Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (Cincinnati Children’s) seeks a Director of the Division of Critical Care Medicine. Cincinnati Children’s is one of the largest pediatric hospitals in the country and is consistently ranked among the top three nationally. Critical Care Medicine provides a foundational inpatient resource across the entire enterprise, while simultaneously supporting robust research and educational programs. While a national ranking system does not exist for this specialty, the Division of Critical Care Medicine at CCHMC is recognized as one of the top academic pediatric critical care programs in the world.

The Director of Critical Care Medicine will build on the existing program and drive innovations that accelerate excellence in patient care, research, and education. They will set an innovative course for the long-term growth and fiscal vitality of the Division of Critical Care Medicine – striving for continuous improvement in quality of care, leading and enabling transformational research programs, recruiting, and retaining exceptional and diverse faculty, identifying emerging and new areas of emphasis and promise, and enabling world-class educational programming.

The successful candidate will be an established or clearly emerging leader in the field, who is committed to children’s health and advancing  the field through research, education, and mentorship. More importantly, they must demonstrate a personal style that facilitates communication, collaboration, trust, credibility, and confidence among divisional faculty and across Cincinnati Children’s.

CINCINNATI CHILDREN’S AND THE UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI

Cincinnati Children’s is a nonprofit academic medical center that stands as one of the oldest and most distinguished pediatric hospitals in the United States. Established in 1883, Cincinnati Children's has two full-service hospitals (Burnet and Liberty campuses) as well as outpatient clinics, services, and therapies at many locations throughout the tristate area. Through an academic affiliation dating to 1926, Cincinnati Children’s comprises the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. Since then, the relationship has resulted in numerous joint endeavors, including the performance of basic and clinical research, collaboration in the care of patients, cooperation in education, and training of medical students, doctoral students, residents, and fellows, and arrangements for the joint use of facilities and equipment. The main Burnet campus is adjacent to the campus of the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, the country’s first teaching hospital. (Please see the appendix for additional information about the institution).

DIVISION OF CRITICAL CARE MEDICINE

VISION

We will be the preeminent academic Division of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine in the world by setting the standards of excellence in the field for patient care, education, and research.        

Clinical Mission:  To provide state-of-the-art and compassionate care for all critically ill children in the Tri-State area and provide the necessary expertise and infrastructure to allow for the highly specialized treatment of children beyond our geographic boundaries.

Clinical services are provided in a 35 bed PICU located on the 5^th floor of Building B, with capability to expand beyond 35 beds as needed. Over 2,500 patients  are admitted to the PICU annually and it is staffed 24 hours per day by pediatric critical care medicine fellows, pediatric residents, and pediatric critical care advanced practice providers. Twenty-four-hour, in-house attending supervision is provided exclusively by Critical Care Medicine faculty. The PICU is a combined medical and surgical unit with a very broad range of patients: solid organ and bone marrow transplant patients, airway surgery, neurosurgery, trauma, etc. All advanced support modalities are available within the PICU:  ECMO, CRRT, MARS, therapeutic apheresis, HFOV, iNO, etc. The Division employs a family centered, multidisciplinary approach to patient care. Families are routinely invited to participate in morning rounds and rounding jointly with other subspecialties is the norm. In November 2021, clinical services will move to a new critical care tower, which will expand bed capacity to 60.

Research Mission:  To conduct mechanistic basic, clinical, and translational research that will enable a more comprehensive understanding of critical illness, provide the foundation for novel therapies, diagnostics, and innovation, and ensure the best outcomes for patients.

The research effort is based at the Cincinnati Children’s Research Foundation, adjacent to CCHMC, in a fully equipped, 6,000 square feet cellular, molecular, and animal research laboratory. The Division currently holds several R and K level awards from the National Institutes of Health and has held continuous NIH-level funding since 1997.

Basic Research Themes

Sepsis; Inflammation; Lung Development and Regeneration; Signal Transduction Mechanisms; Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury; Hemorrhagic Shock

Clinical/Translational Research Themes

Sepsis; Genomics of Sepsis; Acute Kidney Injury; Traumatic Brain Injury; Biomarker Discovery and Development; Bioinformatics and Clinical Decision Support; Graduate Medical Education; Critical Illness Following Stem Cell Transplantation; Thrombosis; Social Determinants of Health.

Educational Mission:  To train the future clinician-investigators and academic leaders of pediatric critical care medicine.  

