171 Ashley Ave.
Charleston, SC 29425
843-792-1414
800-424-MUSC
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February 2008
Letter From Our Chair
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L. Lyndon Key, MD
Professor and Chairman
Department of Pediatrics |
Dear faculty, Children's Hospital staff and other friends,
We are currently undergoing a review of our residency programs in general pediatrics, medicine/pediatrics, pediatric hematology/oncology, pediatric cardiology, pediatric endocrinology, general academic pediatrics and medicine, and developmental medicine.
On February 28, the Charles P. Darby Children's Research Institute (DCRI) will have been in service for three years. The Department of Pediatrics and many other research programs have come together to explore childhood physiology and pathology. Translational studies are underway in neonatology (with help from OB/GYN and radiology), in bone biology and vitamin D through studies that have been initiated in neonatology. In bone biology, an initiative is underway to understand and treat several severe bone diseases seen in children: osteoporosis and osteopetrosis. We have seen dramatic studies in adults and children in the area of neuroscience with results from our studies designed to explain pediatric disease being extended to traumatic brain injury in Iraq and spinal cord injury.
Although I am not going to describe all the projects going on, I want to discuss the importance of the DCRI. Today, I had a medical student to ask me if they could work with our group in the area of vitamin D physiology. This fourth year medical student wants to learn how to perform research. Last week, a former patient's sister came up and spent a day preparing a science project that she had envisioned and needed help with to bring it to fruition. The experience has already caused her to want to go forward in science and medicine. Finally, we have had a number of fellows who have developed and run projects with such mentors as Dr. Reddy, Dr. Saul, Dr. Hammerich, and others.
An institute is not just a facility that allows research to be done, it is a house where people learn to address problems and turn them into solutions. This crucial ingredient to the training we offer to our faculty, staff, and trainees has raised us to a new level. We have had 250 discoveries during the last three years. The DCRI has increased its funding base from approximately 10 million dollars to nearly 25 million. However, the major impact of the Institute is that it allows people who want to know the answers to develop new ideas, work with world-renowned faculty, and answer the questions that come up in all of our lives: "How do we help patients to recover more quickly and fully?"
Please join us for the 3rd DCRI Anniversary celebration on February 28. Come with your questions. Meet the stars and the trainees, our aspiring stars. Ask them why they do what they do. Ask them if it isn't a special calling to help to find new ways to relieve pain and suffering in children. Watch what is happening and dream alone and with the parents who are still awaiting their miracles. I am sure that like me, you will be impressed with what a little building and a visionary idea from Dr. Darby has done to better the lives of children in South Carolina and around the world.
Sincerely,
L. Lyndon Key, MD
Chair, Department of Pediatrics
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