Children's Hospitals Today - Summer 2023 - 6

ROUNDS / FIRST PERSON
passion and what led me to pursue pediatric
health care in Anchorage. Inspiring
and equipping more residents to provide
pediatric care is one significant way to
make progress toward these goals.
I teach pediatric residents as an assoIt
takes a village
Children's health depends on opportunities for
pediatric training and education, which are in peril.
BY LILIAN HO
E
dward lives in a small village on
the Yukon River in southwest
Alaska without running water or reliable
electricity and is 400 miles off the road
system. At two months old, he developed
seizures and was flown in an air ambulance
to the Alaska Native Medical
Center in Anchorage, Alaska, where he
was diagnosed with meningitis.
I met Edward when I was a first-year
resident at Seattle Children's. He was
8 years old and being evaluated for
severe lung scarring,
a condition called
bronchiectasis, due
to years of recurrent
pneumonia from
weakened muscles
caused by his menLearn
more about
CHGME and why it's
crucial to training the
next generation of
pediatric providers at
childrenshospitals
.org/chgme.
ingitis. I took care of Edward again in
Bethel, Alaska, where he was admitted
for another case of pneumonia. Edward
was frequently admitted to the hospital
because the limited electricity in his
village prevented effective nebulizer
breathing treatments, and the lack of
6
CHILDREN'S HOSPITALS TODAY Summer 2023
running water caused higher rates of
infection. I was in the second year of
my residency training and in a special
program, the Alaska Track, where select
residents train at academic centers in
Seattle as well as community clinics and
hospitals in Alaska. In my third and final
year of residency, I saw Edward again at
Seattle Children's, where he had part of
his scarred left lung removed.
Now, I work both as a pediatrician
and educator of pediatric residents at
the Alaska Native Medical Center where
Edward was first treated. As a pediatric
hospitalist, workforce shortages affect
my ability to effectively care for children
every day, be it the lack of physicians
with limited pediatric expertise in
remote Alaskan communities or limited
numbers of pediatric-trained nurses,
respiratory therapists, pharmacists, and
dieticians at the hospital. These shortages
not only affect clinical care but
also limit the work we can do to address
health disparities within our communities,
which is a large part of my work and
ciate program director for the Seattle
Children's Alaska Track Primary Care
Program, the same program I trained
in. Beginning in 2012, our program has
graduated 32 pediatricians, of which 18
have returned to work in Alaska and five
in rural communities throughout the
country. Our graduates become inspired
to work in communities where access to
pediatricians is limited and are filling
the needs of these communities.
This selective program is possible
because of a federally funded residency
program called the Children's Hospitals
Graduate Medical Education (CHGME)
program. CHGME is the only federal
program solely devoted to the training
of pediatricians and pediatric subspecialists.
It supports the training of more
than half of all pediatricians and pediatric
specialists. Even though only a small
number of children's hospitals provide
training funded by CHGME, those
graduates care for children throughout
the entire country, even in the farthest
regions of the most distant state, Alaska.
CHGME needs increased funding to
sustain and expand the pediatric physician
workforce, so children like Edward
can continue to benefit from increased
access to pediatricians in remote communities.
The more children's hospitals
include their voices, the greater chance of
reaching the ears of our representatives.
Edward is now 16 years old. He rarely
comes to the hospital, and his primary
care doctor is one of our Alaska Track
program graduates.
Lilian Ho, M.D., is a pediatric hospitalist
and educator at Alaska Native Medical
Center in Anchorage, Alaska.
Tell your hospital's story. Email
magazine@childrenshospitals.org.
http://childrenshospitals.org/chgme http://childrenshospitals.org/chgme
Children's Hospitals Today - Summer 2023

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