September 2023

Dear friends,

We had a very busy and exciting September! We are thrilled that the State has invested $320 million in creating a freestanding children’s hospital! We are starting to organize our approach to planning. This will be a long, but exciting process. This investment coupled with Medicaid expansion will transform care for children in NC.

Please save the date for our UNC Children’s Year in Review on December 14^th at 8am. We will be reviewing our accomplishments over the past 5 years and our vision for the future!

I want to personally thank Dr. Alan Stiles who will be retiring after serving as a UNC School of Medicine faculty member for over 35 years. He currently serves as the Senior Vice President for Network Development and System Affiliations. He served as the Chair of the Department of Pediatrics and Physician in Chief of NC Children’s Hospital from 2000-2011. Under his leadership, we moved into our current Children’s Hospital, and he helped to establish the national reputation of the Department. Prior to 2000, Dr. Stiles served as a neonatology faculty member. Personally, I enjoyed working with Alan as a junior faculty member in the early 2000s and he served as an exceptional sponsor of my career. Congratulations Dr. Stiles, we are thankful for your leadership!

I also want to congratulate Dr. Margaret (Magee) Leigh on her retirement! She served as a UNC School of Medicine faculty member for over 40 years in the pediatric pulmonology division. Throughout her tenure, she has provided care for children with chronic lung diseases, taught medical students, residents and pulmonary fellows and engaged in research of chronic lung diseases with a specific focus on CF and PCD. She also served as Vice Chair for the Department under the leadership of Dr. Stiles. Dr. Leigh has had an incredible impact on the care of hundreds of children and families in North Carolina, nationally and internationally. Personally, I will miss Magee who has served as a mentor, colleague and close friend of mine!

I also want to congratulate Eve Hammett who is the new Director of Children’s Inpatient Services! Eve has been with UNC Hospitals since 2022 and most recently served as the Director of Women’s Services and Interim Director of Children’s Services. Eve’s background includes over 15 years of progressive clinical and leadership experience. We are excited to continue working with you, Eve!

I want to share that Dr. Martha Perry has moved to a new position at Children’s National in Washington, DC, where she will be leading their Eating Disorders program. Dr. Perry joined our General Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine program in 2017, where she served as Section Director of Adolescent Medicine and Director of Outpatient Quality and Safety for UNC Children’s. She was also an Associate Program Director for the pediatric education leadership team, serving as a class advisor. We will miss her and wish her the best of luck! Children’s National is lucky to have you leading the care of adolescents with eating disorders.

Also, check out this shout out for our Raleigh Urgent Care by a local journalist who highlighted that our urgent care was one of the top nine things that makes her life a little better!

“The Best Urgent Care: This is a triangle region-specific recommendation. At 9:30pm one August evening, it was clear that one of my twins needed to be seen by a doctor for breathing problems. (He’s fine now.) The nurse at the nurseline tipped me off to going to UNC Rex near Raleigh which has a pediatric urgent care open until midnight (!) rather than going to the ER. (Urban nighttime ERs are no fun, as I’ve learned from personal experience) The staff was SO nice, they saw us before we could even sit down in the waiting room, and immediately presented us with a nebulizer and a fully charged iPad with kids' programming loaded up. We were out of there in under an hour and a half. They get 10 stars and I’m definitely going there for my off-hours pediatric situations in the future.”

As always, I am grateful for your leadership and dedication to the children and families of North Carolina. We are excited and optimistic about the future!

Gratefully,

Please Welcome our New Children's Providers!

SPEAR Fellows Bootcamp

On a Friday in early September, the UNC Pediatric Anesthesiology Fellowship hosted our Southeast Pediatric Anesthesia Region (SPEAR) Fellows Bootcamp. We welcomed faculty from the University of Miami Florida, University of Alabama, Vanderbilt University, and UNC Departments of Anesthesiology and Pediatric Emergency Medicine. Our hometeam pediatric anesthesiology faculty included Drs. Suchar, Sisk, Wester, and Lupa. The engagement and energy was truly amazing.

The team has been expanding our SPEAR program since 2015 and this was the most exciting one yet, complete with a gorgeous new SIM facility. Fellows in attendance came from Duke, UAB, Vanderbilt and UNC. We ran emergency scenarios, reviewed POCUS extensively (Thank you Dr. Dan Park!- a true highlight), and also taught advanced and alternative airway techniques in children.  What a wonderful opportunity to highlight our program and teach future pediatric anesthesiologists. 

