Children’s Mercy Kansas City

Training Program Director: Jennifer Schuster, MD, MSCI

Associate Director/Co-Director: Amol Purandare, MD

Coordinator: Sarah King

Chief, Infectious Diseases: Angela Myers, MD, MPH

Major Features of Training Program: The Pediatric Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program at Children’s Mercy is a 3-year ACGME training program. Our mission is to develop pediatricians into excellent pediatric infectious diseases clinicians, educators, and researchers. Trainees will develop experience with a wide variety of both general and immunocompromised infectious diseases pathology and undertake a scholarly project resulting in conference presentations and a publishable manuscript. Fellows supplement their clinical activities through experiences with antibiotic stewardship, infection control and prevention, and the microbiology laboratory in addition to regular clinical and educational conferences. Courses in grant writing and quality improvement are available as well as the opportunity to pursue additional training through Master’s programs. Program flexibility allows fellows to participate in opportunities that will advance their career paths. We have a 100% pediatric infectious diseases board pass rate.

Our attending physicians are nationally recognized in pediatric infectious diseases and translational and clinical research, including host-pathogen defense, pharmacokinetics, vaccine and therapeutic clinical trials, infectious diseases epidemiology, antimicrobial and diagnostic stewardship, quality improvement, and outcomes research. Fellows choose their own scholarly activity based on their interests and the diverse opportunities within the ID division and Children’s Mercy.

Title(s) of Recent Fellows’ Published Research Papers:
1. Butler D, Torres-Torres S, Pahud B, Myers A, Bass JA, St. Peter SC, McCulloh R. Clostridium difficile Ileitis in pediatric inflammatory bowel disease. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr. 2017 Jun;64(6):e156-e158. PMID 25611030

2. McCulloh RJ, Norton LE, Goldman JL. Extending antimicrobial stewardship to all hospitalized children: the time is now. Hosp Pediatr. 2017 Sept;7(9):559-561. PMID 28814442

3. Norton LE, Lee B, Harte L, Mann K, Newland JG, Grimes R, Myers AL. Improving guideline-based streptococcal pharyngitis testing: a quality improvement initiative. Pediatrics. 2018 Jul;142(1). PMID: 29925574

4. Richardson KM, Chen KS, Goubeaux D, Atkinson CS, Poulose A, Woods G, Goldman JL. A 16 year old Girl with Eye Pain. J Pediatric Infect Dis Soc. 2019 Mar 28;8(1):77-79. PMID: 29688511

5. Richardson KM, Fouquet SD, Kerns E, McCulloh RJ. Impact of a Mobile Device-Based Clinical Decision Support Tool on Guideline Adherence and Mental Workload. Acad Pediatr. 2019 Sep-Oct;19(7):828-834. PMID: 30853573

Affiliated Hospitals: Children’s Mercy Kansas City

Number of Inpatient/Outpatient Consults Per Year: 2,926

Fellows Accepted Each Year: 1

Visas Accepted: J1, H1B

Funding Ensured for all 3 Years?: Yes

Is Completion of Pediatric Residency Training in the U.S. or Canada a Requirement?: No

Program Provides Training, Didactic Lectures, Hands-On Experience, or Antimicrobial Stewardship Meetings/Membership in:
1. Microbiology lab on site
2. Infection control and hospital epidemiology
3. Antimicrobial stewardship
4. Immunocompromised hosts

Opportunities to Fulfill the ABP Requirements for Scholarly Activity is Available in the Following General Areas:
1. Antimicrobial agents
2. Antimicrobial stewardship
3. Bacteriology/bacterial infections
4. Bioethics
5. Clinical trials
6. Epidemiology and statistics
7. Global health
8. HIV
9. Immunizations
10. Infection control/hospital epidemiology
11. Medical Education
12. Mycology/fungal infections
13. Public health
14. Quality improvement
15. Virology/viral diseases
16. Transplant medicine

Opportunities exist for research outside of the ID Division?: Yes

Program offers the opportunity to obtain a Master’s degree in a field such as Public Health, Education, Clinical Sciences, or Epidemiology: Yes