Inside Pediatrics Spring/Summer 2026

“So now we are able to better serve the people more intentionally, more mindfully.” —Sandeep Gupta, M.D.

For Gupta, that was the objective—providing better patient care. It’s a large undertaking considering Children’s massive catchment area—the entire state of Alabama along with surrounding states. “Every disease state we have is in the hundreds,” he said. “And the doctors we had in those areas were just one or two.” Intestinal rehabilitation, or “short gut,” is a good example. It’s a complex issue affecting more than 160 of the team’s patients. But previously, only one doctor was available to serve them. With inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), the team had two doctors for more than 400 patients. The math was similar for patients with liver issues. “There was such a need to bring [new hires] in to just serve what we have,” Gupta said. “We were simply trying to keep our heads above water.” To address these issues, Gupta began the process of expanding the division in September 2024, making all the new hires over the course of the next year. In the case of IBD, the expansion was transformative. That group now has two new clinicians, Rahmath

Althaf, D.O., and Maggie Vickers, M.D., and a basic scientist, Babajide Ojo, Ph.D. “Now, what we have

is basically a team that goes from bench to bedside,” Gupta said. “We are starting studies where we are collecting samples from patients in the clinic, and then [Ojo] is processing these in the lab to do the studies. And with the discoveries he will make, we can then bring the knowledge back to the bedside.” It’s an “ecosystem” that Gupta believes has not existed in gastroenterology at Children’s. The team has study coordinators and is part of national consortia. “So basically, we are creating a self dependent and interdependent team that can grow on its own,” he said. Gupta aspires to create the same setup for intestinal rehabilitation. In the meantime, care is already improving. With Sirine Belaid, M.D., joining the team, the division now has two doctors to treat these patients, allowing them to see inpatients twice each week instead of once. “So now we are able to better serve the people more intentionally, more mindfully,” Gupta said.

Gupta also added liver doctors David Willcutts, M.D., and Stephanie

Saaybi, M.D., who “will helps us grow the liver team further,” he said.

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