Vermont Medicine Magazine
DEPARTMENT OF Pediatrics ~ 2012 Annual Report
Selected Highlights
- Faculty members earned several teaching awards from students. William Raszka, M.D., received the Foundations Award; Lewis First, M.D., was named Clinical Teacher of the Year, and Christa Zehle, M.D., garnered the Gold Humanism Award.
- The department’s residency program was selected by the Federation of Pediatric Organizations as one of seven considered most innovative for its longitudinal quality improvement and advocacy project curriculum.
- Faculty and house staff presented more than 20 presentations and workshops at the annual Pediatric Academic Society (PAS) meetings and produced more than 60 publications. Faculty published research in journals such as Pediatrics; Journal of Medical Ethics; Liver Transplantation; and BMC Pediatrics.
Lewis R. First, M.D., Chair
The past year was a strong one for the Department of Pediatrics in achieving its academic mission. In addition to participating in all four years of our Vermont Integrated Curriculum, faculty members continued to take national leadership roles in pediatric education. The editorship of the American Academy of Pediatric’ s (AAP’s) national journal Pediatrics remains in the department, where it has been for the past 38 years. The journal achieved its highest impact factor ever, making it the premier peer-reviewed pediatric journal nationally and internationally.
We continue to graduate a higher percentage of students going into pediatrics than the national average. Our Pediatric Student Interest Group had record membership, and our residency program applications are again up another 25 percent over the prior year’s recordbreaking increase.
From a research perspective, we continue to receive federal, state, and foundation grants and project awards most notably in areas of health services research. Extramural funding is close to $10 million, and most importantly, our research efforts are improving pediatric health care for children. The AAP’s Pediatric Research in Office Settings under the direction of Richard (Mort) Wasserman, M.D., joins the other national and regional collaborative research networks we lead including the Vermont Oxford (Neonatal) Network (VON), the ImproveCareNow national inflammatory bowel network, and the Vermont Child Health Improvement Program (VCHIP). VCHIP now oversees the development of similar health services research programs in 20 other states—all modeled after VCHIP. Our translational research efforts continue in metabolism, nutrition, and oncology.
We were ranked as a top children’s hospital by U.S.News & World Report in our Gastrointestinal and Pulmonary Divisions. Paul Rosenau, M.D., Director of Quality for our department and the Vermont Children’s Hospital at Fletcher Allen, helped spearhead efforts to further improve an already high quality of care with new initiatives in our nursery and inpatient settings. Stan Weinberger, M.D., is leading efforts to improve quality of care not just in our own outpatient offices but in pediatric practices throughout the state.
Faculty, residents and students continued to volunteer for community outreach activities. This year Andrea Green, M.D., was awarded the AAP’s national Local Hero Award for her oversight of our Pediatric Immigrant Program. Paula Duncan, M.D., received the AAP’s highest honor, the Abraham Jacobi Award for outstanding service.
Last modified January 24 2013 09:43 AM
