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Ronald McDonald Children's Hospital
Pediatrics Department

Residency Program

Research

Residents are involved in research projects throughout their residency.  Some current topics of research include:

Sharie Cooper

  • The Use of Gestational Age (GA) in Assessing Initial Fluid Requirements in Fetal Newborns (FN) <=25 Weeks; Accepted for a poster presentation at 48th Annual Meeting of the Midwest Society for Pediatric Research

Elizabeth Dawson

  • Violence Prevention in the Maywood Community

Elizabeth Harstad

  • Received a CATCH grant to provide Parent education for parents of children with ADHD

Jennifer Johnson

  • Thornwaldt Cyst Presenting as Pediatric Asthma; Accepted for a poster at ACAAI's 2007 Annual Meeting

  • Defecation Syncope in an Asthmatic Child; accepted for a poster presentation at ACAAI's 2008 Conference

Himala Kashmiri

  •  Chronic Urticaria-Angioedema linked to Pharyngeal Group C Strep Carrier State; accepted for a poster presentation at ACAAI's 2008 Conference

Rajiv Kumar

  • T cell mediated Reaction to Easter Egg Dyes; accepted for a poster presentation at ACAAI's 2008 Conference.

  • “Nutritional Rickets in an Atopic Nursing Infant Compounded by Maternal Gastric Bypass Surgery” accepted for National AAP conference October 2009

Amy Leifheit

  • The prevalence and pattern of use of OTC cough and cold medications in children in the Loyola outpatient pediatric acute care clinic.

Joseph Mittel

  • “A Case of Closet Avian Hypersensitivity Pneumonitis” accepted for oral presentation at AAP National conference and Exhibition October 2009

Sujan Patel

  • Food processing and animal milk specificity determine the allergenicity of cheese; accepted for a poster presentation at ACAAI's 2008 Conference.

Ryan Scheper

  • Triage of Pediatric Patients Away from the Main Emergency Department

Nazia Sheriff

  • Received an AAP Resident Initiative grant for her Refugee Health Promotion project

Tricia Thomson

  • Neurodevelopmental Outcomes of Grade 3 Intraventricular Hemorrhage in Preterm Newborns; presented AAP Conference

Jill Veselik

  • Pediatric Resident Exposure to Workplace Violence

Faculty in the Department of Pediatrics are involved in various research projects based on their interests. Examples of ongoing research in the department include:

Neonatal Group:

  • Growth and development in infants with BPD

  • Effectiveness of grief counseling after neonatal death

  • Rapid sequence intubation in premature babies

  • Markers of neonatal sepsis

  • Controlled management of neonatal ventilation

  • PDA and Surfactant

  • Grade III IVH Follow-Up

  • Fluids in the Extremely Low Birthweight Newborn

  • Multiple Gestations

  • Markers for Birth Asphyxia

  • LSV

  • NEC Prospective Markers

  • NEC Long-Term Follow-up

Dr. T. Gunasakaran (Pediatric Gastroenterology):

  • Stress as a risk factor for GER symptoms

  • Food as a risk factor for GER symptoms

Dr. Karen Judy (General Pediatrics)

  • Lead poisoning

  • Workplace violence

  • Medical Education

Dr. Lisa Martin (General Pediatrics)

  • Obesity and the metabolic syndrome

  • Medical Education

Dr. Mary Keen (Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation):

  • Selective Muscle Strengthening in CP

Dr. David Hatch (Pediatric Urology):

  • Oxybutynin patch for treatment of neurogenic bladder in patients with spinal cord abnormalities.

  • Safety and efficacy of semi-solid silicone testicular prosthesis

Dr. Charles Hemenway (Pediatric Hematology/Oncology):

  • Design and development of inhibitors of MLL leukemias; grant support through National Institutes of Health/national Cancer Institute and The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society

Dr. Kathleen Webster (Pediatric Intensive Care)

  • Impact of sedation weaning protocol on withdrawal symptoms in the PICU

  • Pediatric Ward Use of Telemedicine Critical Care Consults: Setting the Stage for a Remote Rapid Response Team

  • Risk Assessment for Pediatric Emergency Transfers

Dr. Jenny Wang (Pediatric Intensive Care)

  • Risk Assessment for Pediatric Emergency Transfers

In addition, all residents have a senior research project requirement. The purpose of this project is to have residents begin investigating a question that has come to them in the course of seeing patients. Residents begin thinking about their projects towards the end of their first year - beginning of their second year. They select a topic and a faculty mentor and begin designing their study as early as the second year. Several projects have gone on to be presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies Meetings held each year in May. Grand Round presentations of the projects occur in May and June of the residents' PL3 year.

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