Grant Will Train Pediatricians for Poor Areas

Children’s Hospital has picked up a $1.9 million grant to train medical students to become primary care pediatricians in medically underserved neighborhoods.

Children’s Residency Program Director Dena Hofkosh says many areas in and around Pittsburgh are in need of primary care pediatricians, as well as family doctors. She says this is especially true of both urban and rural low-income areas.

The 5-year program will add two doctors per year for the three-year training course. Hofkosh says the doctors will not only get the traditional academic training of residency, but also hands-on experience in community primary care centers.

Hofkosh says this will be Children’s Hospital’s first attempt to target pediatrician training specifically for high-need areas.

Funding for the grant comes from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, by way of the Affordable Care Act.

Children's Researches Severe Asthma

A new program at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC aims to find better treatments for severely asthmatic children who do not have a medication that works for them.

It is one of two children's centers in the nation that have this kind of research program. The other is at Emory Hospital in Atlanta.

Dr. Shean Aujla, a pulmonologist at Children's, said there have been few studies on severely asthmatic children. She said it is important because these children end up missing more school and having more visits to the emergency room because of ineffective medications. Sometimes children even die from the condition.

"Most of the studies in severe asthma and what we know about severe asthma are in adults," Dr.Aujla says.

Five to 10 percent of asthmatic children are classified as having severe asthma, Aujla said.