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Keck School of Medicine of USC •
Children’s Hospital Los Angeles
KSOM - CHLA E-News
an e-newsletter for faculty of the Keck School of Medicine of USC
January 2011
News
Welcome Messages
From Dr. D. Brent Polk
As chair of the Department of Pediatrics, vice president of academic affairs, vice dean of clinical affairs and
director of The Saban Research Institute of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, I would like to introduce our
new CHLA-KSOM newsletter.
Together, the faculty at CHLA comprise more than 25 percent of the Keck School of Medicine of USC faculty
membership, and the Department of Pediatrics is the largest department at KSOM with more than 80 years
of service in that role. There have been many shared successes over the years including important discoveries, innovative approaches to prevention and the treatment of diseases impacting children, adolescents,
young adults and their families.
The CHLA-KSOM newsletter will feature many of the faculty-related accomplishments, news and events
with the united purpose of strengthening the relationships between Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and the
University of Southern California while providing pertinent information and relevant stories.
I am pleased that we are partnering here to recognize and honor the faculty through this CHLA-KSOM
newsletter.
From Dr. Carmen A. Puliafito, Dean
The Keck School of Medicine of USC is comprised of numerous academic units dedicated to advancing
biomedical research, providing exceptional and compassionate patient care, and offering comprehensive
training for medical students and residents.
As dean, I take tremendous pride in the fact that Children’s Hospital Los Angeles is one of the nation’s
premier pediatric research and teaching hospitals and part of the Keck School of Medicine family. CHLA is
home to the Keck School’s Department of Pediatrics and 345 Keck faculty members and researchers. The
hospital serves as a beacon of hope to children and their parents from all walks of life searching for excellence in pediatric medical care.
I would like to express to our faculty at CHLA my admiration and gratitude for the exceptional work you perform caring for children and adolescents, for collaborating in scientific breakthroughs to prevent, diagnose
and treat disease, and for imparting your knowledge to the next generation of physicians and other health
care professionals. CHLA is a wonderful place that is incredibly important to the mission not only of our
medical school, but also of USC as a whole.
Please accept this inaugural newsletter as one among a number of steps I am taking to help strengthen the
relationship between CHLA and our Keck School of Medicine of USC family.
Faculty gather for Town Hall
Keck School Dean Carmen A. Puliafito co-hosted a Town Hall and Holiday
Reception in The Saban Auditorium at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles Dec. 8,
2010, to celebrate Keck faculty working at CHLA. Dr. D. Brent Polk, professor
and chair of the Department of Pediatrics and director of The Saban Research
Institute of CHLA, and Dr. Henri R. Ford, vice dean of medical education at Keck
and chief of surgery at CHLA, co-hosted the event. Faculty gathered in the Saban
Auditorium to hear Dean Puliafito outline his plans for the school and take questions from the audience. The meeting was the first in what the dean plans as a
series of periodic meetings to strengthen the Keck-CHLA relationship and inform
faculty of important school updates.
Dr. Henri R. Ford, Dean Carmen
A. Puliafito and Dr. D. Brent Polk,
co-hosts of the Town Hall and
Holiday Reception at CHLA on
Dec. 8, 2010.
Haiti service anniversary
Dr. Henri Ford, vice dean at the Keck School of Medicine and surgeon-in-chief at CHLA, was in Haiti Jan.
11-12, 2011, a year after a catastrophic earthquake struck the Caribbean nation, killing more than 300,000
people and leaving millions more without water, food and shelter. Last year, Ford led a team of 10 trauma
specialists – two CHLA physicians and eight other specialists from the Keck School – to treat quake victims
at capital Port-au-Prince’s national soccer stadium.
While in Haiti, Ford operated on patients, gave lectures to medical students, and studied plans with the
American College of Surgeons to build a trauma hospital in Port-au-Prince. Ford grew up in Port-au-Prince
and has traveled to Haiti eight times in the past year to lead recovery efforts following the earthquake. His
work there was highlighted by numerous international, national and local media outlets.
Professional development for women academicians
Drs. Ami Shah, Anat Erdreich-Epstein, Victoria Niklas and Jill Hoffman recently completed the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) 2010 Mid-Career Women Faculty Development Seminar in
Scottsdale, Ariz. The four-day professional development seminar was designed for women academicians
with a clear potential for advancement to departmental and institutional leadership. The program’s goal is to
enhance knowledge and skills needed to support progress along the path to leadership in academic medicine.
Shah is associate professor of clinical pediatrics and interim division chief for CHLA’s Division of Research
Immunology/Bone Marrow Transplantation. Erdreich-Epstein is associate professor of cancer biology, pediatrics and hematology-oncology. Niklas is associate professor of pediatrics. Hoffman is associate professor
of pediatric infectious diseases.
American Pediatric Society honors three
Drs. Charles Gomer, Thomas Coates and Andrea Kovacs have been elected to the American Pediatric Society. Gomer is vice chair for faculty development at CHLA and professor of pediatrics and radiation
oncology at the Keck School. Coates is professor of pediatrics and pathology at Keck. Kovacs is professor
of pediatrics and pathology, and director of the Maternal, Child and Adolescent Center for Infectious Disease
and Virology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.