An ACGME-accredited training program provides for a 3 to 4 year fellowship, which prepares pediatricians for sub-specialization in the clinical practice of pediatric critical care and in research. The program currently accommodates 4 fellows per year and is structured to provide a 4^th year of research training via a National Institutes of Health training grant (T32). In addition, graduate medical education within the Division provides resident-level trainees with a basic knowledge of the presentation and management of critical illness.

THE SUCCESSFUL CANDIDATE

The Director of the Division of Critical Care Medicine at Cincinnati Children’s is a central leadership position at one of the leading pediatric healthcare institutions in the world. The Director must be an academic leader in the field of Critical Care Medicine. Additionally, the Director should have experience with clinical and research functions, strong leadership, administrative, and management abilities, and uncompromising integrity and ethics. A candidate will either be an MD or MD/PhD with subspecialty board certification in pediatric critical care medicine, or equivalent credentials. At a minimum, the candidate must meet requirements for appointment as an Associate Professor at the University of Cincinnati.

The successful candidate will bring the following personal qualities and professional qualifications and experience:

• Outstanding academic and research credentials with an established or emerging leadership record.
• An uncompromising commitment to excellence in patient care, research, and education.
• Ability to develop a collaborative vision, with a track record for successfully implementing new initiatives that meet the challenges of academic medicine and clinical care.
• Leadership and management experience including finances, resource management, planning, and facilitation skills.
• Demonstrated experience in recruiting, retaining, and mentoring top faculty and/or students.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills to build and maintain trust and relationships with faculty, staff, administration, trainees, and all other stakeholders.
• Demonstrated commitment to valuing and actively promoting diversity.
• Genuine understanding and respect for the tradition of success and collaborative science at Cincinnati Children’s

LOCATION

Cincinnati is one of America’s most vibrant and beautiful river cities. Located on the north bank of the Ohio River, metropolitan Cincinnati includes Northern Kentucky and the southeast corner of Indiana. Over two million people make their home in the tri-state hub of southwestern Ohio. Rich in history and tradition, Cincinnati offers all the allure of a larger metropolis while maintaining its charm and small-town character. The city is home to 3 major league sports teams (Cincinnati Reds baseball, Cincinnati Bengals football, and FC Cincinnati soccer), the Flying Pig Marathon, world-class dining options, a vibrant arts and theatre scene, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, opera and ballet companies, historic architecture, beautiful parks, and countless family-friendly opportunities. Cincinnati is a hidden jewel in the Midwest; its diverse economy (nine Fortune 500 companies and fifteen Fortune 1000 companies have their headquarters in Cincinnati), affordable housing, and short commute times make Cincinnati the ideal location for an extraordinary quality of life. For more information about Cincinnati, please visit: https://cincinnatiusa.com and https://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/education/opcf/cincinnati.  

TO APPLY

Inquiries, nominations, and applications should be sent to Dr. Stuart Goldstein (stuart.goldstein@cchmc.org) and Dr. Kasiani Myers (kasiani.myers@cchmc.org), Search Committee Co-Chairs.  Please CC:  Alisha Schweitzer (Alisha.Schweitzer@cchmc.org) - Physician and Faculty Recruiter

APPENDIX

Cincinnati Children’s

Cincinnati Children’s is ranked as one of the best children’s hospitals in the nation, earning the number three spot in the prestigious U.S. News & World Report’s 2019-2020 Honor Roll for the 9^th consecutive year. With an unwavering focus on patient care, leadership at Cincinnati Children’s executed an ambitious strategic plan over the past decade that led to unprecedented growth and expansion in clinical operations, research, community engagement, and educational programs. The growth of its network and services on the Main Campus has allowed Cincinnati Children’s to make significant investments in new facilities. In the spring of 2018, Cincinnati Children’s launched its largest expansion in medical center history. To be completed November 2021, the 600,000 square foot Critical Care Building (CCB) will add 249 rooms, expanding services for the most fragile and complex children, including a state-of-the-art emergency department, patients needing newborn and pediatric intensive care, cardiac care, and bone marrow transplants. Significant upgrades and expansions of facilities and infrastructure (including mental health care, cancer care, and neighborhood urgent care) will increase access and experience for patients, families, and employees. Moreover, the Cincinnati Children’s Liberty Campus includes a Proton Therapy Center, one of only two such centers in the world owned by a children’s hospital. This $120 million investment reflects a deep commitment to providing children with the most sophisticated, effective cancer treatment available.

