Message from the Chair
F. Bruder Stapleton, MD
Welcome to the Department of Pediatrics.
We are pleased to be ranked 7th by US News and World Report among Medical School Pediatric Departments this year and to be one of the primary care departments within the Number 1 ranked Primary Care Medical School in the US. A number of exciting new initiatives are underway in the Department. Our general pediatrics residency program expanded by two positions this year and we have launched two new pathways within our residency for Global Health and Community Medicine. We also had our first cardiology fellow with plans to expand to two per year in 2009. Our pediatric GI fellowship application was approved this spring. All of our graduate medical education programs were fully accredited by the scheduled RRC review this year. We, again, are very pleased with our incoming resident group and had a record 920 applications for our 28 first year positions this year. Our student programs have also expanded with new WWAMI student sites in Cheyenne WY and Billings MT. Additional sites are planned in Missoula MT and Boise ID in the coming year.
Many of our faculty led the organization of 7 Research Centers at Seattle Children’s Hospital this winter. Located primarily in our new research facility at ninth and Stewart streets, Dimitri Christakis, MD, MPH, Bonnie Ramsey, MD, Allison Eddy, MD, David Rawlings, MD, Charles "Skip" Smith, PhD, and Arnold Smith, MD are Center directors. Craig Rubens, MD PhD, has formed a Program for Prevention of Prematurity and Stillbirth and along with Tom Hansen, MD, and CEO of Seattle Children's Hospital, created a Global Alliance for Prevention of Prematurity and Stillbirth with funding from the Gates Foundation. GAPPS plans an international summit on prematurity and stillbirth in 2009. Ben Wilfond, MD, Chief of the Division of Pediatric Bioethics and Head of the Treuman Katz Center for Bioethics will host a conference on ethical issues related to genetic screening in July 2008. This annual ethics conference has addressed a number of important pediatric ethical issues and has drawn national attention.
Bruder Stapleton, MD
Professor and Chair, Department of Pediatrics
Ford/Morgan Endowed Chair in Pediatrics
University of Washington School of Medicine
Chief Academic Officer and Senior Vice President
Seattle Children's Hospital
Department of Pediatrics, T-0211
Seattle Children's Hospital
P.O. Box 5371
Seattle, WA 98105