Membership in the society is bestowed upon investigators, scholars and teachers who contributed to the
improvement in treatment, diagnosis and prevention of diseases of children and young adults.
Society for Pediatric Research elects three
Three Keck School faculty members who work as investigators at The Saban Research Institute of CHLA
have been elected to the prestigious Society for Pediatric Research.
Dr. Steven Mittelman conducts his research at the Center for Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at
CHLA and is assistant professor of pediatrics, physiology and biophysics at the Keck School. Dr. Leo
Mascarenhas is director of the Clinical Trials Office in the Children’s Center for Cancer and Blood
Diseases and principal investigator for the National Cancer Institute-funded Children’s Oncology Group
grant at CHLA. He is also associate professor of clinical pediatrics at Keck. Dr. Sebastien Bouret is part of
the neuroscience program at The Saban Research Institute of CHLA and assistant professor of pediatrics at
Keck.
The Society for Pediatric Research exists to foster the research and career development of investigators
engaged in creating new knowledge that advances the health and well being of children. Membership is by
election only.
Ramanathan named Hospital Hero
The National Health Foundation honored Dr. Rangasamy Ramanathan in December
with its 2010 Hospital Hero Award for his exceptional patient care at LAC+USC Medical Center, where he serves as associate division chief and section head of the Division of Neonatal Medicine and medical director of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
The award citation credited Dr. Ramanathan with saving the life of a patient, who was
born three months premature, weighing only 14 ounces. Under Ramanathan’s care,
the patient spent 140 days in the neonatal intensive care unit before his release home.
Ramanathan is professor of pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine and associate
division chief of the Division of Newborn and Infant Critical Care at CHLA. The
Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education recently appointed him a panel
member for pediatrics-neonatal-perinatal medicine for the period 2010-2016.
National Health Foundation
honoree Dr. Rangasamy
Ramanathan
Siegel chairs CureSearch for Children’s Cancer board
Dr. Stuart Siegel, head of the Division of Hematology-Oncology in the Department of Pediatrics at CHLA,
has been named chair of the board of CureSearch for Children’s Cancer, a leading pediatric oncology research foundation.
Siegel is professor and vice chair of pediatrics at the Keck School, associate director for pediatric oncology
at the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, and founding director of the Children’s Center for Cancer
and Blood Diseases at CHLA.
Siegel has been a longtime board member of CureSearch for Children’s Cancer and has worked to ensure
that the organization continues to support the cutting-edge research of the Children’s Oncology Group, a
collaborative research group of more than 210 member hospitals worldwide. In the U.S., Children’s Oncology Group hospitals treat more than 90 percent of children with cancer.
New hires
Drs. Cecelia Fu and Shahab Noori, former members of the CHLA-Keck family, have
returned for appointments as associate professors of clinical pediatrics.
Fu’s interests include childhood leukemias and developmental therapeutics, in particular more rare leukemias, including chronic myelogenous leukemia, acute promyelocytic leukemia, infant leukemia and relapsed leukemias. She is also interested in
the late effects of cancer treatment, supportive care and palliative care.
Dr. Cecelia Fu
Noori’s focus is developmental cardiovascular physiology and pathophysiology, and
cerebral blood flow and brain injury in neonates.
Dr. Shahab Noori
CHLA-HSC shuttle schedule
Children’s Hospital Los Angeles operates a shuttle bus that runs between CHLA and the USC Health Sciences Campus (HSC) Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The shuttle departs from the front entrance
of CHLA at 10 a.m. and again at 12 noon. The last tram leaves CHLA at 2 p.m.
At the USC Health Sciences Campus, the shuttle departs at the Shipping Dock (Biggy Street) between USC
Norris Cancer Hospital and the Keith Administration Building at 10:45 a.m. and 12:45 p.m. The last tram
leaves HSC at 2:30 p.m. The service is free.
You can verify shuttle times by calling the Department of Parking at CHLA at (323) 361-2214.
Parking
Self-parking is available on the Health Sciences and University Park campuses for USC faculty and staff
based at CHLA. If you need to visit one of the campuses, please contact Danny Lagos in the Office of Academic Affairs at CHLA at (323) 361-4084 or e-mail at [email protected] to make parking reservations.
Be prepared to provide details about your visit including: the campus, structure, date, time and purpose of
your visit. To accommodate each request, please provide 48 hours advance notice.
Media Mentions
On Jan. 12, CNN: Interviewed Dr. Henri Ford as he returned to Haiti one year after the earthquake. Business Wire and The Los Angeles Times Magazine also covered the story.
On Dec. 20, U.S. News & World Report: Cited a new study published by Heather Volk and a team of researchers from Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and the Keck School of Medicine, which found that children
born to women living within about a thousand feet from a freeway are twice as likely to have autism. Los
Angeles Times, WebMD, KTLA, KTTV (FOX11 News), Time, United Press International, CBS News, NECN/
KCAL, Los Angeles Daily News, Medical News Today, CTV (Canada), Asian News International (India) also
carried the story. The coverage resulted from a news release/media pitch by USC Health Sciences Media
Relations and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles Media Relations.
CHLA-KSOM E-News is produced periodically by the Dean of the Keck School of Medicine of USC, in
collaboration with the Department of Pediatrics. To contribute ideas for consideration, comments or
questions, send them to [email protected] .