171 Ashley Ave.
Charleston, SC 29425
843-792-1414
800-424-MUSC
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October 2005
This edition:
Letter From Our Chair
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L. Lyndon Key, MD
Professor and Chairman
Department of Pediatrics |
Dear Faculty and Friends:
This month we will host our annual summit meeting (Oct. 28-29). During this meeting
we will be searching for a common goal between our 13 divisions. A goal that will
help guide us to achieving an even higher level of success at our children's hospital.
Looking for that common goal will explore our passions and discuss what makes us tick. I encourage
each of our faculty members to explore your imagination and collectively, we can
uncover creative and innovative ways to reach our goal. Think outside of the box.
During our process of discovery, my office will be open to discuss issues. I will
be coming to many of you to discover how to refine the process and to
define what you want to do. I will be working with our
division directors, our vice chairs, and our
administrators to find a way to achieve our goal.
Each year are recognized as one of the nation's best pediatric hospitals but let us not
forget that we can always improve and we can always strive harder. Let's plan for greater
things for 2006 and with a well-defined vision, determination and strong leadership we are
certain to achieve our goal.
We can become the best at providing the children of
South Carolina with "healthcare." Can we become
the best in the world at practicing, not medicine, but "health?"
Let us have some fun and discover how we can become "the best" at what we do.
In closing I would like to take a moment to remember Pete Hastings, MD.
We were recently reminded about the fragility of life by the death of our
good friend and colleague. Pete was a passionate man with
intelligence, humor, dignity and a loving, upbeat spirit.
We will miss him greatly.
Sincerely,
L. Lyndon Key, MD
Chair, Department of Pediatrics
Feature Story
By: Mary Sue Lawrence, Trio Solutions Inc.
Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases: Fighting HIV and More
Primary pediatricians and other medical professionals all over eastern
South Carolina turn to
MUSC's Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases for answers and solutions.
"We serve as an
important resource, seeing referred patients and providing advice on the care
of individual
patients," says George Johnson, MD, who has led the Division of Pediatric Infectious
Diseases
since mid 2001.
MUSC's pediatric infectious disease specialists provide inpatient
and outpatient services for
children with acute and chronic infections and immune deficiency syndromes.
Collaboration with
general pediatricians and subspecialty pediatricians is a hallmark of this
division. "A lot of
children develop infections as complications of or related to the
treatment of their primary
disease," says Dr. Johnson. "For example, a patient might develop an
infection from an indwelling
catheter or from chemotherapy treatments. Or perhaps a
child is admitted with a fever and it's not
clear what's wrong with her. We help sort out the causes and
determine the appropriate treatments
so these children receive the best care possible."
[read more]
Message From Our Medical Director
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J. Philip Saul, MD
Medical Director
Director, Pediatric Cardiology |
This month our newsletter features infectious diseases, which can be thought of
as the rosetta stone of the field of pediatrics.
Not only are children constantly afflicted by relatively minor infectious agents,
including the common cold, but more serious
infections account for a large percentage of the morbidity from the diseases
of childhood. It is no wonder our hospital stays
so full in the winter months when infections rain down on our children. Often
these infections complicate other conditions,
such as heart disease, cancer, gastrointestinal problems, genitourinary
anomalies and perhaps most important, prematurity.
Prior to the advent of antibiotics, bacterial infections often lead to
death or serious morbidity, whereas today an equally
important issue is the ever increasing resistance of bacterial organisms
to even the strongest antibiotics. A children's
hospital plays many roles here, balancing the need for aggressive
treatment with the risk of promoting resistance, all on
a background of preventing the spread of all infectious agents among
our patients. Our infectious disease experts,
Drs. Johnson and Fowler, are critical to all these roles. With the
knowledge that universal routine precautions, including
hand washing/cleansing, are the most important barrier to nosocomial
spread of infections in the hospital, the MUSC Children's
Hospital administration has been working closely with our faculty and
staff to aggressively promote a variety of strategies for
reducing intra-hospital transmission of infectious agents. We appreciate
the tolerance, support and encouragement of all
personnel in creating the safest possible care environment we can.
