Entering a new year, we are filled with hope for achieving new goals, establishing new routines and beginning new projects. And yet, we find ourselves facing the ongoing challenge of the ever-evolving COVID-19 pandemic. We are fortunate to be surrounded by children every day, and in them, we continually find inspiration. Their courage and resilience in the face of illness and injury empowers us to work together every day and to look forward on their behalf.
In this issue of Hope, we highlight achievements met by consistently looking forward with a commitment to improving the health and well-being of youth in our community and beyond. In doing so, we recognize important milestones as well as individuals who advance our missions of discovery, education, clinical programs and advocacy.
Through a Q&A with the leader of our pediatric diabetes center, one of the largest in the region, we celebrate the centennial anniversary of the discovery of insulin and our team’s contributions to advancements in diabetes care. We also share the opening of the new Reed Family Maternal Fetal Clinic and all that the multidisciplinary program affords within the greater context of our growth to the highest level of newborn intensive care in our region. And we introduce you to our multidisciplinary clinical and research teams focused on complex thyroid conditions, including thyroid cancer.
Each of these programs shares the common foundation of our commitment to health and community. We round out this issue highlighting our desire to build greater resources to support the mental health of all our patients. The COVID-19 pandemic has increased focus on existing issues in our youth and their families as they deal with their acute and chronic illnesses, but also everyday stressors. We are building the team and programs to better attend to these needs.
Together, as a community, we have and will continue to respond to the needs of those we serve, through research, education and our clinical programs. We are so very grateful to everyone who joins us in providing hope — past, present and future.
Sincerely,
Meg Rush, MD, MMHC
President
Steven Webber, MBChB, MRCP
Pediatrician-in-Chief, Chair of the Department of Pediatrics and James C. Overall Professor
Jeffrey Upperman, MD
Surgeon-in-Chief and Chair of the Department of Pediatric Surgery
John W. Brock III, MD
Senior Vice President of Pediatric Surgical Services, Monroe Carell Jr. Professor, Surgeon-in-Chief Emeritus