The Novak Center for Children’s Health is scheduled to open to patients in July 2018. The eight-story, 176,000-square-foot building is the first new health care facility in the Louisville Medical Center in nearly a decade.

“David Novak and his family continually demonstrate their strong commitment to the well-being of the children of Kentucky and beyond,” said Gregory C. Postel, MD, interim president of the University of Louisville. “It is not just symbolic, but appropriate that one of the area’s premiere pediatric health care centers be named in their honor.”

In addition to financial support toward the construction of the Novak Center for Children’s Health, the Novak Family and the Lift-A-Life Foundation have been instrumental in the creation and growth of the Wendy Novak Diabetes Center, which will have its outpatient services based in the new facility.

“At the University of Louisville, and through its primary children’s partner in Norton Healthcare, we have some of the premiere health care providers in the nation,” Novak said. “We now will have the world-class outpatient facility to match the level of care our children receive.”

One of the significant advantages of the new facility will be the ability for patients to see all their childhood health providers in a single location. Currently, patients and their caregivers oftentimes must travel to multiple buildings in the medical center to see providers.

The story of and his family demonstrates the significant change the new facility will make in the lives of patients and their families and caregivers. Since 2006, he has been fighting a rare brain disorder that has required him seeing providers in hematology, ophthalmology, neurology and more.

“Everyone person who has helped provide for Noah through the years has been exceptional,” said Geneva Barone, Noah’s mother. “At times, it has been inconvenient having to go to the varying locations to see everyone. To have everyone in a single location, and knowing that we will not have to travel throughout the medical center is wonderful. While everyone makes us feel like family, to have a single location to visit will be like having a medical home.”

“We are building the future of pediatric health care right here in Louisville,” said Charles Woods, MD, interim chair of the UofL Department of Pediatrics. “This facility will enable us to transform how we deliver care by having our multidisciplinary teams located in one space so they can meet simultaneously with the patients and their families. This will eliminate substantial inconvenient delays and obstacles in our patients receiving the very best of care in the most time way possible.”

David Novak served as CEO of Louisville-based Yum! Brands from 1999 to 2016. He and his family established the Wendy Novak Diabetes Center in 2015.��

Check out video from the naming ceremony: 

The 171,000-square-foot facility will be home to the general pediatrics and the specialty and subspecialty children’s programs of the university. This will include not only caregivers from the Department of Pediatrics, but also from other departments including neurology, ophthalmology and surgery.

“This facility symbolizes the growth of our efforts to meet the health care needs of the children of Louisville, the region, and beyond,” said Gregory C. Postel, MD, interim president of UofL. “Our breadth of services has grown to the point that it makes sense for us to have our own facility, as opposed to locations scattered throughout the Louisville Medical Center.”

“For decades we have provided high quality care to our patients. Now we will be able to bring an equally high quality experience to them and their caregivers,” said Gerard Rabalais, MD, interim CEO of University of Louisville Physicians and former chair of the Department of Pediatrics. “Further, we truly will be able to provide them with a medical home … A home where we are bringing together nearly all of the services we provide to children in an outpatient setting with a truly multidisciplinary approach. This is the future of health care delivery, especially for our children.”

The outpatient services of the Wendy Novak Diabetes Center also will be located in the building. Norton Children’s Hospital also will be providing care within the building, including infusion and laboratory services.

UofL officials anticipate nearly 140,000 patient visits per year. Additionally, approximately 500 employees and learners will inhabit the building.

These people will be there not only to provide patient care, but also because of the educational and training mission of the Health Sciences Center. The multidisciplinary approach to the care provided will carry over into this mission as well.

“Our thinking about how we educate our future health care providers has changed significantly in recent years,” said Toni Ganzel, MD, interim executive dean for the UofL Health Sciences Center. “We no longer provide information in very discrete silos, but rather integrate the information in a multidisciplinary manner. This is applicable not only in the classroom, but also with our clinical training. We have come to understand how important it is for the surgeon to talk with the general physician and the nursing staff and nutritionists so that we have a team approach to patient-centered care.”

“One of our guiding principles in the design and construction of this building is how to make the delivery of care more convenient for our patients,” said Charles Woods, MD, interim chair of the Department of Pediatrics. “By bringing together the specialists who focus on children into a single location, we hope it will transform how care is delivered and education and training are provided. It is very exciting to see this coming together.”

The building is scheduled to open in July 2018.

