| Change to Medical Genetics Clinic patient evaluations | During fiscal year 2022, the clinical services of the Division of Medical Genetics and Genomics are restructuring to focus on providing the service to patients with known or suspected underlying genetic etiology. In keeping with this goal, and to serve the rare disorder patient population in a timely manner, only patients with genetic connective tissue diseases will be evaluated in the Medical Genetics Clinic. This redirects the medical genetic outpatient clinical services to patients with hypermobile EDS (hEDS) and hypermobility spectrum (HSD) to the general internal medicine or the general pediatrics outpatient clinical services.
Reaching this conclusion is based on the facts that hEDS and HSD are outside the scope of practice of the division of Medical Genetics and Genomics, there is no added value to the care of the patients and their families, and is in agreement with the national policies and protocols. Patients would benefit more from referrals to general internal medicine or general pediatrics depending on the age of the patients. These departments will better be able to coordinate the conservative and symptom-focused therapy, including physical therapy. This would allow the Pediatric division of Medical Genetics as well as Genomics/genetic counselors to provide better and timely services to the other types of EDS that have a genetic basis for their disease.
As of February 1, 2022, the Division of Medical Genetics and Genomics of the Stead Family Department of Pediatrics will only accept a referral in the Connective Tissue Disorder (CTD) clinic based on specific criteria as outlined in this letter. There are presently approximately 500 patients in the work queue for Connective Tissue Disorder evaluation that will be seen over the next year in our clinic. The policy will only apply to referrals received after February 1, 2022. | | | | Welcome to the Team
- Sandra Arnold, Clinical Research Nurse Manager, division of Neonatology, starts today, March 7.
- Rebecca Mattke, Clinical Trials Research Assistant, division of Neonatology, starts today, March 7.
- Kimberly Ruth, Assistant Clinical Services Director, Pediatric Administration, started on February 28.
- Kelli Trimpe, Research Support Coordinator - Clinical Trials, Pediatrics Finance, started February 28.
| | | Wear Blue on April 1 This year, on Friday, April 1, the Child Protection Team asks all staff and providers to wear blue for “Blue Out Day” to help raise awareness about the importance of Child Abuse Prevention. In addition, on this same day, the team plans to hand out pinwheels, positive parenting handouts, coloring pages and a Sesame Street book called Comfy Cozy Nest about coping skills and safe places. For one night, the Stead Family Children's Hospital lights will also be blue in support of this effort. | | | DEI Corner and Wellness Updates | | | | Department DEI Newsletter On Tuesday, March 1, we launched a monthly department DEI newsletter to help support college- and enterprise-wide efforts around diversity, equity, and inclusion, and to keep you informed of all the ways you can participate in the conversation at the department level. Watch for our next issue on April 1!
Irish American Heritage Month: A Film Discussion
In honor of Irish American Heritage month, the Stead Family Department of Pediatrics DEI Committee is holding a film discussion of a movie celebrating Irish heritage. We are asking faculty, staff, and trainees to vote on the film they are most interested in viewing and discussing. Please vote at here by Wednesday, March 9. The chosen film and discussion date will be announced Thursday, March 10.
Last month, Louis Hart III, MD, the inaugural medical director f health equity for Yale New Haven Health System, presented the annual Black History Month Lecture for UI Health Care.
| | | via Zoom
All class times are 12:-12:50 p.m. Session descriptions are provided on the liveWELL training website.
- liveWELL Meal Planning for Busy People - Thursday, March 10
- liveWELL Financial Wellness: Maintaining Home Ownership - Wednesday, March 22
- liveWELL Caregiving Spring Cleaning - Wednesday, March 30
New On Demand Option in ICON
A new resource for UI employees in 2022 is access to three liveWELL Training Sessions for “On Demand” learning in ICON. These allow you to go through the training at your own pace on your own time. Register for the courses in Self-Service > My Career > My Training, and search "On Demand".
- liveWELL Wellness Overview: Did You Know?
- liveWELL Resilience 101
- liveWELL Design Your Well-Being: Engineering Good Habits for Life
| | | | Care Coordinator John Werner, LMSW, and Director of Care Coordination, Janine Petitgout, DNP, ARNP, CPNP, published an article in Children's Hospital Today about how health care teams can maximize patients’ and families’ sense of control in their care.
