There are eight of us, all women, all physicians who take care of the sickest children in the nation in Pediatric Intensive Care Units (PICUs) in the Midwest, the East Coast, the West Coast and the South. Some of us work in community hospitals, and some of us work at nationally rated hospitals, the kind everyone knows. The PICU is the last line of defense for children, but the system is not designed to take on this magnitude of preventable illnesses. This is what haunts us: the reality that we might not be able to care for every child who needs us. We are pro-vaccine, pro-masks and pro-child.

She went on to specialize in pediatric medicine and then completed a 3 year fellowship in pediatric critical care. She is the doctor who takes care of the sickest of the sick kids…kids who are so sick that they wind up in the pediatric intensive care unit. She is probably someone you never want your kids to have a reason to meet, but if your kid is that sick, she is undoubtedly the person you want taking care of them.

We've had a lot of questions from our listeners about the differences between COVID-19 and the seasonal flu. In this episode, we answer a lot of those questions. Blue Valley's Dr. Chris Jenson is joined by Jenna Miller, MD, FAAP, from Children's Mercy to discuss how these viruses can affect us, the amount of time they can continue to affect us, and how the vaccines are produced to stop them.

There’s significant and growing health disparity and inequity for children in the U.S.. As clinicians who bear witness to those widening disparities and inequities, we have a responsibility to advocate for policies that can improve the health of all children. Gun violence is the second leading cause of death in the United States and is associated with increasing critical care resource use, yet we do not have adequate funding for research about firearm safety and injury prevention. Poverty is a major social determinant of health for children and increases the utilization of pediatric critical care. Black children have an increased risk of complications and mortality following surgery, even if they were healthy prior to the procedure. Our patients under the age of 18 can’t vote—we can. As pediatric intensivists, we have a responsibility to ask candidates who are campaigning for office what they’ll do to improve the health of children. Then we must vote.