The Section of Academic General Pediatrics is comprised of faculty from New York Medical College, who are experts in the care of children hospitalized with moderate to severe illnesses, complex illnesses and illnesses that involve the coordination of multiple subspecialists or multiple hospital services. The Section of Academic General Pediatrics is recognized in the region as providing comprehensive inpatient care for patients referred to the Maria Fareri Children's Hospital, and then facilitating seamless transfer of information back to the referring doctor upon discharge of the patient.
The members of the section provide general pediatric consultations to the subspecialists and surgeons when their young patients have medical issues such as fevers, poor weight gain and mild to moderate respiratory issues to name a few. The doctors work as a team to provide the best and most comprehensive care to the children of the Hudson Valley who come to the Maria Fareri Children's Hospital.
Unique Programs
In addition to comprehensive pediatric care, other unique services are provided on campus by members of the Academic General Pediatrics Section.
The Child Abuse Pediatrics Program
A collaborative effort between New York Medical College, the Westchester Institute for Human Development and the Maria Fareri Children's Hospital at Westchester Medical Center. The program, which includes a fellowship and active medical student / resident education, involves forensic medical evaluation, advocacy, and research around child abuse.
Jennifer Canter MD, MPH, FAAP, one of the nation's first board certified child abuse pediatricians, is the program's director. As Medical Director of the Children's Advocacy Center at the
Westchester Institute for Human Development, Dr. Canter evaluates over 600 children each year with concerns for sexual abuse, physical abuse, and neglect.
According to Dr. Canter, “We are perfectly situated on the Valhalla campus with the county's multi-disciplinary evaluation program, children's hospital, medical examiner's office, and medical school all within walking distance. Our programs are active in the development of innovative legislative efforts and research initiatives. We have one of the nation's 20 fellowship programs, with our first fellow graduating this year.
At the Children's Advocacy Center at the Westchester Institute for Human Development, we work closely with the Westchester County District Attorney's Office, all police departments in the county, and Child Protective Services to conduct state-of-the art medical assessments of children with sexual and physical abuse concerns. Our fellow, residents and medical students actively participate in our fatality evaluations, medical assessments, and research, and are able to observe multi-disciplinary evaluations and court testimony.”
Three years ago, the American Board of Medical Specialties approved Child Abuse Pediatrics as a new sub-specialty. The American Board of Pediatrics offered the first board certification exam in November 2008. Dr. Canter, an already well-respected, fellowship-trained child abuse pediatrician, will now have this added credential.
Child Abuse Pediatrics is the pediatric subspecialty addressing the comprehensive medical assessment and diagnosis of child maltreatment. Child maltreatment includes sexual abuse, physical abuse, neglect, and child fatalities. Healthcare providers trained in this subspecialty are physicians who have first completed an accredited residency program in General Pediatrics, followed by further specialized training in the field of child abuse and neglect through a 3 year fellowship program.
According to Dr. Canter, “The medical evaluation of the potentially abused child is critical and often very challenging. Child Abuse Pediatrics is a complex pediatrics sub-specialty, grounded in research, and our training prepares us to evaluate a situation with an evidence-based, objective, sensitive approach. The ability to be “board-certified” in our subspecialty highlights the value and impact of experience and training. There is a recognized path to being a medical child abuse expert, and this is critical when it comes to diagnoses that have immeasurable impact on child safety and family unity.”
New York Shaken Baby Prevention Program
Dr. Canter also serves as co-principal investigator of the New York Shaken Baby Prevention Program with Dr. Robin Altman, chief of General Pediatrics. The program started in the Hudson Valley region, and now has expanded statewide in collaboration with the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Another major contributor to the health and welfare of infants in our region has been the Hudson Valley Shaken Baby Prevention Initiative. The Hudson Valley Shaken Baby Prevention Initiative is an effort spearheaded by Dr. Robin Altman and Dr. Jennifer Canter of the Section of Academic General Pediatrics through the Maria Fareri Children's Hospital Foundation. A portion of funding for this program comes from the New York State Office for Children and Family Services, and the William B. Hoyt Memorial Children and Family Trust Fund. The network includes all maternity hospitals in the 7-county Hudson Valley Region, reaching over 50,000 parents in its first year. The goal of this program is to educate parents of newborns in the Hudson Valley Region about the dangers of shaking a child and effective strategies on anger and stress management in the newborn period. This is achieved through a combination of video and written materials presented one-on-one to families by a trained nurse. Currently, plans for expansion of the program into primary care pediatric offices and day care centers are underway.
The Supportive Child Abuse Network (SCAN Team)
The SCAN Team is a group of trained and dedicated social workers, doctors, nurses, and others from multiple disciplines working at the Maria Fareri Children's Hospital. The team meets on a regular basis and is led by Dr. Jennifer Canter. The goal of the SCAN Team is to provide education, support and oversight of child abuse and neglect cases using a family-oriented approach.
The Maria Fareri Children's Hospital serves as a referral hub for child abuse and neglect for the Hudson Valley Region. Our forensic pediatric and social work team provides family-centered care to children and adolescents facing issues of child abuse and neglect. Using a multi-disciplinary model, our Supportive Child Advocacy Team works closely with representatives from law enforcement and child protective services. The hospital program also works closely with the county's Children's Advocacy Center at the Westchester Institute for Human Development. This model ensures maximum coordination of services with minimal trauma to children and families. The program provides ongoing education and training to community and hospital professionals regarding issues of child abuse and neglect. Program faculty is engaged in ongoing research and advocacy activities working towards prevention of child abuse.
Other areas of concentration include medical student education and mentorship, resident education and mentorship, primary care research, evaluation and management of autism, and evaluation and management of apparent life-threatening events. Two areas of grant-supported research are childhood obesity and apparent life-threatening events.
Forensic Pediatric Fellowship
This three-year forensic pediatric fellowship curriculum was designed after the model curriculum proposed by Starling, Sirotnak, & Jenny (Child Maltreatment 2000;5:58-62) with an emphasis on child abuse and neglect research. It includes a Masters Degree in Public Health from the New York Medical College. The overall objective of the fellowship is to produce an academic forensic pediatrician who will be proficient in the clinical, research, prevention and educational aspects of physical abuse, sexual abuse, medical neglect, psychological abuse and neglect, and factitious illness by proxy. This will be accomplished by inpatient and outpatient consultative work, in a variety of settings, that will expose the fellow to allied professional activities related to child abuse, including: mental health assessment and therapy; child protection services; child fatality review; forensic autopsy; criminal and civil prosecution of child abuse; legislative advocacy; as well as a variety of medical sub-specialists through the Maria Fareri Children's Hospital. This fellowship is funded in part through a New York State "ECRIP" (Empire Clinical Research Investigator Program) grant. As part of the research component, the fellow will complete all requirements for the Masters Degree in Public Health at the New York Medical College School of Public Health.
The Forensic Pediatrics Fellowship program, a division of the Department of Pediatrics, is one of two such programs in the state of New York. The Hudson Valley Shaken Baby Prevention Initiative, funded trough the New York State Office for Children and Family Services, involves 22 hospitals in 8 counties within the Hudson Valley region. This project delivers standardized educational information to caregivers of infants regarding stress reduction and anger management, focusing on prevention of shaking injuries through several venues.
