Division of Pediatric Surgery
EDUCATION
The Division of Pediatric Surgery at the Medical College of Wisconsin consists of seven faculty surgeons, five faculty research scientists and 13 laboratory and clinical support staff personnel. The primary work of the Division is at the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, the busiest children's hospital in the United States over the last two years. Already one of the largest pediatric surgery programs in the country, the Division is continuing to expand both faculty and the scope of activities. Within the past few years the Division has also extended its geographic reach with the 1999 opening of the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin in Kenosha and the Children's Hospital of Fox Valley in 2001. Additionally, an ambulatory surgical center was purchased in the Milwaukee area by Children's Hospital in 2000 to provide additional operating room capacity for children in all of the surgical disciplines. Construction has been completed on a new Children's Hospital of Wisconsin office building, work continues on the construction of a Children's Research Institute building, and ground breaking will take place soon for the addition of a twelve-story tower addition to Children's Hospital of Wisconsin.
The operative experience for general surgery residents places this rotation among the busiest in the MCW training program and affords trainees exceptional exposure to children's surgical problems. Graduates of the general surgery program rank among the national leaders in pediatric surgical experience. The Division developed a pediatric surgery fellowship-training program which began in July 2001. The Critical Care Fellowship was initiated in 2005. While these developments are sometimes viewed with concern among general surgery trainees, the clinical volume is more than adequate to continue to provide comprehensive experience in children's surgery to all involved.
The fellowship programs have enhanced the teaching and education program of the service. The Division is dedicated to an educational program that addresses the needs of all trainees. This effort includes a series of weekly service-specific teaching conferences that include faculty from anesthesia, pediatric pathology, gastroenterology, oncology, neonatology, emergency services and radiology. The surgical faculty give a number of additional didactic lectures, both for the trainees rotating on the service, and as part of a core Departmental lecture series.
The Division is fully integrated into the MCW Department of Surgery academic affairs including research, conferences, Grand Rounds, visiting professors and special events. The Division sponsors an annual lectureship to recognize Dr. Marvin Glicklich, Professor Emeritus and founder of the Division. This lecture was initiated in 1999 and the 3rd Annual Marvin Glicklich Lecturer, November 2003, was Dr. Lucian Leape, MD, Adjunct Professor of Health Policy in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health.
The Division has grown rapidly in the research arena and is the home of five basic science laboratories and a number of clinical research efforts. Basic science laboratories include those of John Baker, PhD, investigating the genetic determinants of myocardial ischemic injury; Kirk Pritchard, PhD, who directs a laboratory in basic endothelial cell biology, has an appointment in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology; and Keith T. Oldham, MD, who directs a multidisciplinary laboratory focused upon phenotypic variations among endothelial cell populations and their relationship to tissue injury. Tara Sander, PhD, Assistant Professor, Surgery, conducts research on transcriptional mechanisms that control vascular function, endothelial cell signaling and proliferation, and the regulatory role of the SCAN domain family of zinc finger transcription factors. Yang Shi, PhD, Instructor, conducts research related to cardiovascular physiology, molecular and cellular mechanisms of cardioprotection, nitric oxide biosynthesis and NOS function in the myocardium. Divisional research funding is approximately $2.5 million annually, the largest single source being NIH grants. Three general surgery residents annually work in pediatric surgery research laboratories.