Clinical Interests
My clinical interests in Neonatology are focused on improving neurodevelopmental outcomes of both premature and term neonates with encephalopathy. As the Medical Director of the NICU at St. Louis Children's Hospital I am the physician lead for the NICU Unit Based Joint Practice Committee and I oversee all aspects of clinical care with specific emphasis on developing multidisciplinary clinical consensus guidelines and enhancing a team-based approach to clinical care. I have developed NICU collaboratives with Pediatric Neurology, Pediatric Cardiology and Pediatric Surgery that meet regularly and these form the infrastructure in developing clinical care practices across disciplines for neonates anywhere in the hospital. I am also leading the deployment of LEAN methodology and the Daily Management System in the NICU in streamlining physician workflow, introducing and sustaining standard-work, and reducing/eliminating inefficiencies in health care delivery with an enhanced focus on patient care quality and safety.
My research interests involve understanding transitional physiology in the newborn and understanding mechanisms of brain injury and neuroprotection. I lead the Neonatal Neurology and Physiology Laboratory group integrated into the Patient Oriented Research Unit in the Department of Pediatrics. My laboratory includes Neonatology and Pediatric Neurology faculty and four fellows in the Division of Newborn Medicine alongside research staff. I am the site principal investigator for the High Dose Erythropoietin for Asphyxia and Encephalopathy (HEAL) trial (Wu-PI, UCSF), a multi-center, NINDS funded, randomized, placebo controlled clinical trial. I am also the co-PI of the neuroimaging core for this trial scoring MRI scans for injury using a scoring tool developed at Washington University.