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Namasivayam Ambalavanan, M.D., Neonatalogy, has been selected to serve on the NeoPREP Panning Committee Team. NeoPREP is a seven day review course in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine, held every two years, which is sponsored by the Section on Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). Dr. Ambal's appointment to the planning committee is for 6 years. Congratulations!

The 2016 Committed to a Cure Marrow Registry Drive is set for Tuesday, Aug. 30 from noon until 5 p.m. and Wednesday, Aug. 31, from 7 a.m. until 5 p.m. in the Russell Lobby Performance Room at Children’s of Alabama.

The Alabama Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorders at Children’s is partnering with Be The Match bone marrow donor registry in this regional effort to add people to the national registry of those willing to donate bone marrow. This year’s event is sponsored by the Alabama Chapter of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America.

Prospective donors need to only complete a health questionnaire and conduct a simple mouth swab. Upon completion, the individual’s information is added to the registry as a potential donor match for a patient anywhere in the world. More information about the process is available at www.bethematch.org.

A Donor Reunion will be held at noon on August 30 in the Performance Area of the Russell Lobby. This is a can’t miss event!
To view the press release, click here.

The Children's/UAB Department of Pediatrics CME Program has once again been awarded Accreditation with Commendation by the Medical Association of the State of Alabama. This status is conferred to CME programs that demonstrate excellence in educational outcomes, which include involvement in multi-interventional and inter-professional collaborations with the goal of improving patient and population health outcomes. 

September is childhood cancer and sickle cell awareness month and is a time that is near and dear to us and many of the patients and families we serve. We are blessed to have wonderful family and community support and the month will be full of opportunities to engage with patients and families, community groups, and each other in honor of the work we all do.

To see a full list of the many events in the next two months, clickhere.

The UAB Pediatric Residency Program and Coat of Arms is working to help provide relief to the victims of the floods in Louisiana.  Many of the people affected are family and friends of our residents. There are many ways to contribute to the cause.

We will be holding a Donation Drive from Aug. 22 to Sept. 2 for supplies and various goods to assist affected families in the Baton Rouge, LA area. Goods requested include: cleaning supplies, mops, pillows, blankets, diapers, baby food and formula, toilet paper, packages of new underwear or socks, feminine hygiene products, shampoo, soap, lotion, deodorant, and school supplies. Boxes to donate will be located at the information desk of Benjamin Russell Hospital, the Pediatric Residency Housestaff Office and Lounge, and outside of the Aug. 25 Pediatric Grand Rounds. Goods collected over the next two weeks will be delivered to the Capital Area United Way and the Ascension Parish Office of Emergency Preparedness running the shelter at the Lamar-Dixon Expo Center. Attached is the flyer, please feel free to share.

Additionally, for anyone interested in donating money, below is a list of links to various flood relief causes.
*Our Lady of the Lake (OLOL) Pediatric Residents suffered significant losses due to the recent flooding in Louisiana. Please contribute on Go Fund Me --https://www.gofundme.com/2k8aynw.
*The Louisiana Capital Area United Way --To make a monetary donation, text LAFLOOD to 313131 or visit www.cauw.org and click donate. Donations can also be mailed to Capital Area United Way, Attn: Flood Relief, 700 Laurel St., Baton Rouge, LA 70802.
*The Baton Rouge Area Foundation -- To donate, visit www.braf.org/louisiana-flood-relief, which also provides links for donating to employee assistance funds of several companies.
* The East Baton Rouge Schools Foundation has set up a fund to take care of facilities, students and teachers. Visit http://www.foundationebr.org/

Thank you very much for your thoughts and contributions!

Randy Cron, M.D., Ph.D., Pediatric Rheumatology, was recently selected by the Rheumatology Research Foundation to serve on their 2017 Scientific Advisory Board. The Scientific Advisory Council is charged with overseeing the Foundation’s research and education funding programs to ensure they are run effectively and efficiently and are meeting the needs of the rheumatology community and people with rheumatic diseases.

David Galloway, M.D., Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition, has been appointed to the Clinical Care and Quality Committee of the North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition (NASPGHAN). Dr. Galloway will serve a three year term from October 2016 - October 2019.

Click here for more about NASPGHAN.

Prescott Atkinson, M.D., Ph.D., Pediatric Allergy, Asthma, & Immunology, and Frederick Goldman, M.D., Pediatric Hematology & Oncology, will present in a Satellite Conference and Live Webcast Tuesday, August 23 at 2 - 3:30 p.m. The webcast titled "Severe Combined Immunodeficiency: Diagnosis and Treatment" is produced by the Alabama Department of Public Health. Register at: http://www.adph.org/alphtn/. Download the flyer here.

