Joan Wallick, a Columbus resident (43209), recently donated $1 million to Nationwide Children’s Hospital establishing the Joan Fellowship in Pediatric Hemostasis-Thrombosis which will train the next generation of physicians in the discipline.
Hemostasis-thrombosis is a highly specialized field of medicine focusing on both congenital and acquired disorders of blood coagulation. Common examples of these types of disorders include hemophilia, traumatic bleeding and blood clots. While some children are born with these problems, many more have disorders of coagulation that complicate other illnesses they may suffer such as pediatric cancer, heart disease, kidney disease and serious infections. Nationwide Children’s treats more than 1,000 patients every year with diagnoses ranging from common to the rarest hemostasis-thrombosis problems.
“I am honored to help ensure that our future children and grandchildren who will be diagnosed with hemostasis-thrombosis problems will receive the highest level of care,” said Wallick. “Some of my family was diagnosed with bleeding disorders as adolescents and we encountered, first hand, the lack of trained physicians in the field. It is our goal to shine a bright light on hemostasis-thrombosis problems and ensure that doctors are adequately trained in order to provide the best possible care for these patients.”
The establishment of the Joan Fellowship in Pediatric Hemostasis-Thrombosis at Nationwide Children’s will, in part, address the impending shortage of hemostasis-thrombosis physicians. By adding to the body of highly-trained medical professionals, this fellowship will educate the doctors of the future and benefit the generations of patients with blood disorders in Ohio and around the world.
“We are very grateful to Joan for her generous donation,” said Bryce A. Kerlin, MD, program director of the Joan Fellowship in Pediatric Hemostasis-Thrombosis who is also a physician in Hematology/Oncology/Bone Marrow Transplant at Nationwide Children’s. “Through the establishment of the Joan Fellowship, one of the first hemostasis-thrombosis fellowship training programs in the nation, we hope to alleviate the shortage of physicians who are adequately trained in hemostasis-thrombosis and to be able to provide specialized care to these patients for generations to come.”
The Joan Fellowship in Hemostasis and Thrombosis at Nationwide Children’s will be tailored to both the trainee’s career goals and to the needs of the field. Trainees will have mandatory and elective experiences. Mandatory experiences will include intensive training in hemophilia and allied bleeding disorder care, thrombosis and anticoagulant care, stroke care, inpatient consultation and research. Elective opportunities will be in clinical laboratory hemostasis testing, vascular imaging, women’s bleeding disorders and more.
Dr. Kerlin, who is also an associate professor of Pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine said that, “All fellows will also be encouraged to receive training in the lifetime continuum of congenital hemostasis and thrombosis disorders through Nationwide Children’s collaboration with The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, where Nationwide Children’s fellows are also faculty instructors.”
The partnership between the two institutions will serve the fellows in providing unparalleled educational opportunities while also ensuring that patients throughout the community have the very best of care. Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center and Nationwide Children’s are both federally-funded centers of excellence for hemostasis-thrombosis care.