In 2018, Proctor won a gold medal at the World Championship in baton twirling in Lillehammer, Norway. On May 10, the Buffalo, N.Y., native will achieve another milestone when she crosses the stage to accept her hard-earned bachelor’s degree in nursing. Proctor became an expert multi-tasker as she tackled nursing school studies, baton twirling for UofL fans and a job at Norton Children’s hospital as a student health care assistant.

As she rotated through different clinicals, her nursing capstone experience took her with the critical care float team where she encountered every unit at Norton Children’s. This helped determine her steps after graduation.

“I fell in love with pediatric care,” said Proctor, who has decided to continue her education through UofL’s . “I know pediatrics is a very hard job, but I find it gratifying. I’m here to make those kids laugh and make their days a little better.”

Fortunately for Proctor, making the decision to advance her nursing education means continuing to do the things she most treasures.

“I am so grateful that the twirling scholarship I received will pay for the majority of my DNP program – and I can remain for two more years as the featured twirler for UofL.”

The New York native credits the caring and supportive UofL nursing faculty who helped her manage the tough schedule and nursing school curriculum for the past four years. “It’s reassuring knowing that I have adults on my side to help in case I need it or just be there to support me like my family would back home,” Proctor said.

She recognized the impact of one professor, in particular.

“Starting nursing school, I was nervous because it’s intimidating, but then I met Dr. Rebecca Gesler, who recognized me from UofL games as the twirler,” said Proctor. “She has done a lot more for me than she may realize. I knew it was going to be hard, but I’m very grateful that the professors and instructors at the are willing to be not just educators but also support systems.”

As for the future, until at least May 2028, when the nurse is scheduled to complete her Doctor of Nurse Practitioner degree, the UofL community – and the whole community – will continue to benefit from Proctor’s talents as she twirls on the field and provides health care to children.

“It’s going to be tough for sure, but I’m excited to keep going and do what I love.”

Read more about Protor’s UofL journey.��

“Our University of Louisville has been working with partners in Tamale, Ghana, for the last 14 years,” said division chief of pediatric global health and Humana Endowed Chair in International Pediatrics. “When we learned that AMPATH would also begin working at the same hospital and medical school in Northern Ghana, our group was thrilled at the idea of partnering with a consortium which has such a strong track record of effective global health collaboration.”  

AMPATH is the Academic Model Providing Access to Health Care. UofL joins 14 other universities and medical schools around the world working in partnership with public sector hospitals and medical schools in Ghana, Kenya, Mexico and Nepal.

In Ghana, the partnership is led by (UDS-SoM) (TTH) and . The partnership launched in early 2019 with support provided to Indiana University from and .

As part of the AMPATH Ghana partnership, UofL will embrace the AMPATH philosophy to “Lead with Care” by continuing to provide pediatric clinical care that supports research and education in child health. This will include augmenting sub-specialty care in pediatrics, hosting two-way exchange of learners, initiating research grants focused on child health and broadening UofL’s institutional support with partners in Tamale, Ghana.

“The AMPATH Consortium welcomes the University of Louisville and we look forward to working together to both enhance their existing work in Ghana while learning from their expertise in international pediatrics to grow all of the AMPATH partnerships,” said Adrian Gardner, MD, MPH, executive director of the AMPATH Consortium.

“We are very excited to work with our colleagues at University of Louisville to grow pediatric medicine education, research and care in Tamale, Ghana,” said Professor Stephen Tabiri, MD, PhD, FGCS, FACS, FWACS, MEd (Adm.) dean of UDS-SoM.  “We are looking forward to a very fruitful partnership.” 

Dr. Adam Atiku, CEO of Tamale Teaching Hospital added, “We are looking forward to further collaborating with our colleagues from the University of Louisville, with whom we have had over a decade-long partnership, as they join the AMPATH Consortium to continue in our collective quest to improve pediatric and child healthcare to clients within northern Ghana and beyond. We are very excited to see what we can achieve together for children in northern Ghana.”

The AMPATH Ghana partnership is based on a collaborative model that has helped to build a sustainable healthcare system over the past three decades in western Kenya.

