Dear friends,

 

 

We are excited to share that UNC Children’s ranked in 8 out of 10 specialties this year in the USNWR survey! UNC Children’s ranked #29 overall for the “Best Children’s Hospital.” Six specialties (pulmonology, endocrinology, gastroenterology/GI surgery, neonatology, orthopedics, cancer) were the highest ranked in the state. These accomplishments reflect the incredible work of our faculty and staff who serve and care for the children and families across our state and beyond.

 

The expansion of our neonatal critical care unit is underway! The unit is expanding by 24 beds, which increase the capacity of the neonatal critical care unit to 74 beds. The expansion will be a phased approach with 8 additional beds available for our youngest population by late November/early December. We are currently engaging in design discussions and recruiting for clinical staff. More to come!

 

The UNC Children’s Wilmington Division continues to recruit and increase the breadth and depth of subspecialty care available in the Southeastern area.

 

Our Pediatric Emergency Department has been extremely busy. In May, we saw a 15% increase in patient visits compared to the pre-pandemic high in May 2019. We have also seen an increase in the acuity of cases. This trend is continuing into June. Thank you to the entire ED team and to our inpatient teams who are facilitating discharges so beds are available for the children who need to be admitted from the ED.

 

CPII Primary and Specialty Clinic, Raleigh specialty clinic and Chapel Hill specialty clinic have started providing Pfizer and Moderna COVID vaccines to scheduled patients under 5! CPII clinic will also open some ‘community’ appointment slots for families who do not normally receive care there.

Our third year residents have graduated and we celebrated this at the Botanical Gardens. It was a lovely graduation ceremony! We also hosted a dinner to celebrate! Thank you to the education team for organizing these events. Our interns started in late June. Thank you to Dr. Katie Jordan will serve as the advisor for this class.

We continue to see research success across the department with foundational and federal awards along with publications in prestigious journals. Please review the research successes below.

As always, I am truly thankful to work with such great colleagues. Your dedication to improving child health inspires me every day.

Gratefully,

Lauren Bintz, RD, CLC

Please welcome our new staff at the UNC Children's Allergy and Immunology Clinic at Raleigh: Veronica Koranda, RN and Loretta Parker, CMA.

Clinical providers, physicians and APPs, can find the Brief Safety Assessment (BSA) Training for Suicide Risk in the UNC Children's Clinical Care Portal. ONYEN login is required for access to these slides. Click Here for a direct link to the slides.

Our new Pediatric Chief Residents, Drs. Joanna Glanz, Shenell Reynolds, and Christel Wekon-Kemeni and Dr. Megan Hoppens, the combined Medicine-Pediatrics Chief Resident, have begun their appointments for the 2022-2023 academic year.

We are very pleased to announce that Dr. Karen Wood, Professor of Pediatrics, was named the 2021-22 recipient of the “UNC Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Kcal Award”. The awardee is selected by graduating NPM fellows in recognition of excellence in promoting fellow ‘growth’ over their three years of fellowship.

on Thurs, June 16th,

Dr. Carl Bose, Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine, was selected for the University of Nebraska Medical Center Child Health Research Institute National Scientific Advisory Board.

The members of the advisory board are experts in pediatric science at leading institutions around the U.S., bringing a wealth of experience and knowledge to the growing institute. The National Scientific Advisory Board will provide input on CHRI strategies, objectives, priorities and other institute-wide matters.

Congratulations to Dr. Joseph Muenzer, Professor, and Dr. Liz Jalazo, Assistant Professor, in the Division of Genetics and Metabolism, on their nomination for the Global Genes RARE Champion of Hope Award in the category of RARE Champion in Medical Care and Treatment.

Melissa Bauserman, MD – Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine – recently published:

Leuba SI, Westreich D, Bose CL, Powers KA, Olshan A, Taylor SM, Tshefu A, Lokangaka A, Carlo WA, Chomba E, Liechty EA, Bucher SL, Esamai F, Jessani S, Saleem S, Goldenberg RL, Moore J, Nolen T, Hemingway-Foday J, McClure EM, Koso-Thomas M, Derman RJ, Hoffman M, Bauserman M. J Infect Dis. 2022 Jun 1;225(11):2002-2010. PMID: 34888658 

Krebs NF, Hambidge KM, Westcott JL, Garcés AL, Figueroa L, Tshefu AK, Lokangaka AL, Goudar SS, Dhaded SM, Saleem S, Ali SA, Bauserman MS, Derman RJ, Goldenberg RL, Das A, Chowdhury D; Women First Preconception Maternal Nutrition Study Group. Am J Clin Nutr. 2022 Jun 10:nqac051. PMID: 35681255

Tom Belhorn, MD and Zach Willis, MD – Infectious Diseases - was included in the WRAL story: Vaccines for children under 5: Experts answer parents’ questions.

