Dr. Pinnaro Nominated for an Excellence in Clinical Teaching Award

Dr. Pinnaro

We have just received word that Dr. Pinnaro was nominated for a 2020 Excellence in Clinical Teaching Award. Less than 5% of the 800 resident and fellow physicians at our institution were nominated for this award. Her nomination letter included examples of her superlative clinical teaching skills, including this snippet: “Dr. Cat Pinnaro has demonstrated consistent commitment to and talent for clinical teaching during her three years as an endocrine fellow. She identifies teachable opportunities at every possible juncture, is able to frame teaching points in a creative manner that makes complex concepts accessible“. None of us in the division are surprised at her nomination, as we have witnessed her clinical teaching efforts for the past three years. Congratulations Dr. Pinnaro on a job well done!

Endocrinology and Sports Medicine

Dr. Curtis

On April 24th and May 1st, Dr. Vanessa Curtis provided talks on endocrine sports topics to a national audience. Her talks were coordinated by the America Medical Society for Sports Medicine. Her national audience exceeded 100 sports medicine fellows. In particular, her talk on May 1 on “Testosterone, sex, and gender in sports“, given in collaboration with Dr. Britt Marcussen, drew considerable attention. The title slides from her talks are shown below. In the clinic, Dr. Curtis’s provides her expert knowledge in the care of hormonal issues in student athletes. We would be remiss not to mention that Dr. Curtis is an accomplished athlete herself, including podiums placement in bicycle criterium/related races. We are fortunate to have her expertise and experience on our faculty and in our clinics.

“Diabetes Off To College” Class.

Dr. Kanner

Heading off to college is challenging enough, but especially for teens and young adults with diabetes. Issues range from storing insulin in dorms, navigating roommates, knowing about the effects of alcohol, and complete independence of diabetes care. To assist with this transition, Dr. Kanner helped organize and host our inaugural “Diabetes Off To College” class which was held today. The event included dinner and 2 hours of diabetes education for teens and young adults about to head/return to college. The event was held in the beautiful and scenic Press Box on Level 12 of Stead Family Children’s Hospital. 

Dr. Curtis Institutes Senior Medical Student Lecture Series.

Dr. Curtis

Dr. Vanessa Curtis is the Assistant Director for Medical Student Education in Pediatrics at the University of Iowa, and Director of Advanced Electives and Sub-Internships. As such, she provides intensive one-on-one advising and direction to medical students in the final year of their education, especially for students who plan on pursuing pediatrics as a specialty. This year, Dr. Curtis instituted a lecture series to further teach these senior medical students.

Dr. Pinnaro Receives the Leona Cuttler Quality Assurance Award.

Dr. Pinnaro

The Leona Cuttler award recognizes the best quality improvement abstract presented at the national Pediatric Endocrine Society meeting. We could not be more proud to announce that the 2019 winner of this award is our own fellow, Dr. Cat Pinnaro. Her abstract reported her work building an app to help pediatric residents learn how to manage ketones in children with diabetes. Dr. Curtis was the faculty mentor involved in this project. Together they are submitting this work for peer-reviewed publication. We also want to point out that Dr. Pinnaro‘s acumen for teaching residents is well recognized, as she was awarded the 2018 Stead Family Children’s Hospital Fellow Teaching Award. Congratulations to Dr. Pinnaro on both these awards !!

Dr. Pesce Recognized for her Outstanding Teaching

Dr. Liuska Pesce receiving the award.

Dr. Pesce recently received the Excellence in Clinical Coaching award. This award is given to select faculty who are known for outstanding clinical teaching of resident and fellow physicians. The comments that accompanied the award were “Dr. Pesce has a true passion for teaching and making sure that her patients receive the best care possible. When I have worked with Dr. Pesce, she sat with me one-on-one to review the unique aspects of the patient’s diagnoses and explained why we may be doing things a certain way.