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Mark your calendars for the 2017 Pediatric Intensive Nutrition Course on February 22-24! This year's course focuses primarily on the critical adolescent period and as always provides up to 20 CEUs for RDs and RNs.  As you will see, the agenda includes an interdisciplinary cadre of experts spanning many topics directly and indirectly related to nutrition for the adolescent. To download the 2017 Annual Pediatric Intensive Nutrition Course brochure, click here.  Please contact Sheila Coleman with questions. Additional information is available on the website.

During this season of giving, the UAB Department of Pediatrics is thankful for the contributions that we have been fortunate enough to make throughout 2016. Whether it has been donating goods for back-to-school, giving items to hurricane victims in Haiti or flood victims in Louisiana, participating in the Spring Scramble, giving to the Benevolent Fund, partaking in the residency’s Coat of Arms program, or helping out a long-time patient in one of our clinics after a devastating house fire, we have been fortunate to give in these situations. This is not to mention what each of you contribute to your favorite organizations year-round.

In addition, the department has partnered with Booker T. Washington Elementary School (just 1.5 miles away from Children’s) to provide two programs to these students.

Read to Lead is a program where interested faculty, staff, and trainees can volunteer time on the first and third Fridays of each month to spend one-on-one time reading with first grade students. If you are interested in participating in this program, click here.

HERO (Health Explorers Realizing Opportunities) is a program in which UAB Pediatrics faculty and trainees conduct monthly (3^rd Fridays) interactive sessions to stimulate interest in health and health care careers among middle school children. Topics covered, to date, have included sickle cell disease, nutrition, and smoking. If you are interested in participating in this program, click here.
To view more photos from these initiatives, click here.

These have been very rewarding initiatives and we look forward to continuing and expanding upon these in 2017. As we reflect on the season of giving, let’s allow the holidays to be a starting point to a life of year-round giving. Continue to check FYI Fridays for more opportunities and become engaged with your colleagues in their organizations. As always, thank you for all you do to contribute to your community and your everyday work to improve the lives of the children of Alabama and beyond.

The Drucker Institute at Claremont Graduate University announced that the ImproveCareNow Network is the winner of the 2016 Drucker Prize. Our division of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, & Nutrition has an ImproveCareNow team. Traci Jester, M.D., RD, is the physician leader with her partner Jeanine Maclin, M.D. Their focus is on quality care and improvement efforts for our pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease patients and to participate in research through ImproveCareNow. 

The Drucker Prize, considered by some the Nobel Prize of management, is awarded annually to one non-profit organization that meets Drucker’s definition of innovation: “change that creates a new dimension of performance.”  ImproveCareNow was selected for this award from among 495 applicants and will receive a $100,000 prize and well-deserved recognition. 

ImproveCareNow is a network of care centers with clinicians, researchers, patients, families and improvers working together to transform the health, care and cost for children and youth with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.  Currently, there are 92 centers, with 790 pediatric gastroenterologists and 26,000 patients with IBD, in ImproveCareNow.

Wendy Landier, Ph.D., RN, Pediatric Hematology & Oncology, was recently selected for funding of her project titled: A Nurse-Led Structured Discharge Teaching Intervention for Parents of Newly Diagnosed Pediatric Oncology Patients. This grant is awarded onbehalf of the Board of Directors and the Nursing Advisory Board of Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer (ALSF). This grant is in the amount of $100,000 for the period of 1/15/2017 to 1/14/2019. 

Since 2005, the McNulty Civitan Scientist Award has been awarded to outstanding scientists with a long-term career commitment to research on developmental disabilities. The award is given each year in honor of the McNulty family who were long-time members of the Chesapeake District of Civitan International. Tom and Mary McNulty with their son Tommy were the driving force behind the creation of the Civitan International Research Center and the research focus of Civitan International Foundation. To date, the award has provided support for a number of successful research projects and helped to develop successful clinical programs benefitting individuals with developmental disorders.  

Fred Biasini, Ph.D., director of the UAB Civitan-Sparks Clinics, is the 2016-2017 recipient of the coveted McNulty Civitan Scientist Award. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and he is the director of the Lifespan Developmental Psychology Program. His research and teaching interests include autism spectrum disorder, developmental disability, social development and children of substance abusers. 

On Tuesday, Nov. 29, a diverse team of Children's physicians, trainees, and faculty visited Calhoun, Ala., in the heart of Wilcox County. This Black Belt region is likely the most impoverished in the U.S. Our team saw health care delivery first hand visiting the Spartan J. Paul Jones Hospital and outpatient clinics. The county has only three practicing physicians, one dentist, and no psychiatrists. Its single youth enrichment program, Bama Kids, is in dire need of literacy materials and resources. A ferry ride brought us to the history rich but resource destitute Gee’s Bend area. Our visit instilled new insights into health disparities the challenges of rural poverty, and the resilience of those who practice there. We left inspired and grateful to our Area Health Education Centers (AHEC) hosts for the venture.

Congratulations to Ambika Ashraf, M.D.,Pediatric Endocrinology, Santiago Borasino, M.D., Pediatric Cardiac Critical Care, Jeffrey Lebensburger, D.O., Pediatric Hematology & Oncology, and Julie Wolfson, M.D., Pediatric Hematology & Oncology, on their recent election to the Society of Pediatric Research. The goal of the Society for Pediatric Research is to create a network of multidisciplinary researchers to improve child health. Each of these new members will contribute greatly to this mission.

UAB's genetics clinics have moved from the previous locations in the Hugh Kaul Human Genetics Building. Pediatric clinics are now on the sixth floor of the Dearth Tower at Children's of Alabama. Adult clinics are located on the first floor of the Kirklin Clinic.  

Appointments can be made by calling 934-4983. Click here for more information.

Please join us in welcoming Associate Professor Ismail S Mohamed, M.D., FAAP, FRCPC, to the UAB Department of Pediatrics and the division of Pediatric Neurology. 

Ismail S. Mohamed, M.D., FAAP, FRCPC, joins us from the IWK Health Center in Halifax, Canada. Dr. Mohamed graduated from Alexandria University in Egypt and completed pediatric neurology residency at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, clinical neurophysiology fellowship at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati, Ohio and an epilepsy fellowship at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada. His research interests are in functional brain imaging, in normal development, and reorganization after brain injury.

David Ingram, MBA, Director of Administration and Fiscal Affairs in the UAB Department of Pediatrics, was recently re-elected into Place 3 on Chelsea City Council by taking almost 80% of the votes in the municipal election in August. Chelsea, in Shelby County, is one of the fastest growing cities in the state of Alabama. This will be David’s 2nd term on the council. He was first elected in 2012 and his current term will run through 2020. In addition, he was appointed as Mayor Pro Tempore of the city at the organizational meeting on Monday, Nov. 7. David brings his 18 years of financial and budgetary experience to the council, in addition to leadership and involvement within the Chelsea parks and recreation arena.