Nicklaus Children’s Hospital’s New President and CEO

Holding a Juris doctor in addition to his medical degree, Dr. Ramesh Sachdeva has been a leading voice in pediatric medicine for more than two decades. He currently serves as the senior vice president and chief clinical officer at Nicklaus Children’s Health System in Miami, Florida.

In January 2020, the Nicklaus Children’s Hospital announced the appointment of Matthew A. Love to serve as the facility’s new president and chief executive officer. Mr. Love holds an MBA from Cleveland State University and began with the hospital as its chief financial officer in October 2018. He had most recently served as the interim president and CEO for 6 months. He brings over two decades of both adult and pediatric health care management experience to the table in his permanent role as head of the facility.

Speaking about the appointment, Mr. Love said he looks forward to working very closely with all of the hospital’s devoted health care staff. High levels of trust and cooperation are what he believes will continue to set Nicklaus apart as a leading provider of pediatric health care in the region.

MetaECHO 2019

 

MetaECHO 2019
Image: echo.unm.edu

As the associate executive director and medical director of quality initiatives for the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), Dr. Ramesh Sachdeva has spearheaded initiatives such as the creation of the AAP Quality Division. An active member of the field, Dr. Ramesh Sachdeva has given presentations and participated on panels for events such as the Project ECHO MetaECHO conference.

An initiative of the University of New Mexico, Project ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) reimagines health care education and provision as a decentralized, demonopolized knowledge-sharing community. By connecting specialist medical educators with primary care providers across the world, Project ECHO hopes to expand specialty medical services to rural and underserved communities.

Each year, Project ECHO brings together members of the global ECHO community, including government officials, medical educators, global health experts, and other health care professionals, for its international MetaECHO conference. Over several days, attendees share ideas, discuss innovative uses of technology, and network in the service of the larger ECHO vision.

MetaECHO 2019 will take place March 13-16, 2019, at the Albuquerque Convention Center & Hyatt Regency in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In addition to seminars and presentations on topics such as ECHO and the opioid epidemic, ECHO and behavioral health, and methods for evaluating ECHO programs, conferees can attend keynote speeches by prominent figures such as Don Berwick, MD, president emeritus of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.

To learn more about the conference, please visit echo.unm.edu/metaecho-2019-conference.

AAP and the Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Units

Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Units
Image: aap.org

Dr. Ramesh Sachdeva works as a pediatrics professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin in tandem with his role as associate executive director of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). At AAP, Dr. Ramesh Sachdeva has led initiatives in a number of areas, including environmental health.

For more than six decades, AAP has been addressing pediatric environmental health issues such as lead poisoning and water and air pollution. Over the years, the organization has expanded its efforts to focus on other topics, including the health effects of mold, BPA and PCB exposure, and climate change.

Today, AAP works in partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Environmental Protection Agency, and American College of Medical Toxicology to oversee a national network of Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Units (PEHSUs). The North American PEHSU network helps health care providers, parents, government agencies, and community organizations protect children and adolescents from environmental hazards.

For its part, AAP establishes and supports PEHSUs in federal regions 1-5, which cover the eastern United States from Wisconsin and Mississippi to Florida, Virginia, Maine, and other states in between. In addition to addressing questions regarding the health impacts of various environmental factors, AAP and PEHSUs across the country provide guidance during natural disasters, health news events, and community hearings.

AAP Studies Marijuana Use by Pregnant and Breastfeeding Mothers

 

Marijuana Use
Image: webmd.com

Dr. Ramesh Sachdeva has spent the past 30 years serving in leadership and research roles at institutions throughout the country. In his current position, he serves as executive director of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the leading organization behind some of the most important research and advances in pediatric care.

A recent report issued by AAP urges continued research into the effects of marijuana use on childhood development. With more states legalizing the drug for recreational use, research indicates that tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)–the mind-altering chemical found in marijuana–is transmitted to the fetus through the placenta and present in breastmilk as well. These facts are particularly germane given research that indicates women are using marijuana more and more to deal with the effects of morning sickness.

Researchers have found that THC can have a negative effect on neurotransmitters that are responsible for developing networks of nerve cells in children. More research is needed to study the overall effects of marijuana on childhood development, but even so, the AAP says that women should refrain from using the drug while pregnant or breastfeeding.

The AAP’s Child Safety Seat Recommendations

 

Child Safety Seat
Image: aap.org

Dr. Ramesh Sachdeva earned a bachelor’s in medicine from the Armed Forces Medical College in India and a PhD in epidemiology from the University of Texas School of Public Health. Now with more than 30 years of experience in medicine, Dr. Ramesh Sachdeva serves as the associate executive director of the American Academy of Pediatrics in Elk Grove Village, Illinois.

Child safety seat recommendations have evolved over the years with the improvement of safety technology and insights gained from crash data. Recently, the American Academy of Pediatrics updated its list of recommendations for parents. Among these recommendations, the organization urges parents to place their infants and toddlers in rear-facing seats until they reach the maximum height and weight, rather than turning them around to front-facing when they reach a certain age.

When children grow enough to switch to front-facing seats, they should be secured by harnesses for as long as possible. Children can still be harnessed in most seats until they reach around 65 pounds. After that, parents should put them in booster seats that allow the normal seat belt to fit properly.

Once children are able to use the seat belt normally, without assistance from a booster, they should remain in the backseat until they are at least 13 years old.