“AMPATH Ghana’s long-term partnership model presents a unique opportunity for University of Louisville faculty and trainees. We look forward to building relationships with our counterparts to strengthen pediatric care delivery in Tamale and northern Ghana,” Rajesh Vedanthan, MD, MPH, MS, director of the Section for Global Health at the Institute for Excellence in Health Equity and associate professor in the Department of Population Health at NYU Langone.

In April, UofL faculty and residents traveled to Ghana and stayed in the AMPATH Ghana House with full-time faculty from NYU Grossman School of Medicine while working and training alongside Ghanaian faculty and residents.

“That experience further solidified our strong desire to be a part of the AMPATH Consortium. Seeing first-hand the projects which have already been started, how well they are partnered with our colleagues in Ghana, and how smoothly they managed the logistics in Ghana sealed the deal for our plans to join AMPATH,” said Williams.��

The AMPATH Consortium is led by Indiana University and includes Brown University, Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin, Duke University, Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine, Linköping University (Sweden), Mount Sinai, NYU Langone Health, Purdue University, Stanford University Center for Innovation in Global Health, University of Alberta, University of California San Francisco, University of Toronto and the University of Virginia.

The division of pediatric global health at UofL was established as the international pediatrics division by George Rodgers, MD, more than 25 years ago with a partnership in Romania and other eastern European countries. The Humana Foundation generously provided funding for the division’s creation. Faculty in the division include Jackson Williams, MD; Nicole Bichir, MD; Sheridan Langford, MD; Bethany Hodge, MD, MPH (completed a rotation in AMPATH’s Kenya partnership in 2009); Dan Stewart, MD; Dan Blatt, MD; Mirzada Kurbasic, MD; and Kelly Frazier, MD. The division also has a partnership in Ecuador.

These are the ingredients that make up raiseRED, the University of Louisville’s largest student-run philanthropy that has raised over $4.1 million for pediatric cancer and blood disorders research and patient support since 2013.

Celebrating its 10^th anniversary this year, raiseRED will be held Friday-Saturday, Feb. 24-25, at the Swain Student Activities Center Ballroom.

raiseRED is a dance marathon that benefits UofL’s Division of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology and the Norton Children’s Cancer Institute outpatient clinic. Participants raise a minimum of $200 per person to participate, with many raising even more.

The event kicks off at 6 p.m., Friday, Feb. 24, and culminates with the big reveal of total dollars raised at the Community Celebration from 10:30 a.m.-noon, Saturday, Feb. 25.

In between, students will kick up their heels. To keep up their spirits – and help keep their eyes open – several events-within-the-event are held. Among them are:

• Buzz for the Cure: A long-standing raiseRED tradition, students pledge to shave their head, or do a major chop, during the dance marathon if they reach their fundraising goal.
• Angel Hour: The people in participants’ lives who have been impacted by cancer and blood disorders are recognized and remembered.��
• Mail Call: Letters of support from participants’ loved ones are read to cheer them on.
• Neon Silent Disco: The speaker system goes silent and participants wear headphones to dance to music only they can hear.
• And new this year: The Hypnotic Experience. Hypnotist ‘TG’ Rivers will tap participants to be hypnotized to entertain the crowd.

It’s the cause, however, of battling childhood cancer and blood disorders that is the core of the effort, said raiseRED Executive Director Valerie Tran, a senior majoring in industrial engineering.

“raiseRED is a year-long effort to help children with cancer and blood disorders in the Louisville area, and I’m so humbled to see the courage these kids show,” Tran said. “I know what we are doing and the funds we raise can make a difference in the lives of these children and their families every day.”

For information and to donate, visit the

“It is remarkable how our team of pediatric specialists came together with the device company to offer a resolution for such a small patient weighing less than three pounds at the time of implant,” said Soham Dasgupta, pediatric electrophysiologist, Norton Children’s Heart Institute, and UofL assistant professor of pediatric cardiology. “This case is unlike any other and we are so pleased to see this patient thriving as a result of the innovative approach.”

Approximately 1 in 22,000 infants are born with CCAVB. Untreated, the condition has a high incidence of prolonged illness or death. The usual treatment involves implantation of a pacemaker once the patient meets a minimum body size, typically 4.5 to 5.5 pounds, to accommodate the implantable device. Taking time for the baby to grow while being otherwise treated is strongly preferred for this situation. With this patient, however, the traditional plan was not working.