Britney and Jeff at our Sim Center made this a seamless experience, and Shannon helped from beginning to end to coordinate everything from the details for travel, communication, and food. We are so grateful for all each of these individuals did to make this program a huge success.

Thank you for the support you have given to our pediatric anesthesiology fellowship to continue these vital educational opportunities.

Enjoy these photos from a great weekend!

GPAM Faculty Stands Out!

The faculty in General Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine were major contributors to the 2023 NC Pediatric Society Annual Meeting. Multiple division members spoke and were honored, including:

• Madlyn Morreale, JD, MPH was honored for her time on the NCPS Board and gave an excellent comprehensive talk on getting beyond screening for social determinants of health (SDOH).
• Dr. Kenya McNeal-Trice did an amazing job emceeing as President and gave a fantastic state of the society speech!
• Dr. Mike Steiner received a special achievement award for his hard work coordinating care when hospitals were at full capacity.
• Dr. Bianca Allison gave an engaged and well received virtual talk on reproductive care.
• Dr. Emily Vander Schaaf served in multiple leadership capacities, including as part of the NCPS Board of Directors.

Dr. Bianca Allison – General Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine –

• received funding for her project: Developing A Novel Adolescent-Centered Contraceptive Counseling Training Program for Pediatric Providers to Maximize Reproductive Autonomy, with Dr. Samantha Schilling as mentor.
• published: "I feel like it gives me what I need to know": A qualitative study on adolescent perceptions of two contraceptive decision aids. Jones A, Whitesell C, Tadikonda A, Perry MF, Allison BA. Contraception. 2023 Sep 1:110277. doi: 10.1016/j.contraception.2023.110277. Online ahead of print. PMID: 37659707

Dr. Emily Anderson - Pediatric Resident - with General Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine faculty, Dr. Ashley Sutton as primary mentor and Dr. Neal deJong as co-mentor, received funding as a winner of the 2023 Dr. Jacob A. Lohr Research Award for her project: Characteristics and one-year feeding outcomes of infants discharged with naso-enteral feeding from birth hospitalization.

Dr. Melissa Bauserman – Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine – published: 

• Malaria in Pregnancy: Key Points for the Neonatologist.  Rent S, Bauserman M, Laktabai J, Tshefu AK, Taylor SM. Neoreviews. 2023 Sep 1;24(9):e539-e552. PMID: 37653081.
• Prevention of maternal and neonatal death/infections with a single oral dose of azithromycin in women in labour in low-income and middle-income countries (A-PLUS): a study protocol for a multinational, randomised placebo-controlled clinical trial. Hemingway-Foday J, Tita A, Chomba E, Mwenechanya M, Mweemba T, Nolen T, Lokangaka A, Tshefu Kitoto A, Lomendje G, Hibberd PL, Patel A, Das PK, Kurhe K, Goudar SS, Kavi A, Metgud M, Saleem S, Tikmani SS, Esamai F, Nyongesa P, Sagwe A, Figueroa L, Mazariegos M, Billah SM, Haque R, Shahjahan Siraj M, Goldenberg RL, Bauserman M, Bose C, Liechty EA, Ekhaguere OA, Krebs NF, Derman R, Petri WA, Koso-Thomas M, McClure E, Carlo WA. BMJ Open. 2023 Aug 30;13(8):e068487. PMID: 37648383.

Dr. Neal deJong – General Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine –

• Was awarded an NIH R03 grant. As PI, he will study the "Feasibility of a care team-focused action plan to improve quality of care for children and adolescents with inflammatory bowel disease”.
• Published: Neighborhood context and children's health care utilization and health outcomes: a comprehensive descriptive analysis of national survey data. Annis I, deJong N, Christian R, Davis S, Hughes P, Thomas KC. 2023 Sept 30:doi.org/10.1093/haschl/qxad038.

Dr. Kori Flower – General Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine – published: Prenatal Risks to Healthy Food Access and High Birthweight Outcomes.  Duh-Leong C, Perrin EM, Heerman W, Schildcrout J, Wallace S, Mendelsohn A, Lee DC, Flower K, Sanders LM, Rothman RL, Delamater A, Gross RS, Wood C, Shonna Yin H. Acad Pediatr. 2023 Aug 31:S1876-2859(23)00346-7. doi: 10.1016/j.acap.2023.08.017. Online ahead of print. PMID: 37659601.

Drs. Wes Jackson and Matt Laughon – Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine – published: Current and emerging pharmacotherapies for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension in infants. Pizzuto MF, Laughon MM, Jackson WM. Expert Opin Pharmacother. 2023 Sep 14:1-12. PMID: 37707346.