The Medicaid funding situation in Alabama is a critical issue for the state’s health care industry, as well as patients, families and the business community. Alabama health care leaders say securing additional funding is critical for hospitals, physicians and patients from across the state. In this special supplement in the Birmingham Business Journal, three experts, including Mike Warren, CEO of Children's of Alabama and Dr. Will Ferniany,CEO of the UAB Health System, share their thoughts on the funding situation, explain the stakes and show how Medicaid funding impacts not just their facilities, but Alabama’s entire health care system – including patients who are not on Medicaid.

Click here to continue reading.

Children's patients received a special visit from USA Wheelchair Rugby yesterday afternoon. The team is preparing to leave for the Rio 2016 Paralympic games on Sept. 4. The team spent time with our brave patients and families and gave them a glimpse of what can be possible. Thanks to the Lakeshore Foundation for making this visit possible.

Click here to see the full photo album from yesterday's visit. 

2016 Nominees from the Department of Pediatrics: 
Hussein Abdullatif, M.D., Pediatric Endocrinology, was nominated in the category of Best Educator in Endocrine Systems. 
Kimberly Whelan, M.D., Pediatric Hematology & Oncology, was nominated in the category of Best Educator in Hematology & Oncology. 
Lauren Nassetta, M.D., and Chang Wu, M.D., of Pediatric Hospital Medicine, were nominated in the category of Best Birmingham Clinical Educator. 
The Department of Pediatrics was honored as a nominee for the Best Clinical Department in Birmingham.

The Argus Awards, created in 1996 to recognize faculty members, give medical students the chance to honor their mentors, professors, courses and course directors for outstanding service to medical education. Faculty members are nominated by course evaluations, and students vote to select award winners in each category.

The recipients will be announced and the nominees honored at a ceremony on Friday, October 7. Click here to view the full list of nominees. 

Leadership in Academic Medicine Lecture will take place at 8 a.m., Tuesday, Aug. 16 in the Margaret Cameron Spain Auditorium. Paul B. Rothman M.D., dean of the medical faculty and vice president for medicine of Johns Hopkins University, and CEO of Johns Hopkins Medicine, will present “Toward a Fully Integrated Academic Health Center.”   

The lecture will also be streamed live online. Click here to download the flyer. 

Charitharth Vivek Lal, M.D., assistant professor in the UAB Pediatrics Division of Neonatology lead a the study recently published in Scientific Reports. Dr. Lal and other UAB researchers have discovered that an infant's airway — once thought to be sterile until after birth — is colonized by bacteria or bacterial DNA. This could be protective or a predictor for lung disease. To continue reading on UAB News, click here. 

Besides Dr. Lal, co-authors of the paper, “The Airway Microbiome at Birth,” from the UAB Department of Pediatrics are Drs. Colm Travers, Tamas Jilling, Brian Halloran, Waldemar A. Carlo, Jordan Keeley, Gabriel Rezonzew and Namasivayam Ambalavanan.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) supports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) interim recommendation that quadrivalent live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV4) not be used in any setting during the 2016-’17 season.
Vaccination remains the best preventive measure against influenza, so everyone 6 months and older should receive any age-appropriate trivalent or quadrivalent (no preference) inactivated influenza vaccine (IIV) as soon as available.
Read the AAP cover story written by Henry Bernstein, DO, MHCM, FAAP, and David Kimberlin, M.D., FAAP, on pages 1 and 4 here.

Inpatient providers can boost protections for children by screening for secondhand tobacco smoke exposure, urging parents who smoke to quit, suggesting smoking cessation interventions and brief counseling sessions to parents interested in behavior change and ensuring the availability of nicotine replacement therapy.

To continue reading the AAP News article written by Karen Wilson, MD, MPH, FAAP, and Susan Walley,  M.D., CTTS, FAAP, of the AAP Section on Tobacco Control Executive Committee,click here.

Ride4Gabe is three cyclists, joined by a motorhome, SUV and a documentary film crew, attempting to pedal 200 miles per day from Maine to Mobile to raise awareness and funds for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. The ride began on Friday, July 29 and will come through Birmingham this Sunday, August 7, 2016 around 12:30 p.m. Children's of Alabama will hold an event to welcome the riders along with Gabe Griffin. You are invited to attend! There will be shakers and other Children's/UAB staff on hand to welcome the bikers, as well as 20-25 members of a local Bike Club that will ride with them on the leg from Birmingham to Montgomery. Additional details on Ride4Gabe and the fight to end Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy can be found at www.hopeforgabe.org or www.ride4gabe.com.