External research funding has grown exponentially over the past 10 years, increasing from $151 million to more than $240 million annually. In 2015, Cincinnati Children’s reinforced and expanded its longstanding commitment to pediatric scientific research with the opening of a $205 million, state-of-the art research tower, which together with 5 other adjoining research buildings amounts to 1.4 million square feet of research space.  A pioneer in biomedical research, leadership has made bold investments to transform discovery into therapies. In 2017, the Center for Stem Cell and Organoid Medicine (CuSTOM) was launched to catalyze the potential of organoid stem cell technologies, a system that holds great promise to revolutionize personalized and regenerative medicine in the 21st century. These investments, expansions and renovation projects underscore a remarkable legacy as well as a mission to be a leader in improving child health nationally and internationally. Similar strategic investments in genetics and genomics research are ongoing, and the newly appointed Director of Human Genetics will help shape that vision long-term.

Divisions, Institutes, and Centers within Cincinnati Children’s

While Cincinnati Children’s investigators have academic homes in the Department of Pediatrics and hold affiliated appointments at the University of Cincinnati, researchers also belong to cross-divisional teams, centers and institutes that target key areas of research – allowing investigators to attack critical pediatric diseases in a highly collaborative fashion. Nearly a third of all faculty at Cincinnati Children’s collectively belong to the Cancer & Blood Diseases Institute, the Heart Institute, the Perinatal Institute, and/or Mind Brain Behavior Collaborative. This aggregation of talent enables investigation of highly specific and complex scientific questions. In addition to basic and clinical research, translational research is facilitated by the Center for Clinical and Translation Science and Training (CCTST) and supported by a joint NIH Clinical and Translational Sciences Award to Cincinnati Children’s and the College of Medicine. Established by the UC College of Medicine in 2005, the CCTST provides funding and training opportunities, methodology consultation, and training opportunities across the entire academic health center, propelling discovery into practice.

The Department of Pediatrics is comprised of 40 divisions, providing a full range of pediatric specialty care and comprehensive education to physicians. These Divisions are more akin in scale and scope to Departments at other medical centers. Throughout the years, divisions have fostered growth and recruitment as well as new collaborations. Work in the Department spans the spectrum of discovery: basic exploration of biological processes, translation of new knowledge to clinical practice, and improvement of community health. To learn more about these premier advances, visit: https://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/research/cincinnati/annual-report/2020/top-breakthroughs

Departmental divisions include: Adolescent and Transition Medicine; Allergy and Immunology; Asthma Research; Behavioral Medicine and Clinical Psychology; Biomedical Informatics; Biostatistics and Epidemiology; Cancer and Blood Diseases Institute (including the following divisions: Hematology; Bone Marrow Transplantation and Immune Deficiency; Oncology; Experimental Hematology and Cancer Biology); Center for Pediatric Genetics (CpG); Center for Autoimmune Genomics and Etiology (CAGE); Clinical Pharmacology; Critical Care Medicine; Dentistry; Dermatology; Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics; Developmental Biology; Emergency Medicine; Endocrinology; Every Child Succeeds; Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition; General and Community Pediatrics; Heart Institute (including the following divisions: Cardiology; Cardiothoracic Surgery; Molecular Cardiovascular Biology); Hospital Medicine; Human Genetics; Immunobiology; Infectious Diseases; James M. Anderson Center for Health Systems Excellence; Mayerson Center for Safe and Healthy Children; Nephrology and Hypertension (including the Center for Acute Care Nephrology); Neurology; Pathology and Laboratory Medicine; Perinatal Institute (including the following divisions: Neonatology; Pulmonary Biology); Psychiatry; Pulmonary Medicine; Rehabilitation Medicine; Reproductive Sciences; Research in Patient Services; Rheumatology; Sports Medicine.

Education at Cincinnati Children’s

The pediatric training program at Cincinnati Children's is one of the largest within a single institution in the United States and offers some of the most highly ranked research-based education and training programs in the nation. As one of the nation’s top pediatric academic medical centers, Cincinnati Children’s offers a multitude of superior fellowship training opportunities in Pediatrics, Surgery, Radiology, Anesthesiology, and related sub-specialties, with 35 programs ACGME-certified and more than 65 additional specialty fellowship programs. Moreover, Cincinnati Children's is one of the largest Pediatric Residency Training Programs in the country, offering both the core categorical pediatric residency as well as several combined training programs with the University of Cincinnati. In the categorical program, residents get a breadth of experience in various sub-specialties and general pediatrics while working in both inpatient and outpatient settings (including a dedicated training tract for physician-scientists). In addition to eminence in pediatric residency and fellowship training, Cincinnati Children’s offers nursing education programs in a wide range of nursing specialty areas and career development. Clinical programs and research environment are closely aligned to foster innovation and discovery across all disciplines, attracting the best and brightest medical students, residents, and fellows from across the United States.

