The last few months have been an exciting time for us, as we plan for the next century at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital. In addition to recruiting new faculty, we are starting to finalize our plans for a new children’s hospital at Mission Bay.
At UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital, David Rowitch, M.D, Ph.D, and his colleagues are building a fully integrated translational research program to study and treat neurological damage in neonates, the first such program in the nation.
For more than three decades, investigators at UCSF's Pediatric Clinical Research Center (PCRC) have been pioneering ways to improve outcomes for severely ill children — from developing methods to study premature infants to devising breakthrough treatments for pediatric brain tumors. The PCRC's exclusive focus on children offers unique opportunities for researchers, while giving families a chance to participate in cutting-edge therapies.
The UCSF Division of Adolescent Medicine has established a research-based, multidisciplinary protocol to treat adolescents with eating disorders, says Charles Irwin, M.D., director of the division. The program not only attends to teens' medical needs, but addresses nutritional and exercise concerns, as well as the underlying psychological issues driving the disorder.
San Francisco's philanthropy powerhouse Diane "Dede" Wilsey has signed on to lead the $500 million fundraising effort for the construction of the UCSF Mission Bay children's, women's and cancer hospital complex, expected to break ground as early as 2011.
In May, UCSF announced one of the largest single donations ever given to an American university for child and adolescent mental health services. Lisa and John Pritzker have donated $25 million to jump-start the creation of a comprehensive program dedicated to improving the emotional well-being of Bay Area youths, regardless of socioeconomic status.
Joseph Sullivan, M.D., an accomplished pediatric epileptologist, has joined UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital. The recruitment of Sullivan, plus the recent addition of epileptologists Tina Shih, M.D., and John Hixson, M.D., doubles the number of faculty involved in the clinical care of epilepsy and makes UCSF's epilepsy program the largest in Northern California.
See information on upcoming continuing medical education courses.
