My clinical specialty is neonatology, and I am interested in the care of babies born at periviable gestation in the neonatal intensive care (NICU). My mother was a pediatrician who inspired me to become a physician and care for children. I was particularly drawn to helping extremely premature infants in the NICU as they were so helpless and required assistance with all their organ systems.
I’m focused on normal skin development/maturation in preterm infants (not disease-focused). The biology that a fetus could be submerged in amniotic fluid for nine months but then be born with pristine, healthy skin intrigued me and led to my study of skin development and maturation. My goal is to develop strategies to protect immature preterm skin and interventions to hasten skin maturation (improve the epidermal barrier).
My clinical research involves noninvasive ventilation strategies for preterm infants to prevent bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). The increasing survival of extremely low birth weight (ELBW) babies and associated BPD led me to study kinder, gentler forms of ventilation to reduce lung injury.
I am honored to have received the Sustained Excellence Award from the University of Cincinnati Medical Center for excellence in clinical care and translational research (2017). I’m certified in Pediatrics (1998, 2008, 2018), Pediatrics, Royal College of Physicians (MRCP), United Kingdom (1996) and Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine (2001, 2008, 2018).