2023 Department of Pediatrics Academic Annual Report

Pediatric Neurosurgery

PEDIATRIC FACULTY

Dr. Jeffrey P. Blount....Director | Raymond J. Harbert Professor Dr. James M. Johnston ............................Dan Hendley Professor Dr. Jesse Jones....................................................Assistant Professor Dr. Elizabeth M. McRae......................................Assistant Professor Dr. Brandon G. Rocque......................................................Professor Dr. Curtis J. Rozzelle...........................................................Professor Betsy D. Hopson, MHSA .................Director of Transitional Care Anastasia Smith, MPH.................................Research Coordinator

FEATURED RESEARCH The Division of Pediatric Neurosurgery had an extraordinary year in 2023. Faculty and team members were engaged in a wide range of research, education and advocacy/global initiatives that spanned the globe but maintained their center in Alabama. On the global level, the Global Alliance for Prevention of Spina Bifida (GAPSBIF), which was co-founded at Children’s of Alabama and UAB, was instrumental in attaining passage of a World Health Alliance (WHA) resolution supporting folic acid fortification for prevention of spina bifida (WHA 76.19). This is the first surgeon-led WHA initiative. GAPSBIF also established crucial partnerships in 2023 with Rotary International, the G4 alliance (for global surgical care), Food Fortification Initiative (FFI) and the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN). Jeffrey Blount, M.D., MPH, is a co-founder of GAPSBIF. On the education front, James Johnston, M.D., MPH, partnered with Martina Gonzalez-Gomez, M.D., M.Sc., to create a global surgery course to equip students with a holistic understanding of surgical care’s pivotal role in public health, healthcare systems and international development. Curtis J. Rozzelle, M.D., and Brandon G. Rocque, M.D., MS, served as director and assistant director of the UAB Residency Program in Neurosurgery.

Additionally, two team members, Betsy D. Hopson, MHSA, and Anastasia Smith, MPH, completed all classwork for Ph.D. degrees while engaged in full-time division clinical activities. Hopson was awarded a second UABHSF General Endowment Grant to develop a lifespan Down syndrome program within the transition (STEP) program. Smith also led the UAB Department of Neurosurgery initiative to support science education in Birmingham City Schools.

Betsy D. Hopson, MHSA Anastasia Smith, MPH

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS 1. Co-Investigator, Phase I Trial of G207 HSV for Recurrent Malignant Cerebellar Trial Co-Investigator (with MD Anderson, Washington University) 2. Co-Investigator/Neurosurgery Lead, PBTC Phase II Multicenter Trial of G207 HSV for Recurrent Malignant Supratentorial Tumors 3. Authorship—Clinical guidelines for treatment of Chiari I malformation 4. 30-year craniopharyngioma study published

2023 Academic Annual Report

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