The Pediatric Section of ASPEN is pleased to announce that this year’s winner of the Pediatric New Practitioner Award is Ruba Abdelhadi, MD, CNSC. Dr. Abdelhadi serves on the ASPEN malnutrition committee and is the lead author of an article coming out this year regarding malnutrition in hospitalized children. At her institution, Children’s Mercy, she is the Director of Nutrition Services Programs and is a leader in developing quality improvement tools in the area of enteral nutrition support and clinical nutrition education. Of her many accomplishments, she has developed a “CHEX” model that is used institution wide to assure proper assessment and care of g-tubes. She has also started an outpatient clinic for children with g-tubes. A long term goal of Dr. Abdelhadi is to create an ACGME accredited nutrition fellowship training program at her institution.
Dr. Abdelhadi has recently been busy writing a “Clinical Guide to Nutrition for the Practicing Physician”. She is also actively involved in her local A.S.P.E.N. chapter as well as NASPAGHN. She clearly has a passion for pediatric nutrition and we only expect great things from her in the future. Congratulations to Dr. Abdelhadi for this much deserved recognition.