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The Department of Pediatrics is now seeking applications for the Dixon Fellowship Training Program for the 2019 academic year. Candidates will be selected on a competitive basis and upon a Review Committee’s analysis of the written application. As part of this prestigious award, recipients benefit from salary support and an additional $5,000 per year discretionary funds to support research and continuing education activities. For the academic year starting in July 2019, we will select up to three candidates who will be starting their second or third year of training. The initial award is for a period of one year with continued support contingent upon annual review of the fellow’s progress.

Applications should be emailed or delivered to Clare Mallette in 5 Dearth Tower, Suite 5606, no later than Friday, April 12, 2018. Scholarship recipients will be announced by the end of May.

Questions? Contact Michele Kong, M.D., Pediatric Critical Care or Clare Mallette.

Deadline: Friday, April 12 | More information

The Pediatric Fellowship office is seeking applications for the Chu Family Educational Scholarship for Fall 2019. Candidates will be selected on a competitive basis and upon a Review Committee’s analysis of the written application. For the academic year starting in July 2019, one to two candidates will be selected to receive a $5000 scholarship for their chosen educational endeavor.

Applications should be emailed or delivered to Ronda Chandler in the Sergio Stagno Center, 4th Floor Dearth Tower, no later than Friday, April 12, 2019. Scholarship recipients will be announced late May or early June.

Questions? Contact Ann Klasner, M.D. or Ronda Chandler.

Deadline: Friday, April 12 | More information 

The major goal of the KPRI quality and safety grant program is to allow teams to identify and address specific quality and safety issues that cannot easily be addressed using existing operational resources or structures. The significance of all efforts must be readily apparent. Priority will be given to applications that align with the priorities established annually by the Quality Improvement Council (QIC). In addition, special consideration will be given to collaborative projects that involve multidisciplinary teams. Up to $50,000 will be committed annually. In general, the first year of funding for each proposal will be for $25,000 or less, but exceptions will be considered based if appropriately justified. Click here for more information about the grant and award process. 

Applications for awards must be submitted electronically to mary.aiken@childrensal.org by 4:30 p.m. on April 15. Late applications will not be considered. Applications must comply with a standardized format for the application to be reviewed. 

All applications will be reviewed by a Quality Safety Proposal Review committee (QSPR). Awards will be announced after the KPRI meeting on July 1.

Deadline: Monday, April 15 | More information | Application

Faculty who are interested in mentoring a student on a research project for eight weeks during the summer of 2019, please read on!

First-year UASOM Medical Students with an interest in Pediatrics are encouraged to apply for the 2019 Russell Cunningham Memorial Research Program, an eight-week summer internship and research program. Based on these applications, two students will be selected and will work with faculty mentors from the Department of Pediatrics.

Faculty mentor responsibilities include:
1) helping the student design a summer research project
2) providing the student with clinical experience.
This may include observation or participation in clinical activities (clinics or hospital rounds) or attendance at educational conferences. Each student will receive $4000; an additional $1000 is available to cover costs of travel to present the research.

Faculty who are interested in mentoring a student for the summer of 2019 should forward the information and application document to the student. Applications must be submitted no later than February 18, 2019. For questions, please contact Clare Mallette, cmallette@peds.uab.edu. 

Deadline: February 18, 2019 | Application and Information

PEDIATRICS WELCOMES TWO NEW FACULTY MEMBERS IN JANUARY 2019
 
The UAB Department of Pediatrics welcomes two new faculty members during the month of January. Please join us in making them feel at home! 

Laura McGuinn, M.D., Professor in Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics
Rebekah Savage, M.D., Assistant Professor in Adolescent Medicine

Laura McGuinn, M.D., Professor and director of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, earned her medical degree from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas. Dr. McGuinn completed her pediatric residency at the University of Texas Medical Branch where she was also Ambulatory Chief Resident. She completed her developmental and behavioral pediatrics fellowship at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. Prior to joining UAB, Dr. McGuinn was an associate professor at the University of Oklahoma Health Science Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Dr. McGuinn holds the Thomas Lowder Chair in Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. Her clinical interests include diagnostic evaluation for children with developmental and behavioral concerns such as autism and related neurodevelopmental concerns, ADHD, intellectual disabilities, language and learning disorders, sleep, eating, and elimination issues, parent-child interaction concerns, among others. Her advocacy interests include healthcare systems improvement, bridges out of child and family poverty, and health equity. At UAB, she will be working collaboratively to enhance care processes for children with autism and related neurodevelopmental disabilities, as well as creating a medico-legal partnership to support families and children.

