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Dr. Paola Mendoza-Sengco is now the new Director of Children's of Alabama/UAB Pediatric Medical Grand Rounds. Dr. Mendoza will begin leading Pediatric Grand Rounds on Nov. 1, 2016.
 
Dr. Mendoza is an Assistant Professor in the UAB Department of Pediatrics in the division of Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine. Prior to joining UAB, Dr. Mendoza completed her residency training at East Carolina University and her fellowship in pediatric physical medicine and rehabilitation at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. We are excited to see the educational opportunities she brings to our grand rounds audience. 

The Association of the Teachers of Maternal and Child Health (ATMCH) announced Krista Casazza, PhD, RD, LD, General Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, as the winner of the 2016 Loretta P. Lacey Academic Leadership Award. View the announcement here.

The Alabama Child Health Improvement Alliance (ACHIA) is enrolling practices in a learning collaborative to improve screening and referrals for children at risk of delays, autism, and behavioral concerns.
Which practices should enroll?

• Practices that want to start screening.
• Practices that want to increase screening consistency.
• Practices that want to switch screens from a paper to an electronic format.

Additional benefits include MOC Part IV and the Ages and Stages Developmental Screening Tool ($295 value).
The collaborative will run from January to September 2017. Enrollment is through December 31, 2016.
Contact lchampion@alaap.org or click here to learn more.

Only 10 percent of teenagers are getting the sleep they need according to experts. The American Academy of Pediatric (AAP) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommend schools not start before 8:30 a.m. for high school. That may be a tough sell to parents. But when you consider how dangerous it is for our kids to do things like drive and play sports sleepy, doctors say we need to take a hard look at this issue. Over 50 percent of teens sleep 7 hours or less a night. Doctors say they need 8.5-9 hours a night.
Click here to see ABC 3340's story interviewing Mary Halsey Maddox, M.D., Pediatric Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine.

On Monday, Oct. 18, the Department recognized the exceptional contributions of our faculty and colleagues at the first annual Pediatric Faculty Achievement Awards Reception. These awards provide the department a chance to highlight faculty who've attained a level of excellence recognized by their peers. Please join us in congratulating the winners in each category. Click here to see photos. 

Lifetime Achievement in Pediatric Healthcare
Sergio Stagno, M.D.
Richard J. Whitley, M.D.
 
Research Achievement
William Britt, M.D.
 
Educational Achievement
Nancy Tofil, M.D., MEd
 
Service Achievement
Carolyn Ashworth, M.D.
 
Mentoring Achievement
Kathy Monroe, M.D.
 
Model of Excellence
The Pediatric Pulmonary Center
Brad Troxler, M.D. and Claire Lenker, LICSW, CCM

Community Educator
Mahmood Zaied, M.D.

Margaret M. Porter and Charles D. McCrary, two long-time members of the Children's of Alabama Board of Trustees, have been honored for their service to Children's of Alabama with the establishment of endowed chairs in their names. Porter began her volunteer leadership service to Children's in 1995. She served as board chairman in 2002 and 2003. McCrary began his volunteer leadership service to Children's in 1995 and served as board chairman in 2006 and 2007.

Daniel I. Feig, M.D., is the first holder of the Margaret M. Porter Endowed Chair in Pediatric Nephology. Dr. Feig serves as the division director of pediatric nephrology and is the medical director of the Pediatric Renal Transplant Program and co-director of the Renal Fellowship Program. Feig’s research interest focuses on the physiology of early onset essential hypertension as well as the prevention of hypertensive target organ damage.

Elizabeth Beierle, M.D., is the first holder of the Charles D. McCrary Endowed Chair in Pediatric Surgery. Dr. Beierle is a professor of surgery, and her research interest lies in the study of pediatric solid tumors, specifically the signal transduction pathways involved in neuroblastoma. Her patient care emphasis includes surgical oncology, neonatal surgery and burn and trauma care. Beierle also serves as surgical director of the Hepatobiliary Clinic. The multidisciplinary clinic provides specialized care for children with liver, gallbladder and bile duct disorders. Children's is only the second hospital in the southeastern United States to have a pediatric Hepatobiliary Clinic.

Click here to view the Children's press release. 

On Saturday, Oct.15, Children's Harbor was the site of the first ever Alabama Support Group for Spanish Speaking Parents of Children on the Autism Spectrum. Drs. Justin Schwartz, Morissa Ladinsky, Marcella Frazier and Myriam Peralta united the Alabama Autism Society and over 30 families to create a community of support for these caregivers. An army of volunteer housestaff, clinical staff, Sparks Trainees, Interpreter Services leaders including Amado Santos, and Ben Tuanama were unflappable in their care of these challenging kids giving their parents intangible time to receive guidance and connect with others living the demanding and frightening path raising an autistic child in a place with little support or trust. We applaud the generosity of Audrey Lampkin and Children's Harbor for hosting and the UAB Benevolent Society who gave this team a large grant to continue this invaluable effort.  

Susan Walley, M.D., Pediatric Hospital Medicine, received a grant renewal from the Alabama Department of Public Health Youth Tobacco Prevention Program. The objectives of this program are to decrease tobacco use and initiation among middle and high school students in Birmingham, particularly related to emerging products such as electronic cigarettes, and promote policies that protect youth in Birmingham from nicotine initiation and exposure to secondhand smoke. The grant is from October 2016 to September 2017 in the amount of $48,00

Michelle Freeman, MD, FAAP, (pictured right) a community pediatrician at Dothan Pediatric Clinic (DPC) in Dothan, Ala., and Marsha Raulerson, MD, FAAP, (pictured left) a long-time pediatrician from Lower Alabama Pediatrics in Brewton, were honored with the Children’s of Alabama Master Pediatrician Award and the Wallace Alexander Clyde Distinguished Service Award for Excellence in Pediatrics, respectively, at the Alabama Chapter-American Academy of Pediatrics (AL-AAP) Annual Meeting and Fall Pediatric Update, held recently in Birmingham. The Wallace Clyde award was initiated in 1984 by the UAB Department of Pediatrics and Children’s to recognize outstanding physicians who have devoted a lifetime of service to children and their families; recipients are chosen by a select committee of leaders in the field of pediatrics. Click here to read more. Clickhere to see photos from the annual AAP Meeting. 

Researchers in the UAB Department of Pediatrics found that Alabama parents living in suburban areas use cellphones in the speaker mode, read and send text messages, and surf the web slightly more often than parents in rural areas. Cellphone use among parents who are transporting children is part of a dangerous distracted driving epidemic all too common in Alabama.

“Cellphone use is one of the most common driving distractions among young and adult drivers,” said Kimberly Massey, M.D., principal investigator of the study published in the Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery and former fellow in the UAB Department of Pediatrics. “This study proves that further research on how to best implement injury-prevention interventions should be done to target high-risk areas with distracted driving behaviors, like Alabama suburbs.”

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