Year in Review: 2022
A Note from the Division Director
Welcome to the Division of Pediatric Endocrinology at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh!
2022 has been another busy year here in the ‘burgh! As we have done over the past six decades, we provided care and services to children and families in the tristate area of southwestern Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia. Through the pandemic and the evolving health care landscape, we supported our patients and families, nimbly switched to telemedicine as needed, and offered outpatient visits to more than 25,000 children in the past year. Our inpatient service has been very busy as well; 265 children were diagnosed with diabetes in the past year.
Our team continues to grow and currently includes 28 faculty, 11 APPs, nine fellows, 12 certified diabetes care and educator specialists (CDCES), nine endocrine nurses, six dietitians, two psychologists and two social workers. This year, we welcomed new Fellowship Program Director, Kanthi Krishna, MD, and Emir Tas, MD, to the team. We expanded our services to the Wheeling, West Virginia and Cumberland, Maryland regions. Our team at UPMC Harrisburg now includes three full time pediatric endocrinologists, a CDCES and PA specialist.
We developed innovative, multidisciplinary clinical programs such as a Wraparound program for diabetes, clinics for children with muscular dystrophies and metabolic bone disease. We also continued to provide care through long-standing clinical programs such as the Disorders of Sex Differentiation, Cystic Fibrosis-related endocrine disorders, endocrine late effects of cancer treatment, and our thyroid cancer clinic. We continued to work closely with our partners, including UPMC Health Plan and other insurance providers to facilitate technology use among our children with diabetes. We are also partnering with the JDRF, ADA, and PASNAP to engage in advocacy and community-orientated clinical care and research.
Our researchers, who lead robust, innovative, and collaborative programs, published more than 50 peer-reviewed articles and presentations in 2022 and received several new grants including a K08, KL-2 and R01 from the NIH, Endocrine Fellows Foundation, R K Mellon Foundation, Pittsburgh Foundation, and other philanthropic foundations.
Educating the next generation of clinicians and scientists is of the utmost importance to our division. We continue to strive for excellence in this domain. Our faculty are actively involved in teaching and mentoring undergraduate and graduate students, medical students, residents, and fellows. We are very excited that our program will support 10 fellows starting in July 2023. Our fellows are actively engaged in clinical care, research, teaching, and advocacy efforts. We also have an innovative Advanced Practice Provider Fellowship program in Pediatric Endocrinology and have graduated to date five fellows from the program.
Dr. Selma Witchel was awarded Professor Emeritus status following her lifetime commitment and service to the field!
We look forward to continuing and building on our efforts in 2023 and sharing our learnings and accomplishments with our colleagues!
UPMC Children’s Ranks as the #6 Best Pediatric Hospital in the U.S.
UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh is recognized as one of the top pediatric hospitals in the country, earning the #6 position on the 2022-23 U.S. News & World Report Honor Roll of America’s Best Children’s Hospitals.
The Division of Pediatric Endocrinology ranked #6 in the nation among other pediatric endocrinology programs.
UPMC Children’s Named ‘Top Children’s Hospital’ by Leapfrog Group
Highlighting its nationally recognized achievements in patient safety and quality, UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh was named one of The Leapfrog Group’s prestigious “Top Children’s Hospitals.” UPMC Children’s is one of only 12 pediatric hospitals in the nation named to this elite class.
