According to the CDC, approximately 0.6% of children aged 0-17 have active epilepsy, so in a school of 1,000 students, this means 6 of them could have epilepsy. Adolescence is a time when patients have more autonomy in caring for their chronic disease and have changes in lifestyle factors, which could be risk factors for increased seizures. In this episode, Lawrence Fried, MD, a pediatric neurologist, and Zia Gajary, MD, a primary care pediatrician, help us understand how to counsel teen patients and their caregivers about managing epilepsy during adolescence, including topics such as driving, sports, contraception, drugs, college, and more! Their HRSA grant has enhanced teen epilepsy education at CHOP and they share their tips in this podcast episode.

The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) advocacy curriculum has a rich history of teaching pediatric residents how to incorporate being an advocate into their career as a pediatrician. Noreena Lewis, JD, the Co-Director of the Community Pediatrics and Advocacy Program (CPAP), explains the various ways pediatricians can engage in advocacy, some of the biggest hurdles for resident advocates, strategies for engaging with communities and creating sustainable projects as a trainee, and examples of CHOP resident advocacy projects. Noreena recommends the CHOP Office of Community Impact as a great starting point for anyone interested in starting their advocacy journey! You can also read her article in Pediatrics (Feb 2024) entitled "A Qualitative Study of Resident Advocacy Work." This episode is such an inspiring conversation about an important topic for all pediatricians and medical educators!

New research has led to the approval of sickle cell gene therapy and CHOP has played a big role in both the research and implementation of this innovative treatment. In this episode, Dr. Abraham Haimed, an attending in the Division of Hematology at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, explains how a patient's own hematopoietic stem cells can be edited to block the expression or function of a certain gene and reactivate normal fetal hemoglobin to cure sickle cell disease. While this treatment happens outside the primary care world, it is important for general pediatricians to understand how this treatment works and what to look out for after a patient receives gene therapy. 

A recent publication in Pediatrics by George Dalembert, MD, MSHP and Aditi Vasan, MD, MSHP helps us learn more about how to use an antiracist approach to social care integration in primary care. In this episode, Drs. Dalembert and Vasan walk us through the recommendations made in their commentary with actionable steps for how we can all integrate social care interventions equitably into our practices. Learn about what the work that we are implementing at CHOP thanks to the Clinical Futures research and get inspiration for your own practice changes. 

As of 2020, 20% of new HIV diagnoses were among young people aged 13-24 years. Primary care pediatricians can play an important role in the prevention of HIV through standard, non-stigmatizing sexual health and HIV prevention care, which is why we are talking about PrEP with Sarah Wood, MD, MSHP, and Zoe Gould, LCSW. Learn about the role of PrEP, administration, barriers to care, and ways to start integrating HIV screening and PrEP initiation into your practice. 

The CHOP Neonatal Intensive Care Unit is working on enhancing communication of nutrition plans to primary care providers when infants are discharged. In this episode, Sarvin Ghavam, MD, an attending neonatologist and Kristina Spaide, MS, RD, CNSC, clinical nutrition manager, identify the unique nutritional needs of premature babies, common feeding concerns, and nutrition management pearls for the transition from NICU to home. 

How well do you know the stigmata of Marfan Syndrome, which are an important components of the pre-participation sports physical? Staci M. Kallish, DO, a clinical geneticist at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia reviews how the clinical diagnosis of Marfan Syndrome is made and tools that can be used in screening and diagnosis. Also, learn about the CHOP Cardiovascular Connective Tissue Disorders Clinic and how they can help in the evaluation and management of patients with connective tissue disorders. 

While many famous figures, including President Biden, have worked to decrease the stigma around stuttering, there are still significant psychosocial effects for many children who stutter. Joseph Donaher, PhD, CCC-SLP, a speech language pathologist at the Center for Childhood Communication at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, teaches us about the natural history of stuttering, when to refer to a speech therapist or other clinician, and how we can help support the well-being of these children. This is an important listen for pediatricians, parents, and teachers!

How can lawyers and pediatricians work together to improve patient care? Osarugue Osah-Edoh and Andrew Yang, lawyers at Community Legal Services of Philadelphia and in the CHOP Medical Legal Partnership, educate us on how lawyers embedded in the healthcare setting support patients and their families with critical legal needs.

Inflammation, recurrent infections, fevers and rashes, and poor growth may all be ways that immune dysregulation presents in primary care patients. Edward Behrens, MD, Chief of the Division of Rheumatology at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, discusses the Dysregulated Immune Response Team (DIRT) and their innovative approach to immune dysregulation management. Using a multidisciplinary team, precision medicine, collaborative research, and care coordination, the DIRT program is improving care for patients with rare diseases.