Department of Pediatrics News

Welcome back to campus for the start of another exciting academic year! Here, in the September edition of the Department of Pediatrics Newsletter, you will find a sampling of all the amazing activity happening within the Department of Pediatrics and at Children’s Hospital Colorado. Thanks to all our talented faculty, trainees, and staff who make this the best Pediatrics Department in the country!

 

Welcome again to the 30 new faculty who participated in the Department’s New Faculty Orientation half-day session on August 23.

 

In addition to lunch and a “meet-and-greet” opportunity, new faculty were provided overviews on Wellness and Resilience Resources (Dr. Jennifer Reese), Children’s Hospital Colorado Clinical Operations and Patient Safety (Dr. Daniel Hyman), the Colorado Clinical and Translational Science Institute (Dr. Kristen Nadeau), and Department Finances and Administrative Resources (Mike Jonen and Jeanette Leeser).

 

We welcome each of the newly minted faculty and wish you all a most successful tenure as members of our Department.

 

Edited by Department of Pediatric faculty (Dr. William Hay, Dr. Myron Levin, Dr. Robin Deterding, and Dr. Mark Abzug), the comprehensive source of current information on the medical problems of children from birth through adolescence; Current Diagnosis and Treatment—Pediatrics, has been published in its 24th Edition.

 

The book was created in 1970 by Dr. Henry Kempe, then Chair of the Department of Pediatrics, Dr. Henry Silver, Vice Chair, and Dr. Donough O’Brien, Director of the Pediatric Microchemistry Laboratory. It was first published as one of the Lange “Currents” books and now is published as a Lange book by McGraw-Hill.

 

It has been an exclusive enterprise of the faculty from all Sections in the Department of Pediatrics, and there have been important contributions from other CU School of Medicine faculty in surgery, dentistry, ophthalmology, orthopedics, rehabilitation medicine, and the pediatric hematology and chemistry lab at Children’s Hospital Colorado.

 

The book is updated and published every two years. It is one of the bestselling and top-rated textbooks of pediatric medicine in the U.S., and is sold widely around the world, having been translated into Spanish, Portuguese, and Chinese.

 

Its frequent updating ensures accuracy, and its broad coverage of all essential aspects of pediatric medicine highlights the dedication and commitment of the many authors in the Department of Pediatrics and at Children’s Hospital Colorado and the University of Colorado School of Medicine who do the critical scholarship to make this book so popular and valuable.

 

Under the direction of Terry Fry, MD (Professor of Pediatrics, Hematology and Immunology, Co-Director, Human Immunology and Immunotherapy Initiative, and The Robert and Kathleen Clark Endowed Chair in Pediatric Cancer Therapeutics), continues the exciting development of chimeric antigen receptor expressing T cells (CAR-T) therapy.

 

With funding support from the National Marrow Donor Program, Dr. Fry is pursuing a new CAR-T trial targeting the CD33 gene in children and young adults with relapsed/refractory acute myelogenous leukemia.

 

Importantly, this will be first prospectively multisite CAR-T cell trial and the Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders at Children’s Hospital Colorado will be a participating site.

 

Thanks to a $1.34 million administrative supplement to the Colorado Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CCTSI), Child Health clinical researchers at Children’s Hospital Colorado will soon have access to the OnCore clinical trial management system.

 

Under the direction of Ronald Sokol, MD (Professor and Head, Section of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition), the CCTSI secured additional funding to accelerate the implementation of OnCore at CHCO.

 

OnCore is the leading software application for managing clinical research data and clinical trials. It supports research operations management, human subject protocol development, clinical trial billing processes, and comprehensive clinical research reporting and analytics.

 

With CCTSI funding support, all new Child Health clinical research studies will be supported by OnCore beginning September 15.

 

The School of Medicine is offering a new series of workshops providing faculty an opportunity to ask questions specific to faculty affairs related topics. The open forum, “FAQ workshops” will be led by Dr. Steven Lowenstein (Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs) and Cheryl Welch (Director of Faculty Affairs).

 

Faculty with questions relating to promotion or tenure, faculty titles, faculty development, rules and policies, conflicts of interest, sabbaticals, performance reviews, retirement or any other topic are encouraged to attend. Each session will be limited to 25 faculty members toward encouraging an informal and conversational format.

 

To register for either of the first two sessions (September 17 and November 29), please visit the SOM upcoming events webpage (the link for each session is below).

 

SOM FAQ Workshop #1

Monday, September 17, 2018

3:00-4:00 p.m.

Nighthorse Campbell Building, Room M24-103

 

SOM FAQ Workshop #2

Thursday, November 29, 2018

4:00-5:00 p.m.

Nighthorse Campbell Building, Room M24-103

 

PhD Faculty Interest Group (PhDIG) Upcoming Event:

Monday, 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) and Dr. Sean P. Colgan, (Interim Associate Division Head, Department of Medicine, Section of Gastroenterology & Hepatology). Education Building 2 North, Room 1304, Noon-1:00 p.m. Please RSVP to Rhonda Buckner at: rhonda.buckner@childrenscolorado.org.

 

Junior Faculty Interest Group (JFIG) Upcoming Event:

Friday, September 21: Half Day Retreat at the Denver Zoo, 8:00-1:00 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.

 

Congratulations to all the participants, volunteers, and donors who made the inaugural Denver staging of Swim Across America a tremendous success.

 

Held on Sunday, August 26 at Chatfield Reservoir, the event raised over $200,000 for the Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders at Children’s Hospital Colorado.

 

These funds will support the acute myeloid leukemia (AML) research program, led by Amanda Winters, MD, PhD (Instructor, Section of Hematology, Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplantation). Dr. Winters’ research is focused on the development of new therapies and Phase 1 clinical trials for pediatric leukemia and to identify better methods to detect leukemia cells in children with cancer.

 

Please join me on Friday, September 28, from noon to 1:30 p.m., in the Mt. Oxford Auditorium for the annual review and update on the Department of Pediatrics.

 

This address provides an overview of the significant achievements of the past year and highlights new initiatives for the coming academic year.

 

The event also includes recognizing Senior Instructors with Distinction and the awarding of the Dalice Miller Hertzberg Award and the Barbara A. Quarantillo Award. The Hertzberg Award recognizes an Instructor or Senior Instructor for contributions to community outreach and community support in volunteer capacities outside of the work place. The Quarantillo Award honors an outstanding Senior Instructor with five or more years of service for contributions and recognition in their field.

 

I look forward to seeing everyone at this event.

 

 

As always, for these and other exciting Department of Pediatrics news stories, 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