of Pediatrics from July 2019 through June 2020.

Lizzy Burch, MSW, LCSW has been named Manager of the Women’s, Children’s, and Medicine teams for Care Management. We are excited to welcome Lizzy into this new role but will certainly miss her in the newborn nursery!

Also, we are pleased to announce that, beginning January 4, 2021, Bethany Bivens, MSW, LCSW, will be the new Clinical Social Worker on 4W, 5W, 6W, and in the Newborn Nursery. Bethany has been working on the Medicine team for the past year and was previously at UNCH as a graduate student in the NCCC.

Pediatric Echocardiology Lab ICAEL Accredited

We are pleased to announce that the UNC Pediatric Echocardiography Laboratory had been granted re-accreditation by the Intersocietal Accreditation Commission (IAC). This re-accreditation extends through December 2023 and covers the laboratory at the UNC Children's Hospital as well as at Carolina Children’s Cardiology – Cary and at UNC Children's Cardiology at Raleigh.

We could only achieve this with all the hard work of our excellent sonographers and all the physicians involved in our ongoing echocardiology quality improvement process. We extend special thanks to Gary Stupp, Sonographer & Technical Director of the lab, for his help. The Pediatric Cardiology team looks forward to continuing to improve our work and provide the best imaging for our patients.

UNC School of Medicine and the NC Division of Social Services have partnered since the late 1970s to support the NC Child Medical Evaluation Program (CEMP). NC CMEP provides education to NC CPS Social Workers and Medical Providers regarding the medical aspects of child abuse and neglect. NC CMEP also maintains a roster of medical providers who are experts in the evaluation and management of suspected child maltreatment. We are excited to announce that NC Child Medical Evaluation Program will be expanding to include 8 regionally based Social Workers. These new positions will be co-supervised by NC CMEP and the NC Division of Social Services. The scope of work will include improvements in CPS assessments that overlap with the medical profession including young children with serious injuries and substance affected infants.

This was an excellent year for our Match! While some pediatric subspecialty programs in the Triangle were not as fortunate, we are thrilled to report that all of the fellowship programs in Pediatrics at UNC were successful in filling 100% of the available slots with a new group of exceptional Pediatricians. Here is a listing of all of the fellows joining us in the next academic year - click the image for more details.

Our residents were also very successful in the Match this year. Check out all the places they will go in 2021!

Second Year Pediatric Resident, Christel Wekon-Kemeni, MD was accepted to this year’s cohort of the Academic Pediatric Association’s New Century Scholars! The New Century Scholars Resident Mentoring Program, supported by the APA, APS, and ABP, is a mentorship program aimed at increasing the diversity of the academic pediatric workforce.

We are so honored that Dr. Wekon-Kemeni has been invited to participate in this competitive program.

Randaline Barnett, MD, a PGY-5 resident in Neurosurgery, won the prestigious American Academy of Pediatrics – Section of Neurological Surgery award for her presentation entitled “Implementation Of Telemedicine In Pediatric Neurosurgical Practice During The COVID-19 Pandemic: Does Virtual Care Perpetuate Health Care Disparities?” at the annual AANS/CNS Joint Section of Pediatric Neurosurgery on December 4, 2020. Her presentation highlights the question of inequities in health care in the current virtual environment.

In addition to her award winning presentation, she was an invited speaker to the Top Abstract Discussion – Developmental Anomalies Panel to discuss her other presentation “Prophylactic Antiepileptic Administration Significantly Reduces Postoperative Seizures In Patients Undergoing ETV/CPC”

The Hospice/Palliative Medicine Fellowship Program received a $40,000 grant from the Ho/Chiang Foundation to help establish a Pediatrics track in the fellowship. UNC the fifth program in the country to receive this grant. Many thanks for those who helped support us in receiving GME approval to permanently add a 4th fellowship position for this track.

We are excited that an outstanding resident from Riley Children's Hospital will be our first fellow on the pediatric track, starting July of 2021. We are sure that Dr. Elisabeth Dellon and her palliative care team will lead us to offer one of the highest quality pediatric palliative care fellowship training programs in the country.

Congratulations to Dr. Stephanie Davis on receiving the Passion, Care and Dedication (PCD) Award. Dr. Davis was honored for "demonstrating outstanding work in the education, diagnosis, prevention, treatment and cure of primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD)" by the PCD Foundation.

Thanks to a a very generous gift from a patient family and matching funds from the Children's Research Institute, Dr. Eve Wu, Associate Professor of Pediatrics & Division Chief of Pediatric Rheumatology, along with Dr. Tim Vece, Associate Professor of Pediatrics & Medical Director of the UNC Children's Airway Center, will be initiating an Idiopathic Pulmonary Capillaritis registry at UNC.

Funding for the program begins January 2021. A portion of the funds will support faculty time dedicated to the project. The initial grant is expected to sustain the project for 18 months while the family is engaged in further fund raising to maintain the project for at least 4 years.

The Academy of Educators has expressed appreciation for Dr. Eric Zwemer, Associate Professor in the Division of Hospital Pediatrics, for his strong work in creating and facilitating the 2020 – 2021 Teaching As a Resident: Highlighting the Evidence and Enthusiasm of Learning (TARHEEL) Program.

Phillip W. Clapp, PhD - Pediatric Allergy/Immunology - Dr. Clapp, in collaboration with Emily E. Sickbert-Bennett, PhD, MS with the UNC Health Care, Infection Prevention Department, recently had his work "Evaluation of Cloth Masks and Modified Procedure Masks as Personal Protective Equipment for the Public During the COVID-19 Pandemic" published in JAMA Intern Med.

Tim Moran, MD, PhD - Allergy/Immunology - Dr. Moran was awarded Boost funding from the School of Medicine Office of Research in the amount of $25,000 for his proposal "Role of the Indoor Exposome in Peanut Allergy Development."

Melissa Bauserman, MD, MPH; Jackie Patterson, MD, MPH; and Carl Bose, MD - Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine - These Global Health team members have recently authored several manuscripts describing their work.

Bauserman, M., Thorsten, V.R., Nolen, T.L. et al. Maternal mortality in six low and lower-middle income countries from 2010 to 2018: risk factors and trends. Reprod Health17, 173 (2020). https://reproductive-health-journal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12978-020-00990-z

Bauserman, M., Nowak, K., Nolen, T.L. et al. The relationship between birth intervals and adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes in six low and lower-middle income countries. Reprod Health17, 157 (2020). https://reproductive-health-journal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12978-020-01008-4

Jackie K. Patterson, Sakina Girnary, Krysten North, Santorino Data, Daniel Ishoso, Joar Eilevstjønn and Carl L. Bose. Innovations in Cardiorespiratory Monitoring to Improve Resuscitation With Helping Babies Breathe. Pediatrics October 2020, 146 (Supplement 2) S155-S164; DOI: https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/146/Supplement_2/S155

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.

Mrs. Tonia Orr, our beloved Certified Nurse Assistant, has tirelessly and without much fanfare, created and distributed masks and face shields from the beginning of the pandemic. She has used her personal resources to help make our space safer for our staff and patients. Not only has she looked out for us, but she has also distributed PPE to other front-line staff in Children's Urgent Care, as well as at other hospitals, grocery stores, and fast-food restaurants across the state. Her enthusiasm and optimism are a marvel and it’s impossible not to smile around her. On behalf of the entire Pediatric Emergency Department team, we thank you, Tonia, for your unwavering dedication and service. We are so lucky to have you in our family!