Endocrinology & Sports Medicine

Dr. Vanessa Curtis

Sports performance and hormonal systems are closely intertwined. There are several hormonal / endocrine conditions that can greatly impair sports performance. Conversely, exercise can benefit the endocrine system. However, there are times that intense sports participation can adversely affect various hormones. Dr. Vanessa Curtis has interest and expertise in these complex interactions, and treats children and adolescents with such conditions in her clinic. Gender of course has a powerful influence on this interplay. To this end, Dr. Curtis just served as an invited speaker for the 35th Annual University of Iowa Sports Medicine Symposium, speaking on Gender and Sex in Sport. Also along these lines, Dr. Curtis has traveled to various parts of the state of Iowa over the past few years to provide lectures on Athletes with Type 1 Diabetes and Childhood Obesity to residency programs.

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 !!