“In this instance, the patient was not of the optimal size and medical/conservative management was unsuccessful, so a specially modified pediatric-sized pacemaker also known as an implantable pulse generator (IPG) created by Medtronic was used,” Dasgupta said.

Dasgupta and his colleague, Christopher L. Johnsrude, director of pediatric and adult congenital electrophysiology at Norton and UofL associate professor of pediatric cardiology, reviewed the relevant preclinical data from a procedure where a similar tiny pediatric IPG had been implanted in an adult Yucatan miniature pig, an animal with a heart that resembles a child’s heart.

Once it was determined the pediatric IPG was potentially compatible with the patient at Norton Children’s, Dasgupta worked with Norton Children’s Research Institute, affiliated with the UofL School of Medicine, and the manufacturer, to obtain local Institutional Review Board approval and emergency authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.��

The procedure to place the implant was completed over the course of a two-hour open-heart surgery. The tiny device measures 1.16 by 0.65 by 0.38 inches and weighs 0.18 ounces.

“While the operative steps might be comparable to the usual pacemaker implantation surgery, this surgery was especially delicate due to the very small size of the baby,” said Bahaaldin Alsoufi, chief of pediatric cardiothoracic surgery, co-director of Norton Children’s Heart Institute, and UofL professor of cardiothoracic surgery. “This tiny pacemaker generator was positioned in the abdominal wall on the right side and was connected to the usual leads that were attached to the heart.

“This novel device will provide the necessary support that the baby currently needs. At time of repair of the patient’s congenital heart defect in the future, we will be able to utilize these same leads and likely connect them then to a traditional larger pacemaker generator.”

To date, the patient is doing well and continues to be cared for by cardiac and neonatal specialists across Norton Children’s Heart Institute.

The Health Resources and Services Administration has awarded more than $1.2 million over 5 years to the UofL and Norton Children’s project, out of a $48 million award to establish a Regional Pediatric Pandemic Network. The amount awarded to UofL and Norton Children’s is expected to grow throughout the next four years. The project will involve preparing for global health threats, including pandemics, and supporting communities in everyday pediatric readiness.

Charles G. Macias, chief quality officer at University Hospitals  Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital in Cleveland, will lead the project. Mary E. Fallat will head the UofL and Norton Children’s effort.

“We began this work before the global pandemic, and 2020 proved how important it is for hospitals, health care infrastructures, government and private entities to work together to create a coordinated emergency response model,” Macias said. “This grant is an amazing opportunity to grow a national model whose impact can inform all aspects of pediatric preparedness, from daily efforts to global health threats.”

The network brings together five children’s health care facilities but also creates a network of networks—including the nation’s only two federally-funded Pediatric Disaster Centers of Excellence, which are funded through the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response and the work of the Emergency Medical Services for Children Innovation and Improvement Center, funded through HRSA’s EMSC program.

The Regional Pediatric Pandemic Network includes:

• UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital, affiliated with Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio  
• University of Louisville School of Medicine Department of Surgery and Norton Children’s Hospital
• University of California San Francisco and its Benioff Children’s Hospital, Oakland, California  
• University of Utah and Primary Children’s Hospital, Salt Lake City, Utah
• Saint Louis University and Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital, St. Louis, Missouri

This network of children’s hospitals represents a broad geographic diversity and will serve as a hub-and-spoke model of expertise to support efforts for pediatric readiness and disaster/pandemic preparedness by incorporating specific focus areas, called “domains,” such as trauma, equity, analytics and others, to define best practices as supported by the ASPR, HRSA, EMSC, and other existing workgroups.

Norton Children’s Hospital will be the hub for integration of trauma and burns into the network, and Fallat is the principal investigator for the site. The hospital is well positioned for this effort as it has been a leader in pediatric trauma care for the region since the late 1980s, when the hospital administration supported Fallat’s efforts to build a trauma program at the hospital. Norton Children’s Hospital is a Level I American College of Surgeons verified trauma center led by David Foley.