Dr. Matt Laughon – Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine – published: Early antibiotic exposure in very-low birth weight infants and infection risk at 3-7 days after birth. Coggins SA, Willis Z, Benjamin DK, Mukhopadhyay S, Laughon M, Greenberg RG, Clark RH, Puopolo KM. J Perinatol. 2023 Sep;43(9):1158-1165. PMID: 37491474.

Dr. Colin Orr – General Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine – published: Three Lessons About Diabetes and the Social Determinants of Health. Berkowitz SA, Orr CJ. Diabetes Care. 2023 Sep 1;46(9):1587-1589. doi: 10.2337/dci23-0045. PMID: 37354315.

Dr. Mike O’Shea – Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine –

• was awarded a renewal of the NIH ECHO grant UG3OD023348, titled “Environment, Epigenetics, Neurodevelopment & Health of Extremely Preterm Children.”
• published: Sexually dimorphic methylation patterns characterize the placenta and blood from extremely preterm newborns.  Santos HP Jr, Enggasser AE, Clark J, Roell K, Zhabotynsky V, Gower WA, Yanni D, Yang NG, Washburn L, Gogcu S, Marsit CJ, Kuban K, O'Shea TM, Fry RC. BMC Biol. 2023 Aug 23;21(1):173. PMID: 37608375.

Drs. Jackie Patterson and Melissa Bauserman – Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine – published: Building a predictive model of low birth weight in low- and middle-income countries: a prospective cohort study. Patterson JK, Thorsten VR, Eggleston B, Nolen T, Lokangaka A, Tshefu A, Goudar SS, Derman RJ, Chomba E, Carlo WA, Mazariegos M, Krebs NF, Saleem S, Goldenberg RL, Patel A, Hibberd PL, Esamai F, Liechty EA, Haque R, Petri B, Koso-Thomas M, McClure EM, Bose CL, Bauserman M. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. 2023 Aug 22;23(1):600. PMID: 37608358.

Dr. Ken Roberts – Emeritus Faculty – with Mary Ottolini, MD, the George W. Hallett Chair of Pediatrics at the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital at Maine Medical Center - gave the opening keynote for the Pediatric Hospital Medicine Conference (PHM 2023) envisioning the theme "Celebrating the Past and Visioning the Future” with a presentation honoring the 20th anniversary of the first PHM meeting sponsored by a national peds organization. 

Drs. Genny Taylor and Mike O’Shea – Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine – published: Neurodevelopmental and behavioral outcomes of very preterm infants: latent profile analysis in the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program. 

Camerota M, McGowan EC, Aschner J, Stroustrup A, O'Shea TM, Hofheimer JA, Joseph RM, Musci R, Taylor G, Carter BS, Check J, Dansereau LM, Gogcu S, Helderman JB, Neal CR, Pastyrnak SL, Smith LM, Marsit CJ, Lester BM; program collaborators for Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes. Pediatr Res. 2023 Sep 12. PMID: 37700161.

Dr. Sahal Thahir, Carolina Child Health Scholar, and Dr. Peyton Thompson – Pediatric Infectious Disease – published: Implementation of Hepatitis B Screening Into Routine Antenatal Care to Prevent Mother-to-Child Transmission in Rural Western Uganda.  Thahir S, Muhindo E, Turigye B, Kabagambe K, Thompson P, Mulogo EM, Boyce RM. Open Forum Infect Dis. 2023 Aug 25;10(9):ofad452. PMID: 37705692. 

Please welcome the newest member of the Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine family! Baby Eleanor was born on August 22 weighing 2.8 kg to Erika Yazawa, MD, one of our new neonatologists, and her husband, Dan. Congratulations Erika and Dan!!

Please join in congratulating Thalia Tulloch, in Pediatrics Gastroenterology Administration, on the birth of her new granddaughter, Ecilynn Mi’Yori, born September 29!

Sophie Ing

Administrative Officer

Nominated by: Kori Flower, MD

Sophie Ing has been an exceptional contributor as Administrative Specialist for the Division of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine for the past 2 years. In our rapidly growing division, she has expertly put together interview itineraries that highlight the strengths of UNC, and helped our division to grow and flourish by handling onboarding processes for new members of our division and helping them to feel welcome and oriented. Sophie is also an information technology wiz, and steps in to address issues that help our division become more productive.

Sophie is amazing, talented, and we are so happy to have her at UNC!