"Empowering consumers and providing quality service are guiding principles in the health care practice of person-centered care," the article opens. "Person-centered care is a holistic approach to delivering care. It means the care is respectful and individualized, allowing for negotiation of care and offering choice through a therapeutic relationship. It empowers patients or family members to be involved in health decisions at whatever level they desire. This approach places significant focus on the patient’s involvement in their care."
Read on to see how our care coordination team expresses the importance of our mission in the rest of the article. | | | Before 4-year-old Malcolm Wallace had his tracheostomy tube removed, he didn’t know how to breathe without it. Born prematurely with underdeveloped lungs, Malcolm faced a number of challenges.
Malcolm’s journey would not have been possible without the Aerodigestive and Tracheostomy Clinic, the only multidisciplinary clinic in the state of Iowa catering to children with tracheostomy and other complex airway, swallowing and voice issues.
Malcom's care team included (pictured, from left to right) Speech-Language Pathologist Emily Hughes, MA, CCC-SLP; graduate student clinician Madison Simon, BA; Pediatric Pulmonologist Rebecca Weiner, MD; Otolaryngologist Sohit Kanotra, MD; and Pediatric Gastroenterologist Riad Rahhal, MD, MS.
Read Malcom's full story here. | | | | Faculty and APP Meeting
- First, third, and fifth Mondays of the month, from 12:00 - 1:00 p.m. via Zoom.
Frontiers in Pediatric Research Lectures
- Second and fourth Mondays of the month, from 12:00 - 1:00 p.m. via Zoom.
- March 14: No Frontiers. Enjoy your spring break!
Grand Rounds
- Every Friday from 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. in JCP 2415 and via Zoom.
- March 11, 18: No Grand Rounds. Enjoy your spring break!
- Due to COVID restrictions, a limited quantity of packed lunches will be provided; you may eat during the conference if social distancing can be maintained, or take a lunch to go.
K Club
- K Club occurs approximately every two weeks, from 1:00 - 2:00 p.m. on Thursdays via Zoom.
| | | One Day for Iowa is a single day in which multiple groups across the University of Iowa rally together in a series of online campaigns to raise funds and awareness of how philanthropy effects our enterprise. Though the campaign is focused on a single day (March 30), the website is now open to accept donations.
This year, we have two featured funds: our general unrestricted fund, and the Pediatric Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Fund. A generous donor is providing up to a $25,000 match for the latter fund and we want to start building awareness of this opportunity now!
Please consider using your social media accounts, newsletters, and emails to help people learn about this fundraiser and share department content. Use hashtag #1DayForIowa in all your relevant social posts, as well as our custom URL when putting out the call for donations: https://1dayforiowa.org/fa-pediatrics22. Custom Perky graphics are available for use in support of this fundraiser, contact Claire McGranahan with your request. | | | | Featured Positions in the Stead Family Department of Pediatrics Here are a couple of the open positions within the Stead Family Department of Pediatrics and Stead Family Children's Hospital, which we invite you to share through your own professional networks - whether that be through a targeted email, or by posting the link to your professional social media accounts:
Thank you for your help and dedication in continuing to grow this department with world-class talent.
Open Positions in the Stead Family Department of Pediatrics
We currently have multiple opportunities for people to join our department - we encourage you to view them and share them as you like:
| | | Communications Corner New Social Media Channel
Stead Family Department of Pediatrics now has a Showcase Page on University of Iowa Health Care's LinkedIn page. If you have a LinkedIn profile, please follow these pages and share our Showcase Page with your connections. We'll be promoting open staff and nursing positions for the department and the Stead Family Children's Hospital, as well as sharing stories coming from the department.
Social Media Follow Contest Winners
To help boost visibility and follows on our Twitter account and LinkedIn Showcase Page, we ran a contest between our last issue of Peds Express and Sunday, March 6. Entrants simply followed one or both of our social media accounts, and shared one of our posts with their followers.
Our winners are Heidi Artley-Hansen for sharing our content on LinkedIn, and Scott Fedler for sharing our content on Twitter! You will receive a stainless steel UIHC beverage bottle as a thank you for helping us grow our channels. | | | Kid Captain Nominations Close March 20 | 
Your division director was sent a few postcards in English and in Spanish for distribution in your clinics. Please ask for these, and if your division is out, contact Claire McGranahan for more. | | | |