Thanks to support from the community through the Norton Children’s Hospital Foundation, the trauma program remains a regional center for the highest level of emergency care for children. The foundation plans to raise an additional $5 million to further advance the care available to children from throughout Kentucky, Southern Indiana and beyond.��

”This is extremely important work from a number of perspectives,” Fallat said. “The first is that current efforts for national and state preparedness often forget about children. The second is that trauma still claims the lives of more children in this country annually than any other cause. The third is that efforts to prepare for mass casualty events in different domains such as infectious diseases, trauma, natural disasters and others – often operate in silos, and this grant will unite them. Lastly, there is a need in all hospitals to build ’pediatric preparedness’ into the emergency department structure and function, and adult providers need to be a part of this.

“We need to build confidence in community surgeons/emergency providers/trauma teams. Many rural medical providers are used to caring for adults and experience added stress when they are called on to care for children. They want to provide the care but realize and are distressed by a sense of higher stakes,” she said.  “A goal should be to build a team that can, together with the surgeon, support each other to provide their best care to kids. Extrapolating to the grant at large, this seems a reasonable goal for all aspects of emergency planning.”

The UofL portion of the project also will involve Kristina K. Bryant, professor of pediatrics, system pediatric epidemiologist and infection control, UofL Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases; Beth Spurlin, assistant professor of pediatrics at UofL and director of EMS and mass casualty at Norton Children’s Hospital, and Gena Cooper, assistant professor of pediatrics and emergency medicine at the University of Kentucky and Kentucky Children’s Hospital.�� 

“The pandemic’s impact on children and the health care systems that care for children extend beyond the diagnosis and management of infectious diseases to challenges with access to care and a behavioral health crisis,” said Daniel Simon, president, academic and external affairs and chief scientific officer, UH. “This new network will help to accelerate research-informed pediatric care transformation for sick and injured children across national organizations and infrastructures and we are proud to be leading efforts here in Cleveland and the nation.”

“As of now, we do not have a vaccine that is authorized for use in children under age 12,” said Gary S. Marshall, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at Norton Children’s and the UofL School of Medicine, and principal investigator for the Louisville trial. “Having a safe and effective vaccine for children will not only keep them healthy but also would facilitate a return to normal in terms of school and other activities.”

In the randomized clinical trial, two children will be assigned to receive the vaccine for every one child who receives a placebo. The study is blinded, meaning that no one initially will know which injection they receive. Parents and caregivers will be asked to track changes to the child’s health in an electronic diary, and children will have at least six in-person visits over a two-year period, some to include blood draws.

Children who are randomly assigned to receive the placebo will be given the chance to receive the active vaccine after six months; therefore, all children in the study ultimately will have the opportunity to receive the active vaccine.  

The vaccine being studied is the same one that has been authorized for people ages 12 and older. In adults, this vaccine demonstrated 95% efficacy against COVID-19, and as of May 2021, nearly 140 million people in the U.S. had received at least one dose. Preliminary data show the vaccine to be safe in children as well as able to generate a strong immune response.

The research team plans to enroll about 100 local volunteers for the trial; the overall enrollment will be about 4,500. Children ages 6 months to 11 years who are generally healthy are eligible to be included.

“The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has been shown to be very safe and effective in adults and adolescents,” said Kimberly A. Boland, chief of staff, Norton Children’s Hospital, and department chair, UofL School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics. “We have every reason to believe this study will show the vaccine to be safe and effective in children and an important step forward for children’s health and for protecting our communities.”

Marshall is known for his work in vaccine development, advocacy and education. In fact, he has worked on many of the vaccines that children routinely receive today.

The clinical trial team has responded to the pandemic, treating children with COVID-19 and its consequences.

“This is the most exciting vaccine trial I have ever been involved with, and I’ve been doing this for over 30 years,” Marshall said.

Parents and caregivers can sign children up to be considered for the trial by going to .

Under the newly-formed Norton Children’s Medical Group, affiliated with the UofL School of Medicine, 21 former UofL general pediatric and pediatric subspecialist practices are now part of Norton Healthcare. Approximately 600 providers and staff have transitioned with the affiliation.

