Degrees
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Bio
Place of Birth: Perth Amboy, NJ
A. Narrative Report
As a pediatrician, my focus has always been to promote the health of children, their families, and the communities where they live in the primary care setting. I have maintained many of my clinical interests through leadership, education, and research, including mentoring housestaff and medical students and spearheading funded research projects. These initiatives highlight my dedication to treating each child one by one, preparing the next generation of pediatricians, fostering lifelong learning, and promoting the health of children everywhere through scholarly activity.
Leadership Responsibilities.
Children’s Hospital Boston
As Associate Chief of the Division of General Pediatrics, my responsibilities focused on primary care, complementing the developmental medicine activities of the division and pushing the Division agenda forward with my Chief and Department Chair. At CHB, this included mentoring students, residents, fellows, and faculty as well as helping to guide and support a variety of fellowship programs in General Pediatrics, Primary Care, Advocacy, Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics, Developmental Disabilities, Toxicology, and Clinical Effectiveness/Health Services Research. In addition, I served on a number of committees at Children’s, including the Intern Selection Committee, Boston Combined Residency Program Training Committee, General Pediatrics’ Scientific Review Committee, and a hospital-wide Competencies Workgroup.
During my tenure at Children’s Hospital Boston, I was a champion of fully integrating medical education and research into our comprehensive primary care service. I created a multi-disciplinary Service Team (i.e., physician leaders in clinical care, education, and research, nursing, social work, and administration) to coordinate all aspects of our practice. At the time, we were the largest single provider of pediatric primary care in Boston, with more than 10,000 patients, almost 33,000 program visits to more than 100 providers (faculty physicians, nurse practitioners, housestaff), and 60-70 inpatients each year. Many children in our urban practice had complex health problems complicated by troubled family dynamics and economic hardship; 55% receive Medicaid, and 84% live in the urban core with almost half of these children living below the poverty line.
Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth
As Chief of the Section of General Academic Pediatrics at Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth, my responsibilities focused on the multiple roles of the generalist in pediatrics, including ambulatory, inpatient medicine, and the community. I have extensive and longstanding experience and scholarship in medical education and research at all levels. This includes mentoring students, residents, and faculty as well as helping to guide and support a variety of programs in General Academic Pediatrics, such as Child Advocacy and Protection, Normal Newborn Services, Adolescent Medicine, Meningomyelocele/Spinal Dysraphisms, and our Hospitalist Service. I am a member of numerous committees at CHaD and DHMC, serving in a leadership capacity on the Regional Primary Care Center NH Statewide Initiative and as Director of Primary Care Research. In addition, I stepped in as Interim Pediatric Residency Training Program Director, Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth, for one year to fill a void when a looming RRC site visit was imminent.
During my 4+ year tenure at Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth, I have again been a champion of fully integrating medical education and research into our comprehensive primary care practice and generalist services. Major accomplishments achieved to date include exceeding RVU benchmark as a section, helping our residency training program receive a 5-year accreditation, raising the bar for scholarly activity at all levels, defining clinical operations and working to bring a diverse group of providers and staff together, recruiting a pediatric emergency medicine trained physician to Dartmouth, establishing a Primary Care Research Program, and creating a Primary Care Research Internship for Dartmouth undergraduates. Similar to my vision at Children’s Hospital Boston, my vision of General Academic Pediatrics at CHaD is to be a nationally recognized model for pediatric primary care that produces physician leaders in clinical care, training, research, and community service; that provides a stimulating dimension to practice; that expands professional horizons; and that benefits children around the world.
Finally, as part of my own professional development to enhance and develop my leadership abilities and effectiveness, I have participated in formal, intensive and systematic study of some of the critical leadership and management issues which physicians face in administrative positions and academic health centers.
Extensive experience as a primary care pediatrician in a variety of settings (i.e., private practice, a health center, a medically underserved area as a member of the National Health Service Corps, an urban free-standing children’s hospital, and a rural children’s hospital within a hospital) places me in a most unique and rewarding position. I have held leadership roles in medical education at all levels, received several teaching awards, been described as a master educator, and conducted primary care clinical research while maintaining a clinical primary care practice. Coming from the practice environment, I bring a “real world” balance to my work, coupling tacit knowledge with the applied science of clinical medicine. I regularly share my knowledge and expertise by educating the public through writing for academic and health information websites as well as regular participation in media interviews on a variety of pediatric topics. As part of my leadership roles at Children's Hospital Boston and Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth and as a member of the AAP’s Committee on Infectious Diseases, I act as a spokesperson for the news media on a variety of pediatric health care issues including vaccination, diagnosis and treatment of common childhood illnesses, and practical information for parents, teachers and caregivers. I have appeared on national television (NBC's Today Show and ABC’s World News Tonight), written for magazines (Newsweek and USA Weekend), and been interviewed by international, national, regional and local media outlets.