Rebekah Savage, M.D., Assistant Professor in Adolescent Medicine, earned her medical degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Dr. Savage completed her pediatric residency at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and an adolescent medicine fellowship at UAB. In addition, Dr. Savage completed a Master’s of Public Health at UAB in Maternal and Child Health. Her research/clinical interests include the prevention and treatment of substance use disorders in adolescents as well as the medical management of eating disorders.

Saturday, February 2 | 8:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. | Bradley Lecture Center

Please join us for the Practical Day of Pediatrics on Saturday, February 2! 

Learning objectives include:
1. Reviewing the latest information on prevention and management of important pediatric disorders.
2. Diagnosing and creating a management plan for specific pediatric disorders in a primary care setting.
3. Describing consensus guidelines for specific pediatric diseases.
4. Differentiating when referral to a specialist is necessary for complex pediatric problems.

Registration is $25.

Register here | More information

Veronica Godsey, M.D., Second Year Fellow-Pediatric Critical Care, was awarded the INSPIRE (International Network for Simulation-based Pediatric Innovation, Research & Education) Novice Research Award. The $10,000 award is given to support investigators with less than 5 years of simulation-based experience. Dr. Godsey’s study is focused on improving nurse-physician communication using communication strategies based on the book Verbal Judo.

Congratulations Dr. Godsey!

On Thursday, March 21, 2019, we will celebrate the research efforts of our fellows and residents with our 4th Annual Pediatric Science Day! It is a day to illustrate our research activities and support collaboration between young investigators. All fellows and residents are encouraged to submit an abstract for participation. Topics will focus on research activities and clinical case reports. 

We encourage you to utilize the day as an opportunity to present your submission to any upcoming meetings (PAS/SPR, etc.). Additionally, you are welcome to submit an abstract highlighting your work that you may have recently presented at a recent scientific meeting.
 
Click here for the abstract submission template.
 
Please send abstract submissions and any questions about the day to Michael Stalvey.

***The deadline for abstract submission is Thursday, January 31, 2019. 

More information 

Welcome to Dr. Laura McGuinn who begins as the director of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics on Monday, January 7. She will also hold the inaugural Thomas H. Lowder Endowed Chair in Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics and will serve as the new clinical director of the Civitan-Sparks Clinics. Dr. Fred Biasini will continue as the training program director of the Civitan-Sparks Clinics. I want to add my thanks to Dr. Myriam Peralta who has served as the interim division director for the last 18 months. 
 
Dr. McGuinn earned her Bachelor of Arts in biology from the University of Texas at Austin, and her medical degree from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas, where she completed her residency training as Ambulatory Chief Resident. Dr. McGuinn completed her fellowship in Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, and is certified by the American Board of Pediatrics as a Subspecialty Fellow in both Neurodevelopmental Disabilities and Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. She began her academic medical career as a member of the pediatric faculty of the Children’s Hospital of Austin Medical Residency Program, where she served as director of the Developmental Assessment Program and director of the Developmental and Behavioral Pediatric Clerkship. She joined the staff at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, originally as an assistant professor and then as associate professor in the Department of Pediatrics Section of Developmental – Behavioral Pediatrics.
 
Dr. McGuinn’s service to developmental and behavioral pediatrics is exemplified by her multiple related roles during her years at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, which included: director of the resident rotation and the ACGME approved and MCHB funded, fellowship program; and leadership roles as director of OK-KIDS Systems Improvement Initiative, co-director of the OK Child Heath Practice Based Research Network, and director of the Sooner SUCCESS Care Coordination Program. Through her leadership roles in medical education, Dr. McGuinn has mentored fellows, residents and students. She has provided service and leadership to Oklahoma Head Start, Oklahoma Children’s Oral Health Coalition and the Oklahoma Autism Workforce Initiative, among many.
 
Laura’s husband, Bill Wells, M.D., is med-peds trained and will commute between Birmingham and Oklahoma City, where he is a neonatal hospitalist. Her two children will be going to school here in Birmingham. Please join us in giving a very warm welcome to Laura and her family to UAB, COA and Birmingham.

Congratulations to the pediatric specialists (listed below) who have been elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) Honor Medical Society! AOA is a medical professional organization that recognizes and advocates for excellence in scholarship and the highest ideals in the profession of medicine. The official induction ceremony into AOA will be held on March 14th.

Newly Elected Members
Courtney Crayne, M.D., Third Year Fellow- Pediatric Rheumatology
Eunice Dixon, M.D., PGY-3- Pediatric Resident
Michael Barnett, M.D. Palliative Care
Tamera Coyne-Beasley, M.D., Adolescent Medicine
Shawn Gilbert, M.D., Orthopedic Surgery
Tina Simpson, M.D., Adolescent Medicine 

Heather Austin, Ph.D., Adolescent Medicine, has been invited to participate in the American Psychological Association (APA) Leadership Institute for Women in Psychology (LIWP). The APA Committee on Women in Psychology established the APA LIWP in 2008 to prepare, support, and empower women psychologists as leaders to promote positive changes in institutional and organizational life and to increase the diversity, number, and effectiveness of women psychologists.

