August 24, 2010 - Injury Free Coalition for Kids of Baltimore
The Johns Hopkins Children’s Center has named M. Douglas Baker, M.D., its new director of Emergency Medicine and vice president for Community Outreach.
In his role as chief of the pediatric emergency department, Baker will focus on developing a premier emergency medicine division for the new Hopkins Children’s building, scheduled to open in early 2012. He will also focus on community outreach and strengthening relationships with referring physicians.
Baker’s arrival at Hopkins brings him full circle. He started his career in pediatric emergency medicine when he was recruited out of fellowship training at Boston Children’s in 1984 to become the first pediatric emergency medicine physician at Hopkins and one of the first such specialists in the country. Pediatric emergency medicine was a nascent subspecialty at the time and did not become fully recognized as a standalone discipline until the mid-1980s. “I started building that service at Hopkins Children’s back then and have now returned to complete the job,” Baker said.
Previously, Baker served as director of medical services and chief of pediatric emergency medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, and as chief of pediatric emergency services at Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital.
Throughout his career, Baker has been a leader in the field of pediatric emergency medicine. He is recognized internationally for his research into the management of fever in infants. He has held leadership roles in the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Ambulatory Pediatric Association and the Society for Pediatric Research, among other organizations.
Baker received his medical degree from Temple University School of Medicine and a bachelor’s degree from Franklin & Marshall College.
He was a chief resident at Children’s National Medical Center, a fellow in emergency medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital, and has held faculty positions at Johns Hopkins, the University of Pennsylvania and Yale. He is board certified in pediatrics and pediatric emergency medicine.
Baker is the recipient of a number of awards including the Jean A. Cortner Divisional Teaching Award for Excellence at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia for six consecutive years and the National Institute of Emergency Care Instructional Excellence Award.
As the official pediatric trauma referral center for the State of Maryland, the Hopkins Children’s division of Emergency Medicine works with Maryland’s Emergency Medical Services to receive emergency trauma and other cases from Cumberland to the Eastern Shore, but also cares for children from Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Delaware, