Co-Chairs:

Ilene Fennoy, MD and Ambika Ashraf, MD

Mission Statement:

Our mission is to affirm the ideology of the PES as a scientific community that fosters inclusion, acceptance, and support for every person independent of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or religion. Towards this end, our focus is to:

  1. Recognize implicit and explicit bias in healthcare in Pediatric Endocrinology, and address related healthcare disparities that affect our patients and families, through research, quality improvement, health delivery science, education, and outreach efforts.
  2. Foster equity and diversity and provide an environment of equality and mentorship for all trainees, fellows, and faculty in Pediatric Endocrinology.

Goals:

Our task force goals for the coming year are to increase awareness in our society’s membership of implicit and explicit bias in medicine in general and Pediatric Endocrinology specifically, and the contribution of said biases to health care disparities as well as to career development of minority physicians. We also aim to start to amass resources to help us address and ameliorate these biases and resulting disparities. We will contribute regularly to the newsletter, develop a needs assessment survey of our society, and will plan to offer periodic education for the PES membership.

Celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

Submitted by Santhi Logel, MD

May marks Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, a time to honor the rich histories, cultures, and contributions of AAPI communities in the United States. This observance, which began as a week-long celebration in 1978 and expanded to a full month in 1990, commemorates important milestones such as the arrival of the first Japanese immigrants in May 1843 and the completion of the transcontinental railroad in May 1869, built with significant Chinese labor.

In pediatric endocrinology, AAPI professionals have made invaluable contributions to our field. For example, Dr. Jokichi Takamine, a Japanese chemist, was the first to isolate adrenaline (epinephrine) in 1900— "the blood-pressure-raising principle of the suprarenal glands”— marking the dawn of hormone research. In 1968 Dr. Shutsung Liao, originally from Taiwan, unveiled that testosterone must be converted to dihydrotestosterone (DHT) by the enzyme 5-alpha-reductase to exert its biological effects in certain androgen target tissues.

Further advancing the field, Dr. Krishna Chatterjee first discovered resistance to thyroid hormone receptor-alpha, a rare form of congenital hypothyroidism. He and his team also identified different mutations in the PPARγ gene, which can cause a rare form of diabetes that is also associated with early-onset hypertension. In diabetes care, Dr. Yutaka Seino's research highlighted that type 2 diabetes in the Japanese population is primarily characterized by impaired insulin secretion rather than insulin resistance. This insight has influenced diabetes treatment strategies in Asian populations.

As we celebrate AAPI Heritage Month, the Pediatric Endocrine Society encourages all members to reflect on these and many other AAPI contributions that have shaped our field. Let us honor the enduring legacy and future leadership of AAPI endocrinologists by fostering a more inclusive and equitable community for all.

References:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11776489/

https://news.uchicago.edu/story/shutsung-liao-biochemist-who-studied-role-hormones-prostate-cancer-1931-2014

https://endocrinenews.endocrine.org/deciphering-science-qa-with-v-krishna-chatterjee-md/

https://academic.oup.com/mend/article/28/8/1383/2623317

 

Archive - Monthly notable dates/events

March 28, 2024: State of the Art: EDI

Title: Disparities in Diabetes Technology: An Evidence-based Roadmap to Equity

Description:

In this webinar, we will discuss multi-factorial drivers of disparities in pediatric type 1 diabetes with a specific focus on the role of diabetes technology utilization. We will cover evidence-based solutions to address disparities relevant to clinicians and researchers alike. We will also discuss emerging technology disparities and system-level solutions to mitigate new disparities.

Learning Objectives

  1. Recognize diabetes technology as a modifiable risk factor in type 1 diabetes and identify populations at risk of inequitable diabetes care.
  2. Illustrate how diabetes technology is underutilized in minoritized populations and is subject to inequity.
  3. Recognize ways to identify and mitigate inequities in diabetes technology use.

Speaker: Ananta Addala, DO, MPH, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Stanford University

View Recording

 

Podcast Club

Ethics in Pediatric Endocrinology: Curriculum for Fellows and Faculty

February 11, 2025, 7:30PM Eastern time

 

Join us for a discussion of the Ethics curriculum and how we might use this as a template for an EDI curriculum.

Henry R, Rossi W, Nahata L. Ethics in Pediatric Endocrinology: Curriculum for Fellows and Faculty. Ethics in Pediatric Endocrinology: Curriculum for Fellows and Faculty - PubMed

Join us for robust discussion: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/r_-lw02_T9q_foLhuEyciA

 

 

 

 

 

Additional EDI Resources of Interest

PES Addressing Health Disparities Research Grant

Each year we solicit applications for the Addressing Health Disparities Research Grant. The Purpose of this grant is to support the development of research and education in equity, diversity and inclusion involving pediatric endocrinology that will enhance pediatric endocrinologists’ ability to understand the needs of their patients and colleagues and deliver more equitable and inclusive education and services to a diverse population of trainees, colleagues, and patients. The current open call will close December 16, 2024!

Click here for more information

PES Cookbook Initiative

On behalf of The Health Systems Disparity Committee Committee of The Pediatric Endocrine Society, we are very pleased to inform the PES membership of a new initiative: The “PES Community Cooking Initiative.”

Each day is a new opportunity for us to eat healthily. We are creating a PES Cultural Cookbook, a collection of culturally diverse recipes. Please share your favorite recipes here https://pedsendo.org/pes-cooking-initiative/ it can vary from a family recipe from your ancestors or one you have invented yourself.  We believe this initiative will help us understand our history, diversity, interactions, cultures, and traditions.  Please include carbohydrate counting information with your recipe.

Click here for recipes.

GET INVOLVED!

Email Info@pedsendo.org if you are interested in getting involved!