University of Colorado Department of Pediatrics

Dear Faculty, Staff,Alumni and Friends,

Welcome to the August edition of the Department of Pediatrics Newsletter. Within is a sampling of the amazing accomplishments and work of our talented faculty, trainees, and staff here at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and Children’s Hospital Colorado.

Pediatric Faculty Lead Top Doctors List

For the past 25 years, Denver magazine 5280 has published a list of the metro-area’s top doctors.

The list is based on a survey of licensed physicians in the seven-county area (Denver, Arapahoe, Broomfield, Boulder, Adams, Douglas, and Jefferson) responding to the query; which metro-area physicians they would trust to treat themselves and their families.

Forty-four of the 347 doctors named to the list are faculty of the Department of Pediatrics.

Those honored by 5280 include the following:

Categories where only Department of Pediatrics physicians were named to the list included Adolescent Medicine, Adult Congenital Heart Disease, Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics, Neurodevelopmental Disabilities, Pediatric Cardiology, Pediatric Critical Care, Pediatric Infectious Disease, and Pediatric Rheumatology.

Congratulations to all the honorees, their patient care support teams, and colleagues who deliver such exceptional care to our patients and families.

The August/Best Doctors edition of 5280 also included an excellent feature titled “Inside the Fight to Beat Childhood Cancer.”The article highlighted the work of several Department of Pediatrics and Children’s Hospital Colorado faculty, including Lia Gore, MD, Adam Green, MD, Anna Franklin, MD, and Terry Fry, MD.

Collaborative Research Focuses on Thrombosis

Together with colleagues from the Colorado School of Mines Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Jorge DiPaola, MD (Professor, Section of Hematology, Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplantation and Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders) has been awarded a two-year, $1.34 million grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

The special exploratory research grant (R61-HL141794), titled “A Systems Biology Approach to Identifying the Mechanisms of Sex Hormone Induced Thromboembolism in Pre-Menopausal Women,” will attempt to understand the causes of thrombosis in premenopausal women on hormone therapies, as well as to identify those women at risk for thrombosis. Hormone therapies present a heightened risk of thrombosis or excessive blood clotting in premenopausal women.

Using a systems biology approach that combines “omics” technologies with computational models, Dr. DiPaola and his team hope to gain mechanistic insight into why this happens toward improving the safety of hormone therapies and the predictive capacity for determining who is at risk for sex hormone-induced thrombosis.

Welcome New Housestaff!

In July, we welcomed another new group of first-year residents and fellows to the Department’s clinical training programs.

This group of the best and brightest brings a rich diversity of background and experience, and we are honored to have them as a part of our department.

This year's class consists of 29 General Pediatrics Interns, 4 Child Neurology Interns, 1 Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Intern, 4 Internal Medicine-Pediatrics Interns, and 38 Subspecialty Fellows.

Please join me in extending a warm welcome to all our new physicians in training. We are glad to have each of you as part of our community.

Kempe Graduate Summer Program in Child Abuse & Neglect

Over 3 million families each year are reported to authorities for child abuse and neglect in the United States. Research efforts to understand, treat, and prevent this problem are seriously deficient. Among the limitations in this field is the dearth of established investigators to teach about the issues of research in child abuse and to develop impactful and substantive research proposals in this important discipline.

To address this deficiency, the Kempe Graduate Summer Program in Child Abuse and Neglect provides a unique training experience for clinicians and social science and public health researchers to stimulate new research in child abuse and neglect with special focus on issues of disparities and prevention.

Under the leadership of Desmond Runyan, MD (Professor & Head, Section of Child Abuse and Neglect, and Kempe Center Executive Director), the 2018 program was recently renewed with support from a $161,215 Research Education Program grant (R25-HD094660) from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development.

New Cancer League of Colorado Research Grants

Congratulations to Nicholas Foreman, MD (Professor and Tanner Seebaum and Zachary Tschetter Chair in Neuro-Oncology) and Jessica Ann Lake, MD, MPH (2nd Year Fellow) from the Section of Hematology, Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplantation and Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders for their 2018 Research Grant awards from the Cancer League of Colorado(CLC).

These two grants mark the first time that Child Health researchers have been awarded funding from CLC. A founding institution of the University of Colorado Cancer Center, CLC supports innovative cancer research and cancer-related services across the state of Colorado.

Dr. Forman’s grant, titled “Characterization of heterogeneous tumor subpopulations in childhood ependymoma,” will further his research in understanding the causes of brain tumors and the development of novel therapies for these diseases. Dr. Lake’s project, titled “IPS-derived, CAR-expressing Natural Killer Cells Targeting EGFR on Pediatric Sarcomas,” will support her efforts to develop new cellular immunotherapies for pediatric sarcoma and cancer of the connective tissue.

Faculty Interest Group Updates

The Department of Pediatrics annually names several faculty from the Instructor/Senior Instructor Faculty Group as Senior Instructors with Distinction in recognition of their contributions in one or more areas of excellence. From among those outstanding individuals nominated, one is selected each year to receive the special distinction of the Barbara A. Quarantillo Award.

Please take this opportunity to nominate a member of this faculty group from your section. They will be selected by the Peer Council of the Instructor/Sr Instructor Faculty Group and the Award recipients will be announced at the State of the Department Meeting on September 28. Nominations should include a nomination letter from the Section Head and the faculty member’s CV, and are due August 15. Questions and nominations should be directed to Tracy Price-Johnson at Tracy.Price-Johnson@ucdenver.edu.

Junior Faculty Interest Group (JFIG) Upcoming Events:

August 20: Personal Finance – Information session regarding Finances, Wills, Power of Attorney. CHCO 2nd Floor Conference Center, noon to 1 p.m. Lunch provided. Please RSVP by August 15 to Rhonda Buckner at rhonda.buckner@childrenscolorado.org.

September 21: Half Day Retreat at the Denver Zoo, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., followed by an opportunity to visit the Denver Zoo. Breakfast and Lunch provided. Please RSVP by September 21 to Rhonda Buckner at rhonda.buckner@childrenscolorado.org.

PhD Faculty Interest Group (PhDIG) Upcoming Event:

September 10: “How to Fulfill and Document Teaching for Promotion as a PhD in the Department of Pediatrics.” Presentation and panel discussion including Dr. Nancy Krebs (Vice Chair for Academic Affairs). Education Building 2 North, Room 1304, Noon to 1 p.m.

As always, for these and other exciting Department of Pediatrics news stories,as well asApril, May, June, July and August newsletters, please visit our Pediatrics News web page.

Sincerely,

Stephen R. Daniels, MD, PhD
Professor and Chair

Department of Pediatrics | University of Colorado School of Medicine
Pediatrician-in-Chief | Children’s Hospital Colorado