Conferences & Research

Tuesday afternoons are conference days, beginning with Endocrinology Grand Rounds, a weekly conference with Adult Endocrinology.  This is followed by a Med/Ped Endocrinology case conference and an Internal Medicine Endocrine Fellow lecture to which Pediatric Endocrinology is invited.  The Pediatric Endocrinology Conference is the last conference of the day and rotates between Journal Club, Fellow-presented Endocrine Topic, Faculty-presented Endocrine Topic and a monthly Diabetes Case Conference where we discuss every new-onset or new to UVA diabetes patient, everyone who has been admitted in DKA and other patients who need psychosocial support.  The Fellowship Director meets with the fellows every Monday afternoon to review cases with a particular emphasis on preparing for the Boards.  Pediatric Grand Rounds is on Thursday morning.  Pediatric Fellows Forum is a meeting of all Pediatric Fellows to share research ideas and projects and to learn or review core concepts such as statistics and human subjects research.  There is a daily Pediatrics Morning Report attended by the residents, Peds Hospitalists, and a representative of each subspecialty to review every interesting Pediatric admission from the prior 24 hours.

The Pediatric Endocrinology faculty are all involved in the research.  Dr. DeBoer and Dr. Schoelwer conduct clinical trials in the UVA Center for Diabetes Technology (CDT).  The CDT developed the insulin dosing algorithm that has been integrated into many of the closed-loop artificial pancreas insulin pumps.  Dr. DeBoer is also developing a metabolic syndrome assessment and prediction algorithm that is graded, not all or nothing, to assess over time whether the risk is increasing or decreasing.  He also has funding from the Gates Foundation to study interventions to prevent growth stunting in at-risk children in Tanzania, and he is evaluating the roots of poor growth in a longitudinal study of growth in children in the US.  Dr. Burt Solorzano is studying the physiologic basis of excess androgen production in adolescent girls with PCOS.  Dr. Repaske is working with Dr. Steve Rich to implement a genomic diabetes risk assessment of children to prevent DKA by early identification and education for parents whose children are found to be at risk.  He is also working with Dr. Larry Lum on a strategy to target Treg lymphocytes to pancreatic islets to slow or prevent diabetes in children who are in stage 1 or stage 2 diabetes.  Dr. Wood is evaluating the role of zonulin in the development of type 1 diabetes.  Dr. Mason is investigating the basis for growth failure in asymptomatic children with diabetes.  Dr. Kakkanatt is developing a research program in bone and mineral metabolism.  Dr. Rogol is Emeritus Professor, and remains very involved with fellow education and research, particularly supporting the publication of reviews and text chapters.  Research mentors are not restricted to Pediatric Endocrinology faculty, and there are many collaborative opportunities in Adult Endocrinology, in the Center for Diabetes Technology, in the Center for Public Health Genomics, and throughout the Medical Center and the University.