“By integrating the best pediatric providers who are committed to providing safe, high-quality care, we will make it easier for families to access comprehensive medical care for their children,” said Russell F. Cox, president and CEO, Norton Healthcare.

The UofL physicians and providers who are currently on the faculty of the school of medicine will remain in their academic role and will also work clinically within Norton Children’s Medical Group.

“UofL is committed to helping nurture healthy children and communities while maintaining our strong academic training programs and research. This agreement ultimately will translate into even better care for children,” said UofL President Neeli Bendapudi.

“Integrating allows the two organizations to move forward, capitalizing on each other’s strengths for the benefit of our patients and families,” said Steven T. Hester, MD, MBA, division president, provider operations, and system chief medical officer, Norton Healthcare.

The affiliation is designed to make it easier for patients to access outpatient care within the practices and inpatient care at Norton Children’s Hospital. Access will be improved through:

• Scheduling enhancements
• Recruiting additional providers
• Increasing the number of multidisciplinary clinics, where patients with serious and chronic medical conditions can see multiple specialists on the same day
• Using a single integrated electronic medical record, which will make it easier for patients and families to access test results and communicate with their providers

“Ultimately, the goal is to develop and deliver the best possible programs, services and patient experience for the children of Kentucky and beyond,” said Jennifer C. Evans, MD, MPH, FACOG, system vice president, women’s and pediatric services, Norton Healthcare. “Both organizations have been committed to providing a seamless transition.”

This new model also will allow the practices to enhance their focus on providing highly-skilled clinical care that is integrated with world-class medical education and research. A strong continued commitment to innovation and education is an important component of the integration. UofL’s academic and research mission is key to teaching the next generation of pediatric providers, which is essential to growing a regionally and nationally recognized pediatric program. In addition, by working together, the organizations can recruit, train and retain key talent for pediatric programs.

“Children will benefit from the strong academic training programs and research that will continue through the UofL School of Medicine,” said Kimberly A. Boland, MD, professor and chair, department of pediatrics, University of Louisville School of Medicine. “Working together will help us attract additional specialists to Louisville to care for children with the most complex medical issues. We look forward to seeing what great things we can accomplish together, not only in clinical care, but also in educating future pediatricians and making new discoveries in the field of child and adolescent health care.”

Myers and his team screened 82,243 individuals for HCV infection in 2016-2018 in Norton Healthcare in order to assess trends in a large health care system in an area with a high prevalence of opioid use and HCV infection. The investigators defined millennials as individuals born between 1980 and 1995, and baby boomers were those born between 1945 and 1965.

Traditionally, baby boomers were the largest drivers of HCV, though millennials have been shown in previous research to be the fastest-growing population of those infected with the virus. However, those studies were performed at single institutions with small sample sizes.

Millennials who were HCV-positive increased by 53 percent over the study period while the population of HCV-positive individuals among baby boomers decreased by 32 percent.

“The opioid crisis has led to a drastic demographic shift, and currently the typical HCV-infected individual is a younger male. Without interventions, this trend will continue for upwards of seven years, plateauing near the demarcation of millennials and generation Z,” Myers said.

The data were presented Oct. 3 in Washington at IDWeek, the combined medical meeting of four adult and pediatric infectious disease societies.��

The LOI allows the organizations to explore a more meaningful partnership as the organizations work toward a definitive agreement later this summer.��

The goal is to further align strategic, operational and financial interests to support pediatric care, teaching and research.

“We want to ensure we continue to promote healthy children and communities while maintaining our strong academic training programs and research, which translate into better care for children,” said UofL President Neeli Bendapudi, Ph.D. “We’ll do that by leveraging the strengths of the UofL School of Medicine, ULP – Pediatrics and Norton Healthcare.” 

“For many years, Norton Healthcare and Norton Children’s Hospital have worked closely with the University of Louisville through our academic affiliation,” said Russell F. Cox, president and chief executive officer of Norton Healthcare. “Each day, dedicated providers from both organizations work together to deliver quality care that children and their families need. Together we have grown specialty services for children in the important areas of heart, diabetes and cancer care. With this new initiative, we expect this type of growth to continue, and we are committed to identifying even better ways to meet the health care needs of children and families.”