DeWayne M Pursley

Newborns are certainly the smallest and generally among the sickest patients receiving health care.
The delivery of preterm and sick infants occurs in every social strata, but they are over-represented among the impoverished and among women of color. There is tremendous motivation to focus on care improvements for these populations. Societies are judged on how they care for their most vulnerable.

What are you most proud of about your work at HMS/HSDM?
I am most proud of the exceptional team of neonatologists for whom I am responsible to support at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. They rovide inspired education and training to a promisin! eneration of future physician leaders: conduc leading-edge research that holds enormous translational potential to patients and populations; and, together with other highly skilled clinical colleagues, deliver safe, high quality, family-centered care.

What is the significance of the object you brought with you to the photo shoot?
In one hand, I am holding a diaper used for patients in the neonatal intensive care unit. In the other I am holding a teaspoon, which holds the equivalent (5 mL. of a transfusion unit for our most premature babies The therapeutic window of safe, efficacious therapy can be equally small, and it is incumbent for us to ensure that we either provide evidence-based care or determine precisely what that means.