University of Colorado Department of Pediatrics

During this unprecedented time, it is important that we recognize the amazing efforts of so many of our faculty, trainees and staff. As we’ve confronted this pandemic, all of you have made countless acts of volunteerism and sacrifice – THANK YOU. I am proud of the way our Department and our colleagues at Children’s Colorado Hospitals and across the Anschutz Medical campus have rallied to support each other.

Here are the people, as recognized by their peers, who are going above and beyond in their efforts to combat the pandemic and continue to foster our unrivaled culture of collaboration. Here are this week’s “Coronavirus Heroes.”

Christine Archer (Zebra Fish Facility Coordinator) and Molly Waters (Animal Care Technician), Section of Developmental Biology

Nominated by Bruce Appel, Alexa Burger, Christian Mosimann, and Charles Sagerstrom

Why Christine and Molly?

High-quality animal care is a key foundation of many of our research programs. While our on-campus research activities are on hold, animal care is especially important to ensure animal health, maintenance of critical resources, and to facilitate the eventual efficient and rapid return to research. The Anschutz Medical Campus Zebrafish Facility holds a large collection of unique zebrafish stocks used to model and discover disease mechanisms ranging from neurological disorders to congenital heart defects. Christine and Molly have worked tirelessly to care for more than 20,000 zebrafish that support research by numerous laboratories in the Section of Developmental Biology and across campus. In addition to manually feeding thousands of fish tanks daily, they perform all aquatic system maintenance, keep the fish facility clean, and coordinate with investigators to maintain these valuable stocks.

Christina Suh, MD (Assistant Professor, Associate Medical Director of Child Health Clinic)

Nominated by Maya Bunik, Chris Stille, and Bart Schmitt

Why Christina?

Christina Suh, as Associate Medical Director of CHC, has worked hard to support all the schedule changes we have maneuvered over the past 6 weeks in order to provide well visits for our younger patients and continuity clinic for the residents during a large portion of the day. We have added telehealth, car screening, and secondary triage as other layers of care at Health Pavilion. As our EPIC Manager, she has added timely smart-texts, letters for families, and pertinent COVID-19 information to our AVS (after-visit summaries) in primary care. She does all this with a can-do, calm, positive manner. She is smart, conscientious, truly an “essential worker,” and a great CHC team co-leader in every way.

Genetics Telehealth Workgroup (Peter Baker, MD, Assistant Professor; Kathleen Brown, MS, CGC, Assistant Professor; Sommer Gaughan, RD, CSO, Metabolic Nutritionist; Janell Kierstein, MS, Senior Instructor; Danielle Komlo, Administrative Service Coordinator; Austin Larson, MD, Assistant Professor; Leah Rowe, MS, CGC, Instructor; Margarita Saenz, MD, Associate Professor of Clinical Practice; Barbara Strain, Business Manager; Janet Thomas, MD, Professor, Section of Genetics and Metabolism)

Nominated by Shawn McCandless

Why the Genetics Telehealth Workgroup?

This team came together daily when the outpatient clinics closed to pivot Genetics and Metabolism to 100 percent Telehealth visits immediately. They brainstormed daily to identify barriers and technical challenges, then collaborated with other CHCO/CUAMC teams to surmount all challenges and share best practices. The result was 100 percent Genetics and Metabolism visits transitioned to Telehealth the first week with no reduction in patient visits, and now we are seeing 10 percent more patients each week than one year ago – and still increasing! This team is made up faculty and staff, CUAMC and CHCO employees, support staff, genetic counselors, business people and physicians, all pulling in the same direction toward a single goal.

Cortney Braund, MD, Assistant Professor, and Bernie Johnson, MD, Associate Professor (Section of Emergency Medicine)

Nominated by Mark Roback

Why Cortney and Bernie?

They have displayed great leadership of the Anschutz Emergency Department and successfully completed the ED Telehealth/OneCall Pilot and the ED Tent project. The success of these initiatives is due to their leadership and collaboration with nursing and hospital personnel. These projects are vital in assisting us in positioning our program to meet the needs of our patients as we transition to a new-normal state for emergency care of ill and injured children. The great work and leadership of Bernie and Cortney make them true Coronavirus Heroes.

Daniel Nicklas, MD, Assistant Professor (Section of General Pediatrics)

Nominated by Wesley Gallegos, Maya Bunik, Chris Stille, and Bart Schmitt

Why Dan?

As Director of the After-hours Call Center and the Pediatric Primary Care Curriculum, Dan has embraced the close communication with the nurses and our secondary triage faculty team in CHCO. By implementing both telehealth and old-fashioned telephone visits, Dan has optimized the CHCO goal of treating most sick patients at home while still billing for services rendered. He is not only scheduling coverage seven days a week for secondary triage but re-training many of our residents and faculty with the telephone triage protocols, documentation, and data collection.

At the same time, Dan is keeping our team to our “true north”—the teaching of residents. He is dedicated to providing educational activities all year long but is especially creative now during occasional downtime in clinic during this pandemic. Dan has truly jumped in to be a strong critical co-leader during this stressful time. Despite how daunting the work has been, he has managed to succeed with professionalism and a calm, caring demeanor toward patients and his colleagues. We are so proud to have the opportunity to work with him! Way to go, Dan!

Jeffrey Darst, MD (Associate Professor) and Christopher Rausch, MD (Associate Professor), Section of Cardiology

Nominated by Heart Institute Leadership

Why Jeff and Chris?

Since day one, they have collaborating with members of the Heart Institute team on several issues related to COVID-19. They have ensured our outpatient visits and outreach clinics were appropriately canceled and or moved and have been at the forefront of preparing for ramping up once we get the green light.

Many thanks also to the many members of the COVID-19 Scientific Advisory Group who have been coordinating efforts across service lines to develop guidelines and real-time strategies for the management of patients including the sickest COVID-19 patients.

Lastly, congratulations to Cordelia Robinson Rosenberg, PhD, RN (Professor of Pediatrics, Section of Developmental Pediatrics/JFK Partners) who has been named winner of the Joseph Addison Sewall Award. The award is named in honor of the first president of the University of Colorado and given in recognition of exceptional contributions of leadership and vision to the health sciences at the Anschutz Medical Campus.

Dr. Rosenberg has been an international leader in the field of early intervention for children with developmental disabilities for almost 50 years. She is well-regarded across our campus as an exceptional clinician, researcher and educator.

Congratulations, Cordelia!

Congratulations to all these individuals for their outstanding contributions. Thanks as well to the nominators for sharing these stories and for your important role in helping recognize and support this work.

Please continue to share your recommendations for next week’s “Coronavirus Heroes” by submitting a web-based nomination form.