Wesley Burks, MD – Allergy/Immunology – included in the Becker’s Hospital Review article: Trust will be key to vaccinating youngest children in ‘marathon’ rollout, hospital CEOs say.

Michael Kulis, PhD and Johanna Smeekens, PhD – Allergy/Immunology – recently published: Kinetics of basophil hyporesponsiveness during short-course peanut OIT. Kulis MD, Smeekens JM, Burk C, Yue X, Guo R, Orgel KA, Ye P, Herlihy L, Hamilton D, Li Q, Keet C, Shreffler W, Vickery BP, Burks AW, Kim EH. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2022 Jun 15:S0091-6749(22)00792-8. doi: 10.1016/j.jaci.2022.05.020. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35716952.

Michael O’Shea, MD – Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine – recently published: Caregivers' perception of the role of the socio-environment on their extremely preterm child's well-being. 

Emmanuel CJ, Knafl KA, Docherty SL, Hodges EA, Wereszczak JK, Rollins JV, Fry RC, O'Shea TM, Santos HP Jr. J Pediatr Nurs. 2022 May 24;66:36-43. PMID: 35623186.

Laurence Ostrowski, PhD – Pulmonology - received funding from the Eshelman Institute for Innovation for his proposal, "Therapeutic Oligonucleotides to Correct Splicing Defects Causing Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia." The funding award for $349,352 starts on July 1, 2022, for two years.

Gerardo Quezada, MD – Hematology/Oncology – was included in the WRAL story: Apex 1-year-old finishes a year of chemotherapy.

Priyanka Rao, MD – General Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine – was included in the WRAL story: Be prepared if your child gets sick on vacation.

Lisa Richardson, RD – UNC Childrens Hospital – recently included in the Spectrum News story: Pediatric nutritionist offers advice amid baby formula shortage.

Aliese Sarkissian, MD – Rheumatology - gave an invited presentation at the Cure JM Family Day. There was a focus on mental health, and Dr. Sarkissian presented her work with the ABP Roadmap Project at UNC. The ABP Roadmap Project is a national effort to support the emotional health of children with chronic conditions and their families.

Michael Steiner, MD and Neal DeJong, MD – General Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine – recently published: Childcare and Employment Disruptions in 2020 Among Caregivers of Children With and Without Special Health Care Needs. Easterly C, Kim D, Steiner MJ, deJong NA. JAMA Pediatr. 2022 Jun 13. doi: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2022.1766. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35696193.

Matthew Vogt, MD, PhD - Infectious Diseases – recently published: Enterovirus D68 in the Anterior Horn Cells of a Child with Acute Flaccid Myelitis. Vogt MR, Wright PF, Hickey WF, De Buysscher T, Boyd KL, Crowe JE Jr. New England Journal of Medicine. 2022 May; 386 (21):2059-2060. doi: 10.1056/NEJMc2118155. PMID: 35613028.

Dr. Vogt was also included in these news stories:

Andrew Winslow, MD – Allergy/Immunology (graduating fellow) - recently published: Peanut anaphylaxis in 2022 - Decoupling epinephrine usage from emergency department evaluation. Winslow A, Gilmore A, Kim E., Ann Allergy Asthma Immunol. 2022 Jun 16:S1081-1206(22)00527-0. doi: 10.1016/j.anai.2022.06.007 . Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35718283; PMCID: PMC9212777.

The Collaborative for Maternal and Infant Health has been awarded a $2.3 million grant from the American Heart Association as part of their Health Equity Research Network on Disparities in Maternal-Infant Health Outcomes.

The project, Building Equitable Linkages with Interprofessional Education Valuing Everyone (BELIEVE), was conceived and developed by co-PIs Kimberly Harper and Janiya Williams. Ms. Harper is the Perinatal Neonatal Outreach Coordinator for CMIH and teaches at the NCCU school of nursing. Ms. Williams leads the Human Lactation Pathway 2 Program at North Carolina A&T. The UNC Collaborative for Maternal and Infant Health will be joining collaborators from U Penn, Northwestern, OSU and UAB at part of the Pregnancy, Postpartum and Postnatal Health (P3): Enhancing QUality and Access to Achieve Equitable Maternal and Infant Health​ (EQUATE) network, led by Alan Tita at UAB. Read More...

Beginning late December 2021, Coastal Children's Services began its transition to becoming a Division in the UNC Department of Pediatrics. With these changes Elizabeth has performed the duties of multiple personnel that were lost or reassigned during the transition. While learning all the new aspects and processes at UNC, she remains a cohesive force to the almost 50 providers (practicing at 4 different locations). She maintains a high level of responsiveness to all of us and works successfully with the administrative personnel who transitioned to UNC. Moreover, she has been an integral part of the recruitment of several new faculty that have already or will be joining us in our new Division. We are grateful for Elizabeth! Many thanks for all that you do!