Pediatric Crier

Volume 12, No. 11, November, 2009

Pediatrics Welcomes Dr. Beth Jamme

The Department of Pediatrics warmly welcomes our new hospitalist, Beth Jamme, M.D. Dr. Jamme comes to us from CHOP where she was a hospitalist as well as a participant in the integrative care program and the sedation service there. She went to Temple University for her medical school and trained at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in Philadelphia (where she was a resident with Trish Taveres and Alicia Pekarsky). In addition to being our new hospitalist, Dr. Jamme will also be working with Drs. Welch and Blatt in the development of the program for medically complex children.

Dr. Jamme tells the Crier, "my significant others are two cats named Chloe and Darby and a lovely man named Steve who teaches microbiology at Cornell. (Luckily he doesn't bring his experiments home with him). I was an occupational therapist before embarking on a medical career. I've lived in Germany, eat anchovies on my pizza and enjoy hiking, biking and photography. I also knit hats, scarves and sweaters with uneven sleeves in my spare time and enjoy cooking for willing victims." We are delighted to have her join us.

The Grand Opening, Continues

Editor's Note: We are pleased to present yet another article about our new Children's Hospital:

Pediatric SWAT

Bonnie Miner, MS. RN
Just before moving to the new Children's Hospital the Pediatric Transport nurses added a new role, Pediatric SWAT. Improving the quality of care to our patients is their primary goal. The position covers – hospital transport, first responders to pediatric codes and Pediatric Rapid Response calls. They also will be educating the staff skills related to resuscitation and advanced patient assessment.

Each SWAT nurse approaches their day a variety of ways. Asking one of them to tell me about their routine, Sharon Luke stated that it depends on the day. She usually tries to attend report in the PICU so she has a general idea of the patients in the unit and the possible patients that may require extra help with the care. The SWAT nurse from the night before gives her a report and identifies any trouble spots she should be aware of as she begins her day. One of the first places she stops to check is the transport equipment to be sure it is ready for her when she needs to rock and roll! Equipment needs to be checked to see if it’s all ready. Her morning usually includes a tour of the units to check any concerns and to note the patient’s level of PEWS (Pediatric Early Warning Score). She may stop to talk to the nurse of a patient whose PEWS score is in the yellow or orange zone to see if anything needs to be done, it may even include a quick assessment so she has baseline if problems occur later. She checks with the charge nurse on 12F (PICU) to be sure there isn’t something the unit needs. Depending on what she encounters on her rounds she may even give a heads up to the PICU resident team so they are aware of any worrisome patients. Throughout the day the staff from the units may call the SWAT for changes in patient’s condition, validation of concerns, hard IV sticks or lab draws, or general consultations related to care of the patient.

The SWAT nurse lives up to their name using their own Special Weapons And Tactics in the care of the pediatric patient.

Meeting the Newbies

The fourth annual new faculty reception was held on October 22 at the Delavan Art Gallery. Dr. Welch had the pleasure of welcoming and introducing the following new pediatric providers:

Vipin Bansal, MD (Anesthesiology)
Amy Y. DiFabio, MD
Elizabeth A. Jamme, MD
Karol H. Kerr, MD
William G. Kerr, Ph.D.
Satish Krishnamurthy, MD (Neurosurgery)
Lauren E. Lipeski, MD
Allison McCrone, MD (Peds ED)
Henry S. Roane, Ph.D. (Peds and Psychiatry)
Zulma Tovar-Spinoza, MD (Neurosurgery)

Once again, we are delighted to welcome each of our new faculty members.

Upstate Faces Features Dr. Ann Botash

Our own Dr. Ann Botash was the October employee-of-the-month featured on the Upstate Faces website: http://www.upstate.edu/hr/about/faces/faces_oct09.php. The feature ended with the following: "Dr. Botash, our thanks go out to you for your commitment and dedication to Upstate Medical University and for all your efforts to help children who are victims of abuse. Your expertise in this field is essential." Congratulations, Dr. Botash!

Third Upstate Pediatric GI Conference

Prita Mohanty
This year, another successful GI Conference was held on October 24 at the Cavalry Club in Manlius NY. New friendships were made and old ones renewed as gastroenterologists, primary care physicians, residents and nursing staff from Upstate NY met for this year’s conference.

The day started with an introduction by our very own Dr Karjoo who organized the event and chaired it. I was then given the opportunity to present a case before this esteemed audience. And being my first presentation in a Gastroenterology conference, I was really excited. The best thing about the meeting was that everybody was enthusiastic and actively participating in the interactive case presentation. The atmosphere was relaxed and educational. I am grateful to our GI department for their guidance through the preparation and for this positive learning experience by the best in the field.

Dr Steve Landas, pathologist from Upstate University highlighted the histological findings in esophageal eosinophilia and gave us a better understanding of the pathology. Dr Megan Gabel, fellow from University of Rochester, enlightened us about ‘Sulphur burps’, a term commonly used in the community and its association with biliary dyskinesia. The theme continued with Dr Cary Qualia, one of our past residents, and now attending at Albany Medical Center and his attractive talk on ‘Dietary treatment of Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EE)’. The session was complemented by Dr Ratner’s examples of interesting cases of esophageal foreign bodies keeping us curious and engrossed. After a wonderful lunch, our guest speaker, Dr Alex Flores from Tufts Floating Hospital, addressed us with diagnosis, treatment modalities and emerging concepts in gastroparesis. Dr Lee, pediatric surgeon from University of Rochester, spoke about ‘Gall bladder disease in children and its correlation with obesity’. The day concluded with Dr Justinich’s talk on ‘What causes Eosinophilic Esophagitis’. It focused on the current state of knowledge of EE, possible causes, various treatments and research that is presently being conducted on this exciting topic. He discussed about his fascinating research on ‘FGF-9 induced proliferative response to eosinophilic inflammation in EE’.