2017 MetaECHO Conference Brought Together Health Policy Experts

 

MetaECHO
Image: echo.unm.edu

With several decades of experience working in health care, Dr. Ramesh Sachdeva serves as the director of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Department of Dubspecialty Pediatrics. Oftentimes asked to participate in panel discussions, Dr. Ramesh Sachdeva attended the international meeting for MetaECHO in New Mexico in April 2016.

Project ECHO, which stands for Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes, strives to strengthen best practice care for underserved people across the globe. Launched in 2003, it began as a way to meet local health care needs and has spread its mission to reach global proportions. Today, it boasts more than 130 hubs that attend to more than 65 diseases in 23 countries.

Each year, MetaECHO brings together health policy experts, academic leaders, and government officials to determine how to spread Project ECHO’s mission. The 2017 event saw more than 650 leaders in attendance during the four-day conference, which occurred from September 13 through 16 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. They listened to a variety of panel discussions, some of which focused on pain management, type-1 diabetes, and mobilizing the ECHO model in cancer. Together, they hope to reach 1 billion lives by 2025.

Helping Babies Breathe Provides Newborn Resuscitation Training

 

Dr. Ramesh Sachdeva

Dr. Ramesh Sachdeva teaches pediatrics to medical students, residents, and fellows at the Medical College of Wisconsin and serves as the associate executive director of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). Under Dr. Ramesh Sachdeva’s leadership, AAP provides professional education through its Division of Life Support Programs. Available life support programs include Helping Babies Breathe (HBB), a neonatal resuscitation course for limited-resource environments.

HBB guides pediatric professionals in the initial steps of neonatal resuscitation as outlined by The Golden Minute, HBB’s key concept. Babies should be breathing on their own or with ventilation assistance within one minute of birth. The Golden Minute describes the steps attendants must take to evaluate newborn babies and stimulate breathing within those critical 60 seconds. According to Pediatrics, the official journal of the AAP, the neonatal resuscitation techniques taught by HBB reduce mortality by up to 47 percent and fresh stillbirths by 24 percent.

Because techniques and principles taught by HBB are designed to meet the specific needs of limited-resource environments, Neonatal Resuscitation Program (NRP) certification does not necessarily qualify an individual for HBB training and cannot serve as a substitution for HBB training. Additionally, the HBB curriculum uses a different educational methodology and incorporates mentorship and quality-improvement components.

Childhood Opioid Addiction Research Presented at AAP Meeting

 

AAP Meeting
Image: aap.org

An alumnus of the Armed Forces Medical College in Pune, India, Dr. Ramesh Sachdeva also has also gone on to earn several other postgraduate degrees, including an MBA from the University of Houston-Clear Lake, a PhD in epidemiology from the University of Texas School of Public Health, and a juris doctor from Marquette University Law School. For the past five years, Dr. Ramesh Sachdeva has served as the associate executive director of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).

At the recent AAP National Conference in Chicago, researchers presented alarming new statistics about opioid dependency among children in the United States. According to the data, each day more than 100 children arriving in emergency rooms nationwide test positive for opioid dependency or addiction. Researchers looked at data from the Nationwide Emergency Department Sample database over a five-year period, from 2008-2013. They noted that in the final year of the study nearly 50,000 people under 21 reported to emergency rooms and were diagnosed with opioid addiction, up more than 17,000 from 2008.

One of the study’s authors, Veerajalandhar Allareddy, MD, MBA, said the average ER diagnoses 135 children with an opioid addiction each day. He hopes the data will push key stakeholders to develop programs and resources to help fight the growing epidemic.

AAP Warns of Golf Cart Dangers

 

Golf Cart Dangers
Image: aappublications.org

A graduate of the Armed Forces Medical College in Pune, India, Dr. Ramesh Sachdeva also holds numerous postgraduate degrees, including an MBA from the University of Houston, a PhD in epidemiology from the University of Texas, and a juris doctor from Marquette University. Dr. Ramesh Sachdeva now serves as the associate executive director of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

According to research from the AAP, there has been a rise in injuries among children using golf carts. The researchers examined data from Pennsylvania in their findings, which showed 108 kids under 18 over a 10-year period who suffered golf cart-related injuries.

Of those patients, one died, and 36 percent were required to be admitted to the ICU because of their injuries. Additionally, 76 percent of those injured suffered at least one bone break, with skull fractures the most common.

Although golf carts move slower than cars, they are still dangerous. The AAP now recommends that children under 16 not drive golf carts at all, while those 16 to 18 should drive carts no faster than 10 miles per hour.

AMA Hosts Its 15th Annual Research Symposium

 

American Medical Association
Image: ama-assn.org

A pediatrics professor and associate executive director of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Dr. Ramesh Sachdeva earned his DBA in management sciences at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland. Dr. Ramesh Sachdeva is also a member of the American Medical Association (AMA)

Representing physicians, resident physicians, and medical students, the AMA aims to further the impact of medicine and enhance public health.

Members are invited to attend AMA events, such as its Annual Research Symposium. Each year, the Research Symposium hosts a contest in which student, resident, and fellow members can present abstracts of their research. Member entries may come with a poster, are expected to be original, and must be submitted on or before the deadline. Only one entry is allowed per member. Contest judges will award 12 prizes to top-scoring entrants. Prizes range from $150 to $250. Physician members are encouraged to volunteer as judges and can learn more through the AMA’s website.

The annual AMA Research Symposium will be held on November 10, 2017, at the 2017 AMA Interim Meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii.