Andrew Kanouse, MD
My name is Andrew Kanouse and I am currently a third-year fellow at Cohen Children’s Medical Center. Originally from the nearby Garden State, I studied human science and psychology at Georgetown University and ventured further south to attend medical school at Eastern Virginia Medical School. Having fallen in love with the children’s hospital there, I stayed for residency at Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters.
Coming into fellowship, I was very much open-minded about where in endocrinology I wanted to place my career focus. I knew I was maybe the only person on residency nightshifts who found managing diabetes and DKA thrilling and satisfying, so comprehensive diabetes care was always going to be an interest and now immersing myself in the ever-evolving technology of diabetes has cemented this. The last few years has seen an explosion of attention to the field of pediatric obesity medicine, which also quickly became an area I felt I could be of benefit to. To that end, I immersed myself in learning more about this through online CME courses through the American Board of Obesity Medicine. I am particularly excited to see where this field takes me as it continues to come into itself. Another interest I have is medical education and the ability to pay forward the lessons from teachers I have had the privilege of learning from while adapting my passion for endocrinology to learners pursuing any field (even if strangely they don’t want to do peds endo).
A mantra I learned while at Georgetown, Cura Personalis, was foundational for who I wanted to become as a physician. The concept of “Care for the person” guided me toward pediatrics through the desire to treat the entirety of the whole person of a child, as did a mutual love for superheroes. My love for endocrinology began, like so many, at a summer camp I volunteered at in medical school for children with chronic illnesses. I found myself disproportionately drawn to wanting to care for the children with diabetes, helping calculate their meal boluses and ensuring they were without lows running around in the summer heat being truly normal kids living with diabetes. From there, it was the passion espoused by my endocrinology attendings in residency who fostered and cultivated this into an eventual career path.
Beyond the guidance I received in residency, I have now had the ability to learn in fellowship from a large division full of supportive educators and mentors who trained at a great variety of places, providing the benefit of multiple perspectives for my learning. Specifically, my program director Dr. Parissa Salemi helped craft my fellowship research projects, especially my primary project investigating the nature of lipoprotein(a) levels in children with newly-diagnosed diabetes. Additionally, Dr. Graeme Frank is a beacon of passion for educating learners that rotate through our clinic and a role model in that respect. He also continues to keep me in the know about the ways to use AI in medicine. Dr. Sharon Hyman teaches me a great deal every time she happens to be the person I turn to for random questions and provides the necessary positive reinforcement of laughing at most of my jokes.
Something I committed to early on was becoming involved with PES. The world of pediatric endocrinology is small and welcomingly cozy once you begin to explore it and I have met many people through involvement in PES groups that I am so excited to call colleagues. I also cannot stress enough how formative attending the fellows’ retreat this year was with meeting other like-minded and excited trainees at the beginning of our careers and receiving invaluable guidance from the organizers. Truly something I would recommend to everyone during training. As I embark upon attendinghood, I am looking forward to a career continuing this involvement and becoming increasingly involved in fostering the future of the great world of pediatric endocrinology while remaining true to the concept of applying Cura personalis to my patients as a steadfast ally in their lives with endocrine disorders.