Update From Our Administrator
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John Sanders, MHA
Administrator
MUSC Children's Hospital |
MUSC Children's Hospital and the Community
The MUSC Children's Hospital is very lucky to be located in a
community that supports it in many ways. Whether it is through
charitable giving or volunteering in the Children's Hospital, the greater Charleston community
shows that they appreciate the work that is done in our organization.
As a member of the community, the Children's Hospital participates in many
activities to improve the health and well being of
the children of Charleston. If there is a big event like the Bridge Run or
Charleston County First Day, you can bet that we are
there. We have staff that provides education in the schools and special events. Just
recently we sponsored the Little Heart's
Walk along with the American Heart Association's Heart Walk to
raise money for the care of children with cardiac diseases. What
a great time for past patients, physicians and staff to reconnect.
On October 1, the Children's Hospital helped sponsor the
Isle of Palms Run and Walk for the Child which raises money for neglected
or abused children. On October 16 we will sponsor the
March of Dimes Chef's Auction to support that wonderful organization. As we did
during the past year, we will continue to provide
educational events through the Charleston County Parks and Recreation Department.
It is an honor and a privilege to be able to provide care for Charleston's children.
The work that we provide is not only in the
walls of the Children's Hospital. We will continue to strive to be a
contributing member of this wonderful town and we appreciate
everyone seeing the MUSC Children's Hospital as Charleston's community
children's hospital.
Children's Research Institute News
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Bernard L. Maria, MD, MBA
Executive Director
Darby Children's Research Inst. |
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Inderjit Singh, PhD
Scientific Director
Darby Children's Research Inst. |
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In this issue of Kids Connection, we highlight the Division of Infectious Disease and the great work of Drs. Johnson and
Fowler. Dr. Sandi Fowler has just received Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval for a new
research project collecting spinal
fluid samples from children having lumbar punctures for diagnostic reasons. The plan is
to analyze proteins within the spinal
fluid to define parameters of inflammation that could then be used as part of efforts
to translate use of exciting new
compounds discovered in the Darby Children's Research Institute (DCRI) into clinical trials in
children with brain inflammatory
conditions, such as encephalitis and brain tumors. Dr. Fowler is setting a wonderful
example for pediatric physicians reaching
out to DCRI collaborators and resources by making use of our Proteomics Center
expertise (Drs. Knapp and Baatz) and its technologies.
[read more]
Mental Health Resource News Brief
Bullying Basics
Surveys indicate that as many as half of all children are bullied at some time during
their school years, and at least 10 percent are bullied on a
regular basis. Bullies come in all shapes and sizes and ages. Kids usually
become bullies because they are unhappy inside for some reason
or don't know how to get along with other kids. Some kinds of bullying are
- Verbal - name-calling, including name-calling, happens most often
- Physical - punching, pushing
- Relational - leaving someone out of a game or group on purpose
- Extortion - stealing someone's money or toys
- Cyberbullying - using computers, the Internet, mobile phones, etc. to bully others
Other kids are watching 85 percent of the time when one kid bullies another kid.
If you suspect a child may be the victim of bullying or that they
are witnessing bullying, ask him or her to tell you what's going on.
Respond in a positive and accepting manner and provide opportunities to
talk in an open and honest way.
[read more]
A special thanks to the following individuals for their efforts in putting together Kids Connection each month.
Managing Editors: Bernard L. Maria, MD, MBA
Publisher: Jennifer Cherock (Trio Solutions Inc.) and Jessica Munday (Trio Solutions Inc.)
Web design: Brian Dadin (Trio Solutions Inc.)
Contributing Writers: Lyndon Key, MD; Bernard Maria, MD; Inderjit Singh, PhD; John Sanders; Philip Saul, MD; John Baatz, PhD; Daniel Knapp, PhD; Mary Sue Lawrence
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