Nominees for the Chair-elect and Member at-Large Seats:
Chair-elect:
Derek S. Wheeler, MD
Member at-Large:
Raj Aneja, MD
Todd C. Carpenter, MD
Wynne Morrison, MD, MBE
Neal Thomas, MD, FCCM
VOTE FOR CHAIR-ELECT AND MEMBER AT-LARGE
Derek S. Wheeler, MD, FCCM
I would like to nominate myself for the Chair Elect seat for the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) Pediatric Section Steering Committee. I have been an active member of the Society of Critical Care Medicine and the Pediatric Section for the last eleven years, most recently serving as the chair for the Pediatric Multidisciplinary Critical Care Review Course Committee. I am currently the Chair of the Pediatric Multidisciplinary Critical Care Knowledge Assessment Committee. In addition, I am also the Co-Chair of the American College of Critical Care Medicine Models of Critical Care Task Force. I am also currently serving on the SCCM Program Committee, and I have served on the Pediatric Section Steering Committee as a Member at-large for the last 2 years. I would like to continue to serve the Society of Critical Care Medicine and the Pediatric Section, and I feel that I have the necessary qualifications, work ethic, and dedication for this position.
I graduated from Indiana University School of Medicine and completed my pediatric residency training at the Naval Medical Center in San Diego. Prior to entering my pediatric critical care medicine fellowship, I fulfilled my service obligation as a general pediatrician at Naval Medical Center, Guam and Naval Hospital, Camp Lejeune. Following fellowship training at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, I moved to Augusta, Georgia for my first faculty appointment at the Medical College of Georgia. I was recruited back to Cincinnati Children's and have been there for the past seven years. I am an Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, and I have been the Clinical Director in the Division of Critical Care Medicine since July, 2008. I was recently appointed the Associate Patient Safety Officer at the hospital.
I feel that Pediatric critical care medicine continues to deserve a strong voice in the Society of Critical Care Medicine. We are an active and important group in the greater Society at large, and I will continue to be a passionate and fierce advocate for our Section.
Raj Aneja, MD
I would like to submit my name for nomination as a Society of Critical Care Medicine Pediatric Section Steering Committee Member at-large.
After graduating from Christian Medical College, Ludhiana (India), I joined the pediatric residency at Brown Memorial Hospital, which is affiliated with Panjab University, India. Following my immigration to the United States, I completed another pediatric residency at Winthrop-University Hospital in 1999. Subsequent to my fellowship at Children’s Hospital of Buffalo, I completed a research fellowship at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. I joined the Critical Care Medicine faculty at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in September 2004 as an Assistant Professor with appointments in Critical Care Medicine and Pediatrics.
In addition to my clinical work, my basic science research efforts include studying “danger signals” (endogenous proteins that can activate the immune system) in critically-ill patients. My main interest is studying the regulation and function of these danger signals, as it relates to critical illness. In 2009, I was appointed the Medical Director of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.
I have been an active member of SCCM and currently serve on the SCCM Congress Planning Committee and the Multidisciplinary Critical Care Knowledge Assessment Program (MCCKAP) Committee. I had the privilege to serve as the chair of the Pediatric Section of the SCCM Congress Planning Committee for 2010-2011. My broad range of interests combined with my experience and enthusiasm will enable me to be a strong advocate for our section. If elected, I will work hard to advance our interests and objectives within the SCCM community.
Todd C. Carpenter, MD
Please consider my application for an at-large seat on the SCCM Pediatric Section Steering Committee. I am interested in serving because I feel that our field has entered a period of great opportunity but also great risk. To our advantage, national
initiatives such as the Leapfrog Group have brought attention to the value of intensivists and, as a result, many institutions are investing in their ICU facilities and staff, and our services are in demand. Despite this favorable environment, challenges are apparent. Pressures to provide better care at lower cost are mounting and yet funding and support for the research necessary to achieve this goal are dwindling. These forces are driving the field towards a system heavily reliant on standardized protocols but in which the will and resources to rigorously test those approaches are limited. Changes in practice models as well as funding reductions also threaten to drastically curtail the ability of intensivists to conduct the novel research needed to advance the field. In these circumstances, the pediatric critical care community needs a strong voice to both promote quality care and to encourage rigorous research into ways to improve outcomes for our patients.
A combination of clinical, research, and business experience qualifies me to help the steering committee provide that voice. In addition to 14 years as a practicing intensivist in a busy academic practice, I have been a funded and published bench researcher, have ongoing work in both clinical and quality research projects, and have served on our practice business committee.
Wynne Morrison, MD, MBE
Currently, I am a member of the Pediatric Critical Care Division at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, where I direct the fellowship program in Pediatric Critical Care. I also practice Pediatric Palliative Care. My academic interests relate to end of life care, patient-physician-parent communication, ethics, and humanities.
It would be an honor to serve on the Society of Critical Care Medicine Pediatric Section Steering Committee. I believe that involvement with SCCM greatly benefits pediatric intensivists, as we can both learn from and inform our “adult” colleagues.
I have been actively involved with SCCM over the past several years having edited the Pediatric Multidisciplinary Critical Care Knowledge Assessment Program in-training exam and having served on the Ethics Committee of the ACCM.
One area that I would love to see the section steering committee continue to address is how we train future pediatric intensivists, and assess competency, in an era of work hour restrictions. A focus on the pediatric critical care workforce, work-life balance, and recruitment into the field is also important. The pediatric section is also a tremendous networking resource for us all to learn from each other, and I would be thrilled to take on a larger role within the group.
Neal Thomas, MD, FCCM
I would like to be considered for re-election to a Member at-large position for the Pediatric Section Steering Committee of SCCM. After graduating from Temple University SOM, completing a pediatric residency at the Medical University of South Carolina and a fellowship at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, I joined the faculty at Penn State Children’s Hospital in 1998, earning a Master’s Degree in Health Evaluation Sciences in 2004. I was elected to the Pediatric Section Steering Committee of SCCM, and I feel we have made tremendous progress during the past two years that I would like to see continue.
My present faculty role is a combination of three different “hats”. Aside from clinical work in a busy PICU, a portion of my time is devoted to clinical research. While my major interests are the genetic predisposition to the development of lung disease and surfactant replacement therapy for pediatric ARDS, I have also been an active investigator in many observational and interventional clinical trials related to the entire spectrum of pediatric critical illness and injury. This has led to a leadership position (Scientific Steering Committee) of the PALISI network for many years. My third role is serving as the Conflict of Interest Coordinator for Penn State COM, with a significant portion of my time devoted to research administrative and leadership duties.
I have been active in SCCM since fellowship and have served on multiple committees, including the Residency Education Committee, MCCKAP Committee (Chair), and the Congress Program Committee. I feel that my wide range of interests and experience would offer insight into the varying aspects of pediatric critical care medicine, helping to assure that the Pediatric Section continues to represent the wide range of responsibilities that PCCM practitioners deal with daily.
