Current Opinion in Pediatrics was launched in 1989. It is one of a successful series of review journals whose unique format is designed to provide a systematic and critical assessment of the literature as presented in the many primary journals. The fields of pediatrics are divided into 18 sections that are reviewed once a year. Each section is assigned a Section Editor, a leading authority in the area, who identifies the most important topics at that time. Here we are pleased to introduce the Journal's Editor in Chief and Section Editors for this issue.
SECTION EDITORS
Elijah Paintsil
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Elijah Paintsil
Dr Paintsil is Professor of Pediatrics, of Pharmacology, of Epidemiology and of Management. He is the Chief of the Section of Pediatric Infectious Diseases & Global Health, Department of Pediatrics at Yale School of Medicine, USA, and former Program Director of Pediatric Infectious Diseases Fellowship Training Program (2016–2021), the Director of Pediatric AIDS Program at Yale-New Haven Hospital, USA, and the PI of T32 training grant (2T32AI007210-38) aimed at training physician scientists. He is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Society for Pediatric Research, Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society, Infectious Diseases Society of North America, and Academic Pediatric Society. He serves on the Pediatric Scientist Development Program Steering Committee, the Leadership of the HHS Panel on the Prevention and Treatment of Opportunistic Infections in HIV-Exposed and HIV-Infected Children, and as a consultant to Africa CDC on their COVID-19 mitigation efforts.
He completed medical school in his native Ghana, Africa, residency at Lincoln Hospital in NYC, USA, and fellowship training in pediatric infectious disease at Yale, USA. Dr Paintsil is both a laboratory-based and a clinical investigator with interest in understanding the effects of antiretroviral therapy (ART) on the biology of mitochondrion and global pediatric HIV treatment outcomes. Dr Paintsil devotes significant professional effort to training and capacity building. In 2006, Dr Paintsil established a bi-directional research and training initiative with the University of Ghana, Africa (Ghana-Yale Partnership for Global Health). In addition to supporting collaborative research between faculty, the program sponsors up to12-month periods of closely mentored research training in New Haven and in Accra for students/fellows from both institutions. Based on the success of the Yale-Ghana collaboration, the program was expanded in 2009—Yale Partnership for Global Health—to include additional partner institutions, the U. of Sao Paolo, Brazil and King Saud U., Saudi Arabia and, in 2014, the U. of the West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica. These five universities comprise a global consortium dedicated to collaborative research and training in infectious diseases. He is the PI of a D43 grant (06/15/20 to 12/31/24) from Fogarty titled “HIV Comorbidities Research Training (HIV-ComRT) in Ghana. He is also the PI of an R01 to study the benefits of pediatric HIV disclosure in Ghana (R01 HD103512-01, 8/15/20 to 6/30/25).
Tom Hooven
Elijah Paintsil
Tom Hooven, MD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Newborn Medicine at UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, USA. This is his fifth year as a Current Opinion in Pediatrics section editor. He is a graduate of University of Michigan Medical School, USA, and completed his general pediatrics residency and neonatology training at the Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of Columbia/New York-Presbyterian, USA. A former fellow in the Pediatric Scientist Development Program, Dr Hooven's research interests centre on maternofetal and neonatal bacterial infections, with an emphasis on genomic and bioinformatics approaches to understanding pathogenesis. He has also published widely on diagnostic and treatment strategies for new-born bacterial infections. He is a member of the Society for Pediatric Research and has NIH funding for ongoing studies of group B Streptococcus colonization and infection.
Tara M. Randis
Tara M. Randis
Dr Tara M. Randis is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Molecular Medicine at the University of South Florida, USA and Chief of the Division of Neonatology. She is a graduate of the University of Scranton, USA and received her MD from Drexel University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. She completed her pediatric residency training at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children, Philadelphia, USA, before pursing her fellowship training in neonatal-perinatal medicine at Columbia University, USA. In 2011, she earned a MS degree in biostatistics from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. She is an active member of the Society for Pediatric Research, American Pediatric Society and The Perinatal Research Society.
Her research focuses on the mechanisms of bacterial colonization of the female reproductive tract as it relates to adverse pregnancy outcomes including chorioamnionitis, preterm labour and early-onset neonatal sepsis.
Michel Baum
Michel Baum
Dr Michel Baum received his BS and MD degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles, USA. He completed his internship and residency at Yale University School of Medicine, USA. His nephrology fellowship was performed at the University of California, San Francisco, USA, where he was a research fellow at the Cardiovascular Research Institute. Since completion of his fellowship, he has been at the University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center and Children's Medical Center of Dallas, USA. He is currently Professor of Pediatrics and Internal Medicine. He also holds the Sara M. and Charles E. Seay Chair in Pediatric Research. He is a member of a number of national societies including the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, the Society for Pediatric Research, the American Society of Nephrology, and the International Pediatric Nephrology Association. He has served as a member of the General Medicine B Study Section and the DDKD Study Section for the NIH. Dr Baum's research primarily examines the maturational changes that occur in renal tubular transport during development. He has described many changes in transporters that explain the physiologic difference between the neonatal kidney and the adult kidney. His other research interests include the pathophysiology and pathogenesis of hereditary defects in tubular transport, such as X-linked hypophosphatemia. He is also currently investigating the cause for hypertension in patients with a prenatal insult that are small for gestational age. His research is funded by the National Institutes of Health. He has contributed to over 150 publications.
Henry H. Bernstein
Henry H. Bernstein
Dr Bernstein is a Professor of Pediatrics at Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell in New York, USA. He taps into his extensive 38–year experience as a general pediatrician in private practice, the National Health Service Corps, and as Chief of General Academic Pediatrics at urban, suburban, and rural children's hospitals to promote the health and well-being of children, their families, and their communities. His private, community-based primary care (generalist) experiences in combination with academic leadership responsibilities have provided him with a value-added, translational science perspective, unique from many others in academia. This tacit knowledge enables him to fulfil a lifelong passion of communicating, educating, and translating science into clinical settings, educational venues, policymaking, and media interactions to advance the health of children.
Research is consistently woven into the fabric of Dr Bernstein's clinical practice, which has served as a “laboratory” for his active studies. His research and quality improvement initiatives focus on issues important to Academic General Pediatrics and community-based practice, including immunizations, infectious diseases, postpartum newborn discharge, childhood obesity, breastfeeding, health promotion, preventive health screening in primary care, technology and medical education. His commitment, innovative spirit, and enthusiasm also encompass many facets of medical education along the continuum from training and mentoring future physicians to fostering lifelong learning and supporting the continuous professional development of practicing pediatricians.
Dr Bernstein is a voting member of the US Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) and a former voting member of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice (ACIP). He serves as a consultant on the ACIP COVID-19, Influenza, and Immunization Schedules for Adults and Children workgroups. He also is an ex-officio member of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ (AAP) Committee on Infectious Diseases (Red Book Committee) and was Associate Editor of the AAP's Red Book Online for 12 years. In addition, he is Editor-in-Chief Emeritus of PediaLink, the AAP's online home for lifelong learning, and past Chair of the interdisciplinary Bright Futures Health Promotion Workgroup, which created a distinctive health promotion curriculum, videos, and a companion educational website (www.pediatricsinpractice.org).
Dr Bernstein has been Editor of the Office Pediatrics Series in Current Opinion in Pediatrics since 1995 and was Senior Editor of Pediatrics on the public website of Harvard Medical School's Health Publications Division for 17 years. He regularly shares his knowledge and expertise by educating the public, writing for health information websites and often participating in media interviews on a variety of pediatric health care issues including immunizations, diagnosis and treatment of common childhood infectious diseases and conditions, and practical information for parents, teachers and caregivers.
In the spirit of lifelong learning, Dr Bernstein earned a masters in healthcare management (MHCM) at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, USA in 2013 and has been a faculty member in this Executive Education Masters degree program since. He actively maintains his certification by the American Board of Pediatrics. He completed his residency training in pediatrics at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children in Philadelphia, USA after earning his medical degree from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey - School of Osteopathic Medicine, USA. Hank and his wife, Sophie, have been married for 43 years, are extremely proud of their 38-year-old daughter, Lauren, and 32-year-old son, David, and are “over the moon” with their 2 granddaughters, Eva and Vienne.
