2023 Department of Pediatrics Academic Annual Report

Welcome from the Chair

Dear Friends and Colleagues, In the UAB Department of Pediatrics, we have one mission: to improve the health of the children of Alabama, the region, and beyond. In order to do this, we focus on four pillars: 1) clinical care and service to the profession, 2) research and new knowledge discovery, 3) teaching and training the next generation of providers and leaders, and 4) advocacy. Furthermore, we reaffirm our strong commitment to justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion. The clinical advances and research breakthroughs we describe throughout this Annual Report have a direct impact on children’s lives. That impact will be our legacy. We present evidence of this impact as measured by major research accomplishments, grants, publications and awards. In 2023, the Department of Pediatrics faculty had 474 publications. In FY 2023, our research funding totaled $43.1 million, with funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) contributing $25.4 million of the total funds. This puts us in the top 16 departments of pediatrics in the country. Since FY 2013, we have had a 4.5-fold increase in NIH funding, and we have grown the number of NIH-funded investigators from 8 to 32 (a 4-fold increase). Many of these new investigators have been supported by the department’s investments in their research programs, by pilot and feasibility awards from the Children’s of Alabama Kaul Pediatric Research Institute, and by the combined investments from the department and Children’s of Alabama in research infrastructure. The department aims to build on these successes, expand the size and, importantly, the impact of our research in the coming years. We anticipate continued growth not only in our core areas of significant accomplishment—virology, therapeutic drug development, cancer, sickle cell disease, neonatology, acute kidney injury and outcomes research—but also in newer areas such as pediatric rehabilitation, critical care and neuromuscular diseases, where the recruitment of talented young researchers will ensure continued and expanded success.

In addition to our research accomplishments, our focus on safety and quality is always paramount. For the 14th consecutive year, U.S. News & World Report ranked Children’s of Alabama’s pediatric specialty services among the top 50 in the nation. Eight specialties were ranked: Cancer, Cardiology & Heart Surgery, Endocrinology and Diabetes, Gastroenterology & GI Surgery, Nephrology, Neurology & Neurosurgery, Pulmonology and Urology.

Our clinical mission is to deliver exceptional, safe and accessible care in order to improve the outcomes for children in Alabama and elsewhere. We are committed to reducing inequities that result in health outcome disparities. Several of our programs, including the Institute for Cancer Outcomes and Survivorship,

2023 Academic Annual Report

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