E-News for Referring Offices

Jessica Schmitt, M.D., Assistant Professor in Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes, earned her medical degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Dr. Schmitt completed her pediatric residency at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio. She started her pediatric endocrinology and diabetes fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and completed her fellowship at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Her clinical and research interests include quality improvement, specifically assessing process changes to improve management of and outcomes for youth with diabetes.

Nora Switchenko, M.D., Assistant Professor in Neonatology, earned her medical degree at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, Ore. Dr. Switchenko completed her pediatric residency and her neonatology fellowship at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah. Her clinical and research interests include improving care for sick neonates in resource limited areas of the world with a particular focus on respiratory support for small and premature infants.

Carmelle Wallace, M.D., MPH, DTMH, Assistant Professor in Pediatric Emergency Medicine, earned her medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. Dr. Wallace completed her pediatric residency at the University of Texas-Southwestern in Dallas, Texas and completed her pediatric emergency medicine fellowship and global health fellowship at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in Philadelphia, Pa. Her clinical and research interests include international pediatric emergency medicine capacity building, child human rights and international and domestic child trafficking and abuse. She has worked in Zambia, Tanzania, Swaziland, South Africa, India and Laos.

Guillermo Beltran Ale, M.D., Assistant Professor in Pediatric Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine, earned his medical degree at Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Facultad de Medicina Alberto Hurtado in Lima, Peru. Dr. Beltran Ale completed his pediatric residency and pediatric pulmonology fellowship at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. His major research interests include Pulmonary Alveolar Proteinosis with a focus on BAL based diagnosis and optimizing care for pulmonary patients who are technology dependent with a focus on infections diagnosis and treatment. His clinical interests are aerodigestive pathology, the integrative care of patients on long term ventilation and technology dependence, rare lung diseases and pulmonary transplantation.

Vidit Bhargava, M.D., Assistant Professor in Pediatric Critical Care, earned his medical degree at Byramjee Jeejeebhoy Medical College in Pune, India. Dr. Bhargava completed his pediatric residency at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas. He did a pediatric critical care fellowship and emergency ultrasound fellowship at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif.

Jared Buchan, M.D., Instructor in Pediatric Emergency Medicine, earned his medical degree from Florida State University in Tallahassee, Fla. Dr. Buchan completed his pediatric residency at Memorial Health University Medical Center in Savannah, Ga.

Viral Jain, M.D., Assistant Professor in Neonatology, earned his medical degree from MGM Medical College, Mumbai, India. Dr. Jain completed his pediatric residency at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. He did his neonatology fellowship and research fellowship at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio. His primary area of interest is in Developmental Origins of Health & Disorders (DOHaD) or how changes during early period of in utero development influences life-long outcomes, and neonatal evidence-based medicine. He is also interested in exploring family’s contribution to young child’s learning and is the founder of TinyVoices – a patient advocacy program through which is founded the nationally renowned NICU Bookworms, a NICU Infant Reading program. Dr. Jain is also a children’s storybook writer and a musician and has written storybooks for NICU infants as well as written songs with Grammy award winners for NICU families.

Jeremy Loberger, M.D., Assistant Professor in Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, earned his medical degree at the University of South Carolina in Colombia, S.C. Dr. Loberger completed his combined internal medicine and pediatric residency at the University of South Carolina in Greenville, S.C. He did a pediatric critical care fellowship at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. His major research/clinical interests include quality improvement and clinical research on the topics of extubation readiness assessment, mechanical ventilation and sepsis.

Brittany Marlin, M.D., Instructor in Pediatric Hospital Medicine, earned her medical degree at the Florida State University in Tallahassee, Fla. Dr. Marlin completed her pediatric residency at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Pedro Anis Nourani, M.D., Assistant Professor in Pediatric Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine, earned his medical degree at the University of São Paulo in Ribeirão Preto, Brazil and completed his pediatric residency at Texas A&M’s Driscoll Children’s Hospital in Corpus Christi, Texas. Dr. Nourani completed his sleep medicine and pediatric pulmonology fellowships at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. His clinical activity has an emphasis on pediatric sleep disorders, Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) therapy and general pediatric pulmonology disorders. His clinical research focuses on the identification of different sleep parameters related to clinical outcomes of sickle cell disease as potential targets for intervention.

Bhuvana Sunil, M.D., Assistant Professor in Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes, earned her medical degree from the Bangalore Medical College & Research Institute in Bengaluru, India. Dr. Sunil completed her pediatric residency at the Harlem Hospital Center in New York, N.Y. She completed her pediatric endocrinology and diabetes fellowship at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Her clinical and research interests include obesity, type 2 diabetes, dyslipidemia and metabolic syndrome.

