Karen Puopolo, MD, PhD, chief of Newborn Medicine at PAH and associate professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, was selected as the Pediatrician of the Year by the Pennsylvania chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), recognized for her commitment to research and clinical care to support the hospitals’ youngest patients.
“I am so honored for this recognition,” said Puopolo. “Newborn care is foundationally important for our tiniest patients. What goes on in the newborn period can influence the rest of someone’s life.”
Puopolo serves on several AAP committees in which she leads projects centered on neonatal sepsis risk, hepatitis B vaccine, and COVID-19 management for pregnant patients and newborns. She also provides current guidance on COVID-19 and newborn care on the AAP website.
At PAH, she serves as the director of a 50-bed intensive care nursery and the Well-Baby Nursery, guiding her team to help care for the more than 5,000 babies born at the hospital each year. The team assesses the babies with a nationally recognized neonatal sepsis risk calculator, a risk assessment tool developed by Puopolo and research partners at Kaiser-Permanente Northern California which determines an infant’s risk for early-onset sepsis and if antibiotics or further action are required.
“I’ve been blessed to collaborate with Dr. Puopolo for the past eight years,” said Betsie Quigley, MSN, RN, NEA-BC, clinical director of Women’s Health. “She has been driving practice changes and developing standards of care at national levels throughout her career. She truly deserves this award.”
Puopolo was initially supposed to accept her award in March, but the ceremony had to be postponed to the AAP’s fall meeting, as she already committed to a prior engagement – serving as a medical chaperone for her daughter’s high school marching band trip and taking care of 190 students.
However, PAH held their own event to celebrate the achievement – a surprise party. Hospital leadership and members of the ICN cheered for Puopolo as she walked into the Cheston conference room. They enjoyed a prepackaged breakfast and shared congratulatory messages.
“It was a lovely gathering of everyone that makes the Women’s Health program function here at PAH,” said Puopolo. “They’re an incredible team whose dedication to newborn care has helped infants off to the right start in life.”