November 2020

Global Pediatrics Program Newsletter

Risha Moskalewicz, MD

Director, Global Pediatrics Track

I know we all have much to be grateful for this year, despite its difficulties, and we will usher in the new year with new hope. I am particularly grateful for the flexibility of our faculty and residents in helping continue global health programming and expand our curriculum to have more focus on domestic health equity issues as well as international ones - and also for our international partners with whom we continue to maintain a mutually supportive relationship amidst the pandemic.

This month, Dr. Rhea Boyd will be giving Grand Rounds on Nov 18th and the following evening of Nov 19th she will hold a special Q&A session for our global health residents. Dr. Boyd is an outspoken racial justice and health equity advocate. Here is a video from her 2017 AAP conference plenary session for which she received a standing ovation: https://pediatrics.ucsf.edu/news/rhea-boyd-md-aap-national-conference-2017. She's also a personal friend of mine, having completed residency together at UCSF. I really hope we can have as many global health residents and faculty as possible join the conversation on Nov 19th. 

Upcoming Events

Research Zoom Meeting

Date & Time: Tuesday, November 10 — 12:00 p.m.—1:00 p.m.

Location: Register for the webinar

Topic: Dr. Logan Spector

Pediatric Grand Rounds

Date & Time: Wednesday, November 18 — 7:30 a.m.—8:30 a.m.

Location: Access Grand Rounds through Zoom

Topic: With Dr. Rhea Boyd

Monthly Global Pediatrics Track Meeting

Date & Time: Thursday, November 19 — 6:00 p.m.—7:30 p.m.

Location: Register for the webinar

Topic: TBD with Dr. Rhea Boyd

New Faculty Member!

Dr. Calla Brown

I am a med/peds physician and recently joined the Faculty in the Division of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Health.  I first fell in love with the idea of global health as a college student majoring in Women’s and Gender Studies, having coursework that studied social movements and grassroots community-based advocacy globally.  I fell in love with the practice of community-driven and community-based global health while serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Youth and Family Programs in coastal Ecuador after that, where I had the honor to work with young people, families, health workers, and others who were advocating for better health for all, combining this with advocacy around education and access to social services broadly.  Following my Peace Corps service I returned to the US for medical school, and was able to participate in short-term global health experiences in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, but also had the opportunity to spend a fifth year as a volunteer in rural El Salvador with the organization Doctors for Global Health. 

My med/peds residency here at the U was invaluable in providing clinical skills training in global health, and my continuity clinic at CUHCC, coupled with a rotation in Haiti and the UMN global health course, provided knowledge in pathology, diagnostics, treatment, and clinical communication.  Following residency my family and I spent an academic year in Lilongwe, Malawi as physician educators with Seed Global Health, a program that focuses on education as a pathway to increase human resources for health, prior to returning to the Twin Cities for an academic gen peds fellowship.  My passions are community health, human rights, and education.  I’m thrilled to be staying at the U, and can’t wait to learn more about all of the amazing work and advocacy collaborations of the residents! 


Chief's Corner

Note from Dr. Alice Lehman

Híŋhaŋni wašté (Good morning in Lakota),

Rosebud is located within Rosebud Indian Reservation in Todd County, South Dakota. The reservation is home to the Rosebud Sioux tribe and Sicangu people, which is a federally recognized entity. In early September 2020, I completed my first 2 weeks here as a primary care pediatrician for the Indian Health Service branch in Rosebud. The branch has 2 full time pediatricians who work 2 weeks at a time covering the inpatient pediatric service and a busy outpatient clinic with hours typically from 8AM to 8PM. I was fortunate to work along both of these doctors to train into the system which hopefully I will be spending up to 6 – 8 weeks in this year. Learning to work in a different health care system can be challenging especially when you are no longer a learner rather a sole provider for a portion of the population. The nuances of work within a government institution (Indian Health Services) in a rural setting where the medical facility has limited laboratory, imaging, and specialists’ capabilities are complex. 

This experience is incredibly rewarding. This experience gives you the privilege of caring for a population with a rich sense of identity, culture and resilience who have been historically and presently marginalized and neglected by our society.

Myself and Phil Plager completed a mass medical screening for the Tribe’s Head Start program. Here, we identified children in need of primary care and bridged the families to care at IHS, where we saw them in clinic later that week working on optimizing for example asthma or eczema management. The longer one spends in the community the more meaningful our work becomes. I look forward to returning to Rosebud in December to continue work in creating bidirectional partnerships there.   

Aŋpétu wašté yuhá po (Have a nice day)

Holding 2 of the babies born to our Bubble CPAP team nurses during our safety study!  
Bubble CPAP team celebrating the end our first study in 2016!

Faculty Corner 

Ashley Bjorklund, MD, FAAP

I am a pediatric critical care physician, global pediatric program faculty, and the program director for the pediatric critical care fellowship program. I am from Chicago, completed medical school at Rush University, and then completed Med-Peds Residency (2011) and PCCM Fellowship (2016) at UMN. I spent ~ 5 years serving in the Navy as well, prior to separating and returning to Minnesota to settle into my current position at Hennepin Healthcare and UMN.

I have interest in using simple innovations and global partnership to expand pediatric care capacity in resource limited settings. My academic endeavors are aimed at expanding capacity through low-cost device innovation and partnering in expanding shared critical care curriculum. My specific research is focused on determining if low-cost modified bubble CPAP, can be a feasible, safe and efficacious form of respiratory support for children outside of the neonatal period. As a fellow I had the opportunity to partner with a team in Uganda to demonstrate the safety of our novel modified nasal seal. Our team is now in the midst of applying for NIH funding to evaluate the efficacy of the device, along with a novel low-cost oxygen blender (design team lead by Dr. Andrew Wu, prior global pediatrics program chief).

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted even more the need for low-cost, easily constructed, respiratory support technology. Our anecdotal experience seeing children improve with this form of respiratory support in our safety study fuels a desire to demonstrate the devices efficacy, so that we can confidently share this device design for use in resource-limited settings. 

Resident Spotlight

Matt Seitzer, MD  - Pediatric Resident PL2

Matt Seitzer is 2nd year Pediatric Resident in the Pediatric Global Health Track. In undergrad at St. Olaf, Matt worked on health projects in Cusco and surrounding Andes based communities in Peru. He helped run traveling dental and medical clinics in orphanages, participated in community efforts to beautify schools and helped efforts to provide safe drinking water in remote communities. In Medical School here at UMN, Matt helped coordinate educational opportunities with the Global Health Interest Group and worked with the Inter-Professional Street Outreach Program to provide health care to marginalized populations in the Twin Cities. Matt is hoping to travel to Port Au Prince, Haiti for his clinical time abroad with the global health track where he would also be able to utilize his French language skills.

Favorite quote: “To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world” – Dr. Seuss

Favorite travel destination:  Eiffel Tower in Paris, France or Machu Picchu in Peru

What the world needs more of: love and compassion

If you weren't a physician you would be: a Veterinarian

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