The meeting benefited partakers by appraisal of several gastrointestinal disorders. Attendees soaked up the latest opinions and insights from the speakers, shared their experiences and honed their ideas and knowledge. It was a very successful meeting, thanks to Dr Karjoo and Dr Brown (Pediatric Gastroenterologist at University of Rochester) who put it all together. I enjoyed the conference and left feeling excited about all the new ideas that I had gathered.

Hail to the Chiefs!

Not necessarily the first to break the news, the Crier is nevertheless pleased to welcome Akaber ElKhamra and Derek Gorski as our 2010-2011 chief residents. Both have agreed to stay next year and we know they will make a great team.

High Fashion with a High Goal

The Fifth Annual "Looking At Our Stars" Fashion Show took place on Sunday, October 25, 2009 at the Genesee Grande Hotel to benefit the Pediatric Services at the Upstate Golisano Children's Hospital. There was a lovely meal, a silent auction and, of course, plenty of fashion. See if you can pick out some of the pediatric faces who donned their fancy duds for a very worthy cause.

Thanks to R. Shea Photography for graciously sharing the above pictures with us.

Wally and Molly Visit GCH

Beth Nelsen
Editor's Note: Just when we thought we had achieved every conceivable goal worth fighting for, with the opening of the GCH, our chief resident takes us to yet another height when she won us a personal guest appearance of “Wally and Molly," the two stuffed Red Sox mascots who are currently on a "nationwide tour". You kind of have to know Beth to grasp the full meaning of this honor. The Post interviewed Beth the day before their arrival. "Pediatrician_brings_red_sox_nation_mascots_to_golisano_childrens_hospital"

But the Crier got an exclusive post-visit interview with chief resident Red Sox fan, Beth Nelsen (our apology in advance to any Yankees fans out there):

I was fortunate enough to be the first stop on the "Where's Wally?" tour. Wally the Green Monster and Molly (his girlfriend) are undertaking a nationwide voyage to see Red Sox fans all over the country. I got this opportunity by e-mailing Jerry Remy, former Red Sox second baseman-turned-TV commentator, who was sponsoring the contest. Wally normally sits next to Jerry during the Red Sox games but rather than have him sit around Boston during another cold, New England winter, he decided to send him on a whirlwind tour of the US.

I got Wally and Molly on a Monday afternoon, and although I was out sick for a day I was still able to bring the two of them around town. It was a fun and unique experience and I can't wait to see what trouble he'll get into on the rest of his tour.

Resident Notes

Since Teaching Day and the opening of the Children’s Hospital, the Crier has received all kinds of notes and pictures from former residents. We thought you might enjoy them, as much as we did.

First, we received the following picture from Janani Tuladhar taken at the Teaching Day:

Pictured left to right are Janani, Zahi Kassas, Coleen Cunningham, Muhammad Djafari, and John Andrake.

We received the following picture from Sonli Mehta of her and her 3-yo daughter Arya:

And the following birth announcement from Angelle and Larry Creswell:

Dani Mouawad sent the following:

Four Lovely Monkeys

I am glad to hear your news. I think often about everyone of you. I am still in Louisiana. I am hoping by next year to move to chapel hill NC. Work is good and family life is wonderful. Below you will find my 4 lovely monkeys. From the oldest to the youngest; Dalia 8 yrs, Rania, 6 yrs, Michael 4 yrs and last, Raphael 2 yrs. I hope everyone is doing well. I keep thinking of visiting the area soon. But with four of them, it may take some planning. Please make sure to say hello to everyone and feel free to share this picture with the department. - Dani Mouawad

In a short note from Aarati Rao, we found out she is getting married in November. Stay tuned for details and pictures. Myla DeJesus sent the following picture of Carlos and Miguel:

And finally, our October 28th Grand Rounds Speaker and former resident Carey Qualia shared a picture of 3 yo Katherine and 6 yo Natalie:

Baby Jay

Dr. Andrake submitted the following news tip:

"I got rare footage of Jay as a youngster playing hockey." http://bruins.nhl.tv/team/embed.jsp?catid=977&id=48542

An anonymous source responded by commenting that seeing Jay’s early role as a goalie explains a lot about him today.

Final Thoughts

We leave you with this picture of our outpatient clinic taken on Friday, October 30th. Things apparently got a little out of hand. The director, himself (front center with dagger in mouth), was even a little more out of sorts than usual, but no one was going to Arrrgggg-ue with him

NOVEMBER BIRTHDAYS
11/1 Irene Cherrick
11/8 Joe Domachowske, Manika Suryadevara
11/9 Regina McConnell
11/13 Sarah Finocchiaro
11/15 Jay Peacock
11/20 Mirza Beg
11/21 Peter Chmiel
11/25 Rana El Feghaly
11/28 Prita Mohanty
11/29 Akaber ElKhamra

Questions? Rave Reviews? Article suggestions? Contact Patty Mondore, Dept. of Pediatrics.
Criticisms and Complaints