In addition, the Department offers research-based education and training options for scientists, often in conjunction with the University of Cincinnati. These include post-doctoral programs for PhDs, post-doctoral clinical fellowship programs for MDs or MD/PhDs, medical student programs, MD/PhD programs, graduate degree programs, and undergraduate and high school programs. The Department consists of 272 clinical fellows, 181 post-doctoral fellows, and 200 pediatric residents.

Governance at Cincinnati Children’s

The Division Director of Critical Care Medicine reports to the Chair of Pediatrics.

Together with the Research Foundation, the institution has an endowment of over $3 billion. In addition to a deep and diverse educational program and robust cross-divisional research, the Department boasts a large and growing clinical operation which leads to a robust flow of funds.

THE RESEARCH FOUNDATION AT CINCINNATI CHILDREN’S

Cincinnati Children’s has a remarkable record of breakthrough science that has redefined pediatric health worldwide. The Cincinnati Children’s Research Foundation (The Research Foundation) is the medical center’s research arm and the umbrella organization under which the Department of Pediatrics stands. Founded in 1931 through an endowment from William Cooper Procter (chairman of the hospital’s board of trustees and grandson of William Procter, the cofounder of Procter & Gamble Co.), the Research Foundation has served as a hub for scientists pursuing leading research. Notably, in the 1950’s and 60’s, doctors at Cincinnati Children’s were the first to develop a functional heart-lung machine, a crucial step toward open-heart surgery. Researchers at Cincinnati Children's developed the oral polio vaccine, an innovation that has nearly eliminated the crippling disease worldwide. These invaluable contributions would be followed by many others in the decades to come, fortifying a long and distinguished history that has positioned Cincinnati Children’s as one of the preeminent pediatric research institutions in the world.

Today, Cincinnati Children’s is home to one of the largest pediatric research programs in the country, with extramural grants and contracts surpassing $240 million for two consecutive years and a total operating budget of $565 million. External funding has increased by nearly 60% in the last decade alone, and as of FY20 Cincinnati Children’s stands as the second largest recipient among children’s hospitals of R01 equivalent grants, fellowship grants, and awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The Research Foundation continues to grow and invest in faculty success through internally funded grants, including more than $46 million in new funding opportunities and endowed chairs over the past three years. A deep collaboration among the brightest biomedical science minds and the most talented pediatric clinicians ensures that The Cincinnati Children's Research Foundation continues to be one of the nation's most significant sources of pediatric scientific discovery and innovation worldwide.

Shared Facilities and Cores

A forerunner in changing outcomes for children, Cincinnati Children’s leads the nation in pediatric research space. As the number of research projects has grown and expanded over the years, so too have the facilities available to support researchers, their staff, and administrative offices. Today, with more than 1.4 million square feet of research laboratory space, Cincinnati Children’s stands as the largest pediatric research facility in the country. In 2015, the Clinical Sciences Pavilion, a $205 million, state-of-the art 14-story, 445,000 square foot research tower, significantly expanded initiatives in basic, translational, clinical, quality improvement, and population health-based research. Housing over 1,500 physicians, scientists, and support staff, the Clinical Sciences Pavilion sits between the hospital’s main clinical care center and its companion research tower, the William Cooper Procter Pavilion. Both symbolic and functional, this spatial arrangement more closely connects scientists and clinicians, enabling faster translation of innovations from the bench to bedside. Research is conducted at Cincinnati Children’s as well as in laboratory space at the University of Cincinnati.

Faculty at CCHMC are supported by unparalleled core facilities that that leave no aspect of ingenuity unsatisfied. Twenty-nine cores span the gamut of biomedical research, providing cutting-edge, cost-effective technology and data analysis, knowledgeable advisors, and experienced support staff. These shared facilities fuel cross-divisional collaboration and attract the world’s top pediatric scientists to pursue clinical trials, translational research, and outcomes and improvement studies. Faculty also have access to additional research cores hosted at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. To learn more about core services and institutes, centers, and research programs, visit: http://med.uc.edu/research/core-facilities and https://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/research/divisions/view-all, respectively.