OHSU Appoints New Director of Child Development and Rehabilitation Center

   Portland, Ore.

Brian Rogers, M.D., lauds exceptional child development programs at CDRC

Brian Rogers, M.D., the new director of Oregon Health & Science University Child Development and Rehabilitation Center, said he's pleased to have the opportunity to work at a university in which child development programs are well-recognized -- within the OHSU community, throughout the region and nationwide. Rogers assumed the directorship Jan. 1, 2002.

"The CDRC has a longstanding reputation for excellence in a wide range of state-of-the-art clinical and research training programs in developmental medicine. I want to continue that tradition of excellence," Rogers said. "The collaborative research relationships and the overall leadership team are conducive to the continued success of the center."

Rogers aims to further integrate the CDRC's specialized services in pediatric developmental medicine -- services which include treatment for ADD/ADHD, autism, cerebral palsy, conduct disorders, neurodevelopmental disorders, epilepsy and other seizure disorders, to name a few -- with various departments and divisions at Doernbecher Children's Hospital, creating a more obvious presence for the center at OHSU. He also endeavors to build on the collaborative relationships the multidisciplinary center has enjoyed under the Newdirection of his predecessor, Jerry Sells, M.D., who led the center for nearly a decade and retired this year.

"Brian is bringing a lot of energy and new ideas to the CDRC," Sells said. "And I'm really impressed with how much effort he's putting into getting to know the center, and OHSU in general, and with his enthusiasm for his new position."

Rogers was chief of the Division of Developmental Pediatrics and Rehabilitation, and associate professor of pediatrics and neurology at the State University of New York at Buffalo. In addition, he served as medical director of the Robert Warner Rehabilitation Center and directed the Feeding Disorders Clinic at Children's Hospital of Buffalo.

Among the many reasons Rogers cited for joining OHSU is the CDRC's "unique relationship with the State of Oregon." In fact, Rogers explained, only two other states have a similar program in which services for children with developmental disabilities are coordinated by an academic medial center. This arrangement, according to Rogers, provides the CDRC with a rare statewide leadership role in providing services to children and families with special health care needs throughout the sate. And to that end, he'd like to see even more collaborative efforts to expand, develop and foster the CDRC's relationship with the State.

One of the first new programs that Rogers hopes to offer is a residency in neurodevelopmental disabilities. This residency will be one of the first of its kind in the country, a joint effort between the departments of pediatrics and neurology, he explains. Rogers hopes to have the residency in place within the next two years.

When asked what challenges he foresees, Rogers said that continuing to provide specialized services in an increasingly competitive health care market is No. 1. To address this, Rogers hopes to solidify multiple streams of support, including improving relationships with third-party payers, acquiring more research grants, and incorporating the CDRC into the OHSU Foundation's fund-raising initiatives for specialized services.

"This is a great opportunity for community support, for letting the community know the type of work we do, in conjunction with Doernbecher," he said, adding that he looks forward to visiting the community clinics, which are part of the CDRC's statewide support system for children with special needs, to see how they're functioning.

"We also want to be sure that we collaborate effectively with our colleagues at Doernbecher in order to provide high-quality and developmental care to kids with special needs who are receiving care at OHSU in addition to children referred directly from the community to the CDRC. I want to meet with physicians and other health care professionals to find our their needs, then figure out how the CDRC fits into that mix," he said.

Rogers is president-elect of the Society for Developmental Pediatrics and serves on the Subboard Committee of Neurodevelopmental Disabilities of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. He also is an executive committee member of Professors of Developmental Pediatrics, a national organization for physicians involved in training directors of neurodevelopmental disabilities. He is an associate member of the American Board of Pediatrics and a member of the Kennedy Fellows Association's Endowment Committee. He has been included in "The Best Doctors in America" as a pediatric specialist for the past four years.

Rogers' research interests include feeding and swallowing disorders, including nutrition needs and growth of children with cerebral palsy, and the developmental outcomes of high-risk infants. He received his medial degree from Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine and completed both his pediatric internship and residency at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. He later completed a postdoctoral clinical fellowship in developmental pediatrics at the John F. Kennedy Institute for Handicapped Children at The Johns Hopkins University Medical Center in Baltimore, Md.

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