The inspiration for Ride4Gabe is eleven-year-old Gabe Griffin from Chelsea, Alabama. Gabe has Duchenne, a type of muscular dystrophy caused by the absence of the protein dystrophin. Gabe is the namesake of a tax-exempt non-profit—the Hope for Gabe Foundation—that works nationally to raise Duchenne awareness and research funding. The Alabama Legislature passed “The Gabe Griffin Right to Try Act” after intense lobbying by Gabe and his supporters.   

The UAB Department of Pediatrics recently received the portraits of Drs. Alfred A. Walker and Daniel T. McCall from the School of Medicine. These previously hung on the walls of the Margaret Cameron Spain auditorium. Due to renovations, the department now has the opportunity to house them in a location that ensures high visibility to reflect their significant contributions to the history of Pediatrics and UAB Medicine.

These portraits, along with the addition of Dr. Hugh Dillon, line the hallway that accompanies the portrait of Katharine Reynolds Ireland (the namesake of the endowed Chair of the Department of Pediatrics). The photo on the right show the portraits (from left to right) of Drs. Hugh Dillon, Alfred Walker and Daniel McCall. These portraits, displayed next to the chairs office on the 6th floor of the Lowder building, recognize their legacy to academics, clinical duties and the community. Information is on behalf of UAB Archives.

Alfred A. Walker, MD, was the first chair of the Department of Pediatrics from 1945 – 1950. He was a 1905 graduate of Cornell University. His contributions include Diplomate of the American Board of Pediatrics and Chair of the Board of Health for the Jefferson County Medical Society.

Daniel T. McCall, MD, was a Professor of Pediatrics from 1914-1918. He became Dean of the Medical College of Alabama in 1920. He was a member of the Mobile County Medical Society, Medical Association of the State of Alabama, Southern Medical Association, the American Medical Association, President of the American Pediatric Society (1925-26) and a Fellow (1927) of the American College of Physicians.

Dr. Hugh Dillon served as Chairman of the Department following Dr. Bill Benton until he became ill in 1988. He was followed as Chair by Dr. Sergio Stagno. Dr. Dillon was instrumental in establishing the UAB division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases in the late 1960s.

The UAB Department of Pediatrics division of Pediatric Critical Care has been accepted as a participant in the Society of Critical Care Medicine’s PCOR-ICU Collaborative: Improving Care for Critically Ill Patients and Families through Research Dissemination and Implementation, which is funded by a Eugene Washington Engagement Award from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute. 

The aim of the PCOR-ICU Collaborative is to bring together ICU teams to implement patient- and family-centered care initiatives. The Pediatric Critical Care Unit will implement the use of ICU Diaries. More information here. 

The 2nd Annual Just A Call Away 5K & Fun Run, a 5K race and fundraiser for the Crisis Center at Uptown Birmingham, will be held Saturday, August 20 at 8 a.m. Runners of all ages and abilities are welcome. A 1 Mile Fun Run will be offered as well. Participants may register here.

The Crisis Center’s mission is to serve the unmet needs of people experiencing personal crisis or mental health issues and respond with services that promote coping, emotional health and well-being, and serves the community of Central Alabama. All services of the Crisis Center are 100% free and available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

For more information about this event and the mission of the Crisis Center, visitwww.crisiscenterbham.org.

Researchers at UAB have found that the amount of proteins excreted in the urine of preterm infants with acute kidney injury, or AKI, is different from that excreted by infants with healthy kidneys.

The study, led by principal investigator David Askenazi, M.D., was published in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

“The findings in this study could help physicians better diagnose kidney health in newborns,” said Askenazi, associate professor in the UAB Department of Pediatrics and director of UAB’s Pediatric and Infant Center for Acute Nephrology. “Having better diagnostic tests to diagnose kidney injury will have an important impact on how we care for infants and how we prognosticate outcomes, and will enable us to design studies to prevent and/or mitigate kidney damage in these very vulnerable babies.”

Study co-authors include Rajesh Koralkar, MPH, Neha Patil, M.D., Brian Halloran, M.S., Namasivayam Ambalavanan, M.D., and Russell Griffin, Ph.D.

Click here to view the press release on UAB News.