More photos from today’s ceremony are .��

Video from today’s event is below: 

ELAM is a year-long fellowship for women faculty in schools of medicine, dentistry and public health. It provides leadership training with extensive coaching, networking and mentoring opportunities aimed at expanding the national pool of qualified women candidates for executive positions in the academic health sciences. Currently,  ELAM alumnae hold leadership positions at 240 academic health organizations worldwide.

The election of Boland brings the including School of Medicine Dean Toni M. Ganzel, MD, MBA, who participated in 2003-2004.

Boland has served as assistant dean of resident education and work environment in the Department of Graduate Medical ����ֱ�� at the UofL medical school since August 2016. Additionally, she holds the positions of vice chair of medical education, director of pediatric residency training and professor in the UofL Department of Pediatrics.

Boland is the current president of the Kentucky Pediatric Foundation and immediate past president of the Kentucky Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. She also is chair of the Association of Pediatric Program Directors’ Mid-America Region and a member of its Curriculum Task Force.

In addition to overseeing the pediatric residency program, Boland oversees eight pediatric fellowship programs at UofL and assisted in the creation of the department’s Development and Behavioral Fellowship, Pediatric Child Abuse Fellowship, Pediatric Pulmonary Fellowship and Pediatric Hematology-Oncology Fellowship. She also serves the university on the Promotion and Tenure Committee and the School of Medicine Wellness Committee.

She is a past recipient of the Paul Weber Award herself, also with the School of Medicine Master Educator Award and Dean’s Educator Award for Distinguished Teaching along with five clinical teaching awards and seven faculty peer mentoring awards.

A Louisville native, Boland earned her undergraduate degree from Notre Dame University and her medical degree from UofL. She completed her residency in pediatrics and a fellowship in pediatric critical care at St. Louis Children’s Hospital at Washington University in St. Louis. She is board certified in pediatrics and practices with University of Louisville Physicians.

Formerly Kosair Children’s Hospital, Norton and Kosair Charities reached a mutual decision in June to end their 35-year naming rights agreement with the name “Kosair” removed from all Norton-owned medical facilities and practices, including Norton Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Norton Children’s Medical Center and Norton Children’s Medical Associates along with the downtown children’s hospital.

As Division President of Women’s and Children’s Services, Thomas D. Kmetz emphasized during the announcement in the hospital lobby Tuesday morning, only the name will change. “Our name may be changing, but our commitment to children (will not),” he said.

The children’s hospital is affiliated with the Department of Pediatrics in the School of Medicine and is a part of the UofL Health Sciences Center.

“Our affiliation with Norton Children’s Hospital is integral to the Department of Pediatrics’ quadruple mission in education, patient care, research and community engagement,” said Gerard P. Rabalais, MD, the Billy F. Andrews Endowed Chair in Pediatrics. “As the hospital makes this change, we look forward to our continued partnership in providing the best of care to the children of Kentuckiana and beyond.”

Norton Healthcare is embarking on what it calls a “gradual change in all signage and other materials” to incorporate the new name.

A University of Louisville pediatrician’s comprehensive guide to vaccines, known as a standard in the profession, is now available electronically.

The Vaccine Handbook: A Practical Guide for Clinicians – also known as “The Purple Book” for the color of its cover in hard-copy form – has been developed into an app for iOS devices and is available in Apple’s . The guide’s author is Gary S. Marshall, MD, a professor in the at UofL who practices with .

The Vaccine Handbook App contains an updated version of the fifth edition of the book, including the latest immunization schedules and recommendations, Marshall said. The app enhances the print version by including functionality features such as keyword search, internal links, bookmarking, quick access to schedules and tables, hyperlinks to external sources and the ability to make real-time updates.

Published by Professional Communications Inc., The Vaccine Handbook has long been known as an authoritative, user-friendly guide to immunizations. Designed for all health care providers, the guide contains practical advice and background on vaccine program infrastructure, standards and regulations, business aspects of vaccine practice, general recommendations, schedules, special circumstances and how to address the concerns of parents and patients. Specific information about vaccine-preventable diseases, the rationale for vaccine use, and available products also are included.

“We are so excited to make this resource available to any provider who wants it,” Marshall said. “Immunizations are one of our greatest public health triumphs. The more useful and credible information that providers have in hand – which, in the case of an app, it literally is – the more vaccine-preventable diseases will become a distant memory.”

Through a collaboration between the publisher and Sanofi Pasteur, there is no charge to download and use the app, although registration and reporting under the Open Payments act is required.