2025 Ron Litman Mentoring Awardees
Myron Yaster MD, Jeff Feldman MD, Daphne Klausner, and the Executive Council of the Pediatric Anesthesia Article of the Day
Ron and Daphne 2020
It’s hard to believe but it’s been 3 years since Ron Litman’s untimely death from leukemia in 2021. Ron started the PAAD during a brief window of recovery following his 2nd bone marrow transplant. He was an internationally known and respected medical educator, author, and clinician who spent most of his career at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia where he inspired and trained generations of pediatric anesthesiologists. Ron continues to influence the specialty of Pediatric Anesthesia despite the fact that he is no longer with us in person. The PAAD that he began during his illness is a vibrant publication read daily by 5,200 people in 99 countries. That he stayed positive and productive even as he fought cancer was true to his nature. John Fiadjoe and I and the PAAD’s executive council have kept the PAAD going as a living and loving tribute to him and his memory.
Today we would like to announce the third annual recipients of the Litman Mentoring Award. This award provides up to $25,000 each year to faculty in the Department of Anesthesiology at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia for projects that involve a mentor-mentee relationship. Ron’s wife, Daphne Klausner, helped to create this award emphasizing the importance of mentoring to Ron - “He loved to teach and mentor. That was his favorite thing to do.”
Litman Mentoring FY 2025 Awardees
There were two high quality proposals by CHOP faculty for funding this year by the Litman Mentoring Award. The annual funds will be shared by these faculty members for direct support for the mentee involvement in their projects.
Dr Annery Garcia-Marcinkiewicz will mentor Dr. Febina Padiyath as they work on a randomized controlled trial to compare the incremental glottic exposure (IGE) approach for hyperangulated VL to standard practice hyperangulated VL technique using as standardized high fidelity difficult airway simulator, the AirSim Pierre Robin infant manikin (PRM). Secondary mentees on the project include Benilda Mercado Garcia, MD, resident in pediatrics at UCSF and Shofalahan Da-Silva, MD, an intern in internal medicine who will enter Anesthesia residency in July at UT. Both of these mentees plan to seek a career in pediatric anesthesiology. Funding is provided to cover travel to meetings for the mentees and partial support for statistical analysis.
Dr. Annery Garcia-Marcinkiewicz
Dr. Febina Padiyath
Dr. Benilda Mercado Garcia
Dr. Shofalahan Da-Silva
Dr. Asif Padiyath will mentor Marilyn Paul, an undergraduate student at Drexel University, as they work on a project using retrospective data to determine the incidence of cardiac arrest in patients with congenital heart disease following cardiac catheterization. Funding is provided for the student's summer stipend, meeting travel and partial support for statistical analysis.
Dr. Asif Padiyath
Marilyn Paul
Updates from Past Litman Awardees
Olivia Nelson and Sasha Capers – FY ’24 awardees
Olivia and Sasha have been investigating the value of preoperative hemoglobin testing of infants less than 4 months of age. Sasha reviewed more than 500 charts and found that a low hemoglobin most frequently resulted in an additional lab test, but that diagnosis and treatment of anemia was rare. With that knowledge, they are working on a multivariate analysis to help guide future recommendations for preoperative testing to target only those infants likely to experience a change in management. We anticipate that the final results will enable many infants to forgo a preoperative CBC in the future. This work will be presented at the SPA meeting in Anaheim, California by Ms Capers, who will graduate from the University of Pennsylvania this year and plans to apply to medical school.
Anushree Doshi and Isabel Torres – FY ’23 awardees
Anu and Isabel have been working to understand the healthcare literacy of caregivers. What started as a single institution effort has expanded to a multi-institutional health literacy project. With 6 sites participating, they have been able to evaluate the health literacy of 1400 caregivers. The findings of demographics that appear to be at higher risk for health illiteracy will be presented at the upcoming SPA and IARS conferences. We are hoping these findings will be the foundation of future investigations and ultimately help guide interventions. Isabel will be presenting at the annual IARS meeting, and is currently pursuing her Masters degree in Cognitive Neuroscience at NYU.