Kent Willis, M.D., Assistant Professor in Neonatology, earned his medical degree at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beer Sheva, Israel. Dr. Willis completed his pediatric residency at the Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital in Baton Rouge, La., and his neonatology fellowship at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis, Tenn. His research interests include understanding how commensal fungi, the mycobiome, influence newborn physiology and disease, principally via exploring the gut-lung axis in bronchopulmonary dysplasia. Willis Lung Lab is supported by the NIH, NHLBI K08HL151907, the UAB Microbiome Center and UAB Pediatrics.

Cynthia Wozow, D.O., Assistant Professor in Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine, earned her medical from William Carey College of Osteopathic Medicine in Hattiesburg, Miss. Dr. Wozow completed her physical medicine and rehabilitation residency at the University of Texas-San Antonio in San Antonio, Texas and completed her pediatric physical medicine and rehabilitation medicine fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, Texas. Her clinical interests include cerebral palsy, spasticity management, congenital neuromuscular disorders, brachial plexus injuries, transitional care, electrodiagnostic medicine and medical education.

At least 10% of children with cancer harbor a disease-associated pathogenic variant in a known cancer predisposition gene. While few can be prevented, regular surveillance can, at the very least, find malignancies early when treatment is most effective.

That’s the idea behind Children’s of Alabama’s Cancer Predisposition Clinic, now in its third year.

“We provide comprehensive care and screening for these patients with the goal of detecting cancers at an early stage in order to provide the best care and outcomes for the patients,” said Elizabeth Alva, M.D., assistant professor in the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Division of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology. “It used to be there was nothing we could do about this terrible diagnosis,” she said. “Now we know there are definitely ways to look for cancers early and help patients.”

In addition, the clinic provides psychological support for families and determines if the genetic condition affects other family members.

Typically, primary care physicians follow children with cancer predispositions. But Alva provides another level of evidence-based surveillance that the pediatric offices may not be able to offer.

That’s why these clinics are a growing area in the pediatric hematology/oncology world, particularly at the larger children’s hospitals. “We felt that we definitely needed to provide that same level of care here in Alabama,” Alva said.

Alva and neuropsychologist Avi Madan-Swain, Ph.D., are currently following about 25 patients. Patients come to them through the Pediatric Cancer Genetics Clinic, where families are tested and counseled. Alva provides the screening, which ranges from regular ultrasounds to CT scans and MRIs, while Madan-Swain addresses the family’s psychological needs.

One benefit to the clinic is that if there is a cancer diagnosis, the child and family are already comfortable with the hospital and the clinical team.

Alva is building a database of patients to gain a better understanding of disease development and progression, while Madan-Swain plans research around the psychological impact on families that have a child with a predisposition syndrome.

Girish Dhall, M.D. has been named the division director of Hematology-Oncology and Blood and Marrow Transplantation.

Dr. Dhall is currently associate professor of pediatrics and director of the Neuro-oncology Program at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles (CHLA) and will join Children’s of Alabama at the end of May. He has been at CHLA and on faculty at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California since 2007, when he completed his fellowship in Pediatric Neuro-oncology. Prior to that, he completed his fellowship in Pediatric Hematology-Oncology at New York University Medical Center and his residency in pediatrics at New York Medical College in Valhalla, New York. Dhall attended medical school at Grant Medical College in Mumbai, India.

His clinical interests include caring for children and young adults with primary brain and spinal cord injuries. He is dedicated to improving the survival rate of young children with brain tumors without the use of high levels of radiation therapy.

Laura McGuinn, M.D. is the new division director of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics.

McGuinn is the inaugural Thomas H. Lowder Endowed Chair in Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics and is also the new clinical director of the Civitan-Sparks Clinics. She joins Children’s of Alabama and UAB from University of Oklahoma Health Science Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

McGuinn earned her medical degree from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas, where she completed her pediatric residency training as well as being the Ambulatory Chief Resident. She completed her Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics fellowship at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland,and is certified by the American Board of Pediatrics as a subspecialty fellow in both Neurodevelopmental Disabilities and Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics.

Her clinical interests include diagnostic evaluation for children with developmental and behavioral concerns such as autism and related neurodevelopmental concerns, ADHD, intellectual disabilities, language and learning disorders, sleep, eating and elimination issues, and parent-child interaction concerns, among others.

Ambika Ashraf, M.D. is the new division director of Endocrinology.

Ashraf joined the faculty at Children’s of Alabama and the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) in 2006 after completing her fellowship in Pediatric Endocrinology at the UAB School of Medicine. After receiving her MBBS and M.D. from the University of Calicut in Kerala, India, Ashraf completed her pediatric residency training from Bronx-Lebanon Hospital, New York, and UAB. Ashraf also serves as director of the Pediatric Lipid Clinic and associate director of the Metabolic Bone Clinic at Children’s of Alabama, as well as a scientist in the UAB Comprehensive Diabetes Center.

Her clinical interests include lipid disorders, bone metabolism and endocrine disorders of children and adolescents. Ashraf has been recognized as an international authority on lipid disorders.