Society for Pediatric Urgent Care

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Society for Pediatric Urgent Care

Boston Children’s Pediatric Acute Care Fellowship at South Shore Hospital

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Boston Children’s is proud to offer a new Pediatric Acute Care Fellowship at South Shore Hospital.  Acute and urgent care are important components of pediatric medicine. This fellowship is best suited to recent pediatric residency graduates looking to start a career in acute care pediatrics.

Minimum requirements:

  1. Candidate must have completed an ACGME-approved residency in pediatrics
  2. Candidate must be board eligible/certified.
  3. Candidate must be able to obtain a Massachusetts medical license.

Learn more here about Boston Children’s Pediatric Acute Care Fellowship at South Shore Hospital.

5 Things to know about AFM

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Medscape has released the new CDC Expert Commentary  “5 things to know about AFM.”
Title: 5 Things to Know About Acute Flaccid Myelitis
Expert/Faculty: Janell A. Routh, MD, MHS
Posting Date: October 15, 2019
Link: medscape.com/viewarticle/919704?src=par_cdc_stm_mscpedt&faf=1

Also this month, a paper on AFM was published in Nature Medicine, with main authors from UCSF with CDC as collaborators.
Date: 10/21/19
Type: Journal Article
Title: Pan-viral Serology Implicates Enteroviruses in Acute Flaccid Myelitis
Publication: Nature Medicine
Authors: Schubert RD, Hawes I, Ramachandran PS, et al.

How you can help:
To increase awareness about AFM among healthcare professionals, we need your help to continue to spread the word about AFM:

  • Consider forwarding this email to partners on your listserv
  • Post a link to the commentary and the article on your website

CDC Releases “Acute Flaccid Myelitis in the United States: 2015–2017” in Pediatrics

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CDC recently released an article in Pediatrics about acute flaccid myelitis activity in the United States from 2015 to 2017.

Key Findings

  • From 2015 to 2017, 193 patients aged 21 and younger in 41 states were confirmed to have AFM.
  • Most cases (116) occurred between August and November, with the largest number of cases (143) occurring in 2016.
  • The median age of cases was 6 years.
  • Strong evidence pointed to viruses, including enteroviruses, as having a role in these AFM cases.
  • Most cases (79%) had a respiratory illness or fever less than a week before weakness onset.
  • One CSF specimen tested positive for coxsackievirus A16; finding virus in the spinal fluid continues to be challenging.
  • Close to 30% of respiratory specimens tested positive for enteroviruses or rhinoviruses.
  • No single pathogen was identified as the primary cause of AFM

How You Can Help:
Variability in awareness about AFM can lead to underreporting to the health department and affect timely collection of appropriate specimens. Continue to spread the word about AFM by sharing this information with colleagues, posting links to the article, or by retweeting CDC’s AFM tweets from @DrNancyM_CDC and @CDCdirector.

SPUC Partners with the CDC through the AMR Challenge

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The Society for Pediatric Urgent Care has partnered with the CDC through the AMR Challenge to commit to decreasing inappropriate antibiotic use in pediatric urgent care organizations by 20% by December 2019.
SPUC will work with CDC and the Antibiotic Resistance Action Center (ARAC) to continue an ongoing project that examines and improves the use of antibiotics in pediatric urgent care by implementing quality improvement initiatives.
The project will collect, analyze, and feedback data monthly to participating providers and centers through 2019 to guide each organization’s quality improvement efforts.

Remembering Mike Moran

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It is with heavy hearts we share with you the passing of our friend and colleague Dr. Mike Moran. Mike passed away on March 27th surrounded by his family. Michael Moran was a founding father of SPUC, serving more than four years on the board and the annual program planning committee. His guidance and strong, caring presence will be greatly missed.
The services for Dr. Moran will be through Terrace Park Funeral Home.

CDC Health Advisory: Increase in Influenza A(H3N2) Activity

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March 28, 2019
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a health advisory, notifying clinicians that influenza activity remains high in the United States, with an increasing proportion of activity due to influenza A(H3N2) viruses, continued circulation of influenza A(H1N1) viruses, and low levels of influenza B viruses. Influenza should be considered as a possible diagnosis for patients with respiratory illness while local influenza activity remains elevated. CDC recommends antiviral medications for treatment of influenza, regardless of a patient’s influenza vaccination status.  Details here. 

Call for Abstracts – SPUC 2019

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Abstract submission is open to physicians, physician assistants, medical students, residents, fellows, APRN’s, nursing staff and nurse managers as well as administrative and business professionals. Topics can range from clinical to research and quality improvement to business science. Case reports, clinical and administrative are also encouraged for submission.   Click here for Abstract Guidelines and to begin the submission process. Submission Deadline: May 15, 2019

Welcome New Board Members!

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The Society for Pediatric Urgent Care is pleased to announce the additional of two new board members.  Dr. Amy Romashko is a Pediatrics specialist at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin. Dr. Romashko facilitates “Language of Caring” modules created to help improve communication between providers and families.  She is an active member of the SPUC Program committee.  Dr.  John Santos joins us from Children’s Hospital Colorado. Dr Santos has received numerous Patient-Family awards.  He is chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) subcommittee on Urgent Care.