Congratulations Dr. Austin!

Please join us in congratulating Sasha Monteil, M.D., Second Year Fellow- Pediatric Gastroenterology, on receiving the 2018-2019 Fall Fellow Roundtable/Core Conference Attendance Award. This allows her to attend a scientific meeting of her choice, within the continental United States.

Our next award will be presented at the end of July 2019 for the fellow with the highest attendance at Fellows’ Research Roundtable and Fellow Core Conferences from January – July 2019. Click here for more information. 
 
Thank you to all of the fellows who have been dedicated to attending these conferences!!

The January issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health includes a new section entitled, “Perspectives on Adolescence and Young Adulthood.” The vision for Perspectives is to bring readers short essays, poetry and stories of the young people who are at the center of the field. Our hope is that these touching stories of wonder and inquiry will inspire fresh thinking about this period of the life cycle and will encourage our authors and readers to broaden their views of the second and third decades of life.

The editors are pleased to inaugurate this section with a poem written by the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine's Immediate Past President, Tamera Coyne-Beasley, M.D., Adolescent Medicine, when she was 18 years old. Dr. Coyne-Beasley read her poem at the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine's Annual Business Meeting in Seattle, Washington, on March 16, 2018.

Read poem here

Krista Casazza, Ph.D., Adolescent Medicine, has been awarded a Center for Clinical and Transitional Science Research Voucher for her application entitled “Culinary medicine intervention to empower pre-adolescent girls to help their families to improve nutrition literacy, self-image and overall well-being.” This voucher will be used in a study involving Dr. Casazza’s partnership with Girls Inc. She has also received a CTL-QEP Teaching Innovation Award for her application entitled “Integrating Research and Service Learning into a Team Environmental Approach to Improve Community Health Literacy.” The goal of this approved proposal will disseminated to service learning classes related to health that have the capacity to implement a research project into their curriculum, particularly focused on improving aspects of health literacy in vulnerable/underserved populations.

Congratulations Dr. Casazza!

Our Pediatric Subspecialty Programs recently completed their match for fellows beginning July 2019. Congratulations to all of our incoming fellows! Following is a list of those who matched with our UAB pediatric programs: 

Click here for a mobile friendly pdf

Jennifer Guimbellot, M.D., Teri Magruder, M.D., Pediatric Pulmonology, and Brandi Pernell, DNP, Pediatric Hematology/Oncology will participate in the School of Medicine Office for Diversity and Inclusion's Transforming Success professional development series. Created by psychologists Lisa Graham and Julie McDonald, Transforming Success applies the essential “primer” every leader needs to prepare them for future opportunities and development. The series will begin in January and conclude in April. 

Congratulations Drs. Guimbellot, Magruder and Pernell!

Anisha Bhatia Attawala, M.D., Second Year Fellow, Neonatology, recently presented at the Hot Topics in Neonatology Conference in Washington, DC. This is an educational conference reviewing the latest research in neonatology. Dr. Attawala received a travel award for the best abstract submitted by a fellow for her abstract titled "Adjusted Growth Curves Predict Cognitive Outcomes in Extremely Preterm Infants."

Congratulations Dr. Attawala!

Snehal Khatri, M.D., and Justin Schwartz, M.D., Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, have been named among Birmingham Parent's Favorite Kids' Docs 2018. Doctors were nominated by Birmingham Parent readers for providing the best care for their children. They will be recognized along with other honorees in the December issue of Birmingham Parent’s.

Congratulations Drs. Khatri and Schwartz!

Emily Johnston, M.D., Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, has been accepted to membership in the O'Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at UAB as an Associate Scientist in the Cancer Control and Population Sciences Program.

Congratulations Dr. Johnston!

The Alabama Child Health Improvement Alliance(ACHIA) hosted the 2018 National Improvement Partnership Network (NIPN) annual meeting November 12-13 at the Elyton Hotel in Birmingham, Alabama. Participants from 14 states were welcomed by Mr. Warren and Dr. Cohen. Cathy Caldwell, Director of Allkids, was the keynote speaker.

ACHIA partners participated in a panel “Closing Care Gaps: Synergy in State Improvement Partnerships” participants included: Lori Moler, Vice-President of Customer Service, Children’s of Alabama, Susan Coburn, Family Voices, Wes Stubblefield, M.D., Alabama American Academy of Pediatrics, Robert Moon, M.D., Alabama Medicaid, Katrina Trammell, M.D., Gulf Coast Regional Care Organization, David Gremse, M.D., University of South Alabama, and Melinda Davis, Children’s Rehabilitation Services.