Physician Appointments & Awards

(From Pediatric Directions, Issue 38)

William E. Shiels II, DO, Awarded the Dr. Floyd J. Trenery Memorial Medal at the AOCR Convention

Nelin Appointed Neonatology Division Chief at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and The Ohio State University College of Medicine

Leif Nelin, MD, has been appointed chief of the Division of Neonatology at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and The Ohio State University College of Medicine. “Dr. Nelin is the ideal physician and academician to lead the Division of Neonatology into the next phase of strategic growth,” said Michael Brady, MD, physician-in-chief at Nationwide Children’s and Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at The OSU College of Medicine. Dr. Nelin has served as a neonatologist at Nationwide Children’s since 2002, where he also led the Center for Perinatal Research in The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s. In 2010, he was named interim division chief of Neonatology.

During Dr. Nelin’s tenure, both the clinical and research programs in Neonatology have thrived. During this past year, he and other team members submitted a highly competitive grant application that allowed Nationwide Children’s to become a participant hospital in the prestigious National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Neonatal Research Network, which is comprised of the top neonatal programs in the country.

Additionally, he has been instrumental in developing and publishing protocols that standardize care for the tiniest premature infants, resulting in improved outcomes, while shortening their length of stay in the hospital. Dr. Nelin will be taking the helm of Nationwide Children’s perinatal network; one of America’s largest with more than 190 neonatal beds located at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and at satellite nurseries throughout the region. Patients are referred from throughout the region for Nationwide Children’s specialized expertise in extreme prematurity and complex conditions, such as bronchopulmonary dysplasia and infant feeding disorders.

Nationwide Children’s Hospital Physician One of Four New ACMG Directors

The American College of Medical Genetics (ACMG) announced the election of four new Directors who began their terms on April 1, 2011. Directors are elected by the entire ACMG membership and approved by the current Board of Directors Nationwide Children’s Hospital.

Gail E. Herman, MD, PhD, FACMG, is the new President-Elect. Dr. Herman is a principal investigator, Center for Molecular & Human Genetics, The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and professor, Department of Pediatrics, The Ohio State University. Three additional new Directors elected to the Board include: Mira Irons, MD, FACMG, Children’s Hospital of Boston as ACMG Clinical Genetics Director; Christa Lese Martin, PhD, FACMG of Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA as ACMG Cytogenetics Director; and Soma Das, PhD, FACMG, University of Chicago as ACMG Molecular Genetics Director.

All newly elected Directors will serve six-year terms from 2011 – 2017. Directors completing their terms with the ACMG Board in 2011 include Past President Joe Leigh Simpson, MD, FACMG; Secretary and Molecular Genetics Director Elaine B. Spector, PhD, FACMG; Treasurer and Cytogenetics Director Daynna J. Wolff , PhD, FACMG; and Clinical Genetics Director Gerald Feldman, MD, PhD, FACMG.

Announcing Two New Surgeons to Lead the Center for Surgical Outcomes Research

Katherine J. Deans, MD, MHSc, and Peter C. Minneci, MD, MHSc, have joined the Department of Pediatric Surgery at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and will co-direct the new Center for Surgical Outcomes Research (CSOR) at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Prior to their arrival, Dr. Deans served as an assistant professor of Surgery and Dr. Minneci was an instructor of Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP).

Katherine J. Deans, MD, MHSc is co-director of the Center for Surgical Outcomes Research (CSOR) at Nationwide Children’s, and assistant professor of Surgery and Pediatrics at The Ohio State University. She is a graduate of Dartmouth Medical School and completed a surgery residency and research fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital and the National Institutes of Health. She is board certified by the American Board of Surgery in Surgery, Surgical Critical Care and Pediatric Surgery. She is a member of the American College of Surgeons, Society of Critical Care Medicine and the American Pediatric Surgical Association.

Peter C. Minneci, MD, MHSc is co-director of the Center for Surgical Outcomes Research (CSOR) at Nationwide Children’s, and assistant professor of Surgery and Pediatrics at The Ohio State University. He is a graduate of New York University School of Medicine and completed a surgery residency and research fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital and the National Institutes of Health. He is board certified by the American Board of Surgery in Surgery and Surgical Critical Care and is a member of the American College of Surgeons, Society of Critical Care Medicine and Alpha Omega Alpha.

Drs. Deans and Minneci will be responsible for developing and leading CSOR at Nationwide Children’s. The CSOR will be a comprehensive surgical outcomes research program, which will employ a wide range of methodologies, in order to determine optimal interventions for the management of surgical diseases and the minimization of post-operative complications. This center will become one of the largest children’s surgery clinical research centers in the United States. Visit NationwideChildrens.org/Surgery to learn more about pediatric surgery at Nationwide Children’s.