Billie Lou Short, M.D., as chief of the Division of Neonatology is responsible for overseeing the division’s clinical and research efforts. Her background has been in the area of brain physiologic changes related to therapies such as extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), and clinical studies in analyzing outcome related to brain injury in this population. She provides leadership on the international Children’s Hospitals Neonatal Consortium Executive Board, which organizes and initiates multicenter quality outcome research programs across the nation.
Khodayar Rais-Bahrami, M.D., is the director of the Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Fellowship Program and Professor of Pediatrics at the George Washington University School of Medicine. His major focus is to insure that fellows are matched with mentors who will assure their success in clinical and/or bench research, while directing their long-term goals for their fellowship training. His clinical and research interests include research into the evaluation of devices being considered for use in the neonatal population, including the NIRS system for brain and enteric monitoring of oxygenation in the neonatal population, evaluation of wireless cardiovascular monitoring systems to be used both in the NICU and as home monitors, and recent investigation of a novel non-invasive cardiovascular monitor systems used to measure cardiac output, blood volume and ductal shunt in the neonatal population as well as cardiac output and recirculation measurements in neonatal ECMO population. He has mentored numerous fellows in projects in these areas and as director of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Fellowship Program and the 2011 Children’s Research Institute Mentorship Award recipient, he continues to be committed to mentoring the research development of young fellows and investigators at different levels of training who work synergistically to answer critical questions in neonatology.
Suma Hoffman, M.D., M.S., is the associate program director of the Neonatal-Perinatal Fellowship Program and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the George Washington University School of Medicine. She completed both pediatric residency and Neonatal-Perinatal Fellowship Program at Children’s National Hospital and then went on to serve as faculty in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine for eight years prior to returning to Children's National. Her research interests have focused on using Near-Infrared Spectroscopy to evaluate hemodynamic status and cerebral autoregulation in premature infants in relationship to outcomes. More recently, she is partnering with the Advanced Signals Processing Lab to evaluate autonomic development in premature infants in relationship to respiratory outcomes.
Nickie Andescavage, M.D., completed fellowships in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine, as well as Fetal-Transitional Medicine. She also serves as the medical director of Neonatal Transport, as well as the neonatal-perinatal director of the Prenatal Pediatric Institute. Her research areas of interest include intrauterine development in healthy and high-risk pregnancies, specifically placental health and fetal-neonatal neurodevelopment, as well as the role of maternal exposures on fetoplacental health. Additionally, she has supervised medical trainees in neonatal-perinatal ethics and palliative care.
Sudeepta Basu, M.D., focuses his research on understanding brain injury and development using advanced magnetic resonance techniques measuring in vivo concentrations of GABA in preterm brain. He is investigating role of glycemic homeostasis in infants with perinatal asphyxia and its influence on brain injury and outcomes. He is also developing pathways to guide judicious use of antimicrobials in NICU as QI initiative.
Natalia Isaza Brando, M.D., focuses on the study of the effect of skin to skin contact and the benefit this provides the NICU patients and their parents. She is a member of the neonatology nocturnal care team, proving oversight of the resident and fellows on the night shift. She is also the neonatal lead for the neurodevelopmental follow-up clinic. She has championed family support and education on discharge to home planning for our families and provided classes in Spanish for our Spanish speaking families.
Panagiotis Kratimenos, M.D., is a neonatologist and developmental neuroscientist whose research focuses on elucidating mechanisms of perinatal brain injury. Dr. Kratimenos studies mechanisms of injury of the developing cerebellum with the ultimate goal of developing therapeutic interventions and improve functional development.
Nneka Nzegwu, D.O., M.P.H., is the associate director of Quality and Safety for the Division of Neonatology. Her area of interest is using quality improvement methodologies to improve the care of our patients at the bedside. Her areas of focus are preventing hospital-acquired conditions, neonatal nutrition and antibiotic stewardship in the NICU. She enjoys educating and mentoring residents, fellows and colleagues about quality improvement science and patient safety principles.
Mary Revenis, M.D., focuses on neonatal nutrition, newborn metabolic/cardiac screening programs, immunizations program and advocacy for the newborn at the District of Columbia and national level. She is the medical director of Nutrition Services in the NICU. She also collaborates with the Division of Nephrology in multicenter studies on acute renal failure in the newborn, an area that is continuing to evolve.
Lamia Soghier, M.D., FAAP, CHSE, is interested in the improvement of procedural skills training in neonatology through simulation and technology, and as NICU medical director, she is a key sponsor of many quality improvement initiatives. Currently, Dr. Soghier and Dr. Okito collaborate on parental mental health projects and have mentored and supervised several resident and fellow projects. Current funding includes grants for universal postpartum screening in the NICU. Fellows interested in pursuing medical education, quality improvement or community health research projects can be mentored and supervised by her.
Simranjeet Sran, M.D., focuses on medical education for trainees and students. He recently graduated from the Master Teacher Leadership Development Program and is pursuing his masters in education and human development at GWU. He is a member of our nocturnal neonatal attending team, which oversees the NICU patient care on the night shift. He is working on developing curriculum for daily education of pediatric residents rotating through the NICU, including those on call overnight. For our fellows, Dr. Sran helps lead and develop curricula for weekly Fellow Education Sessions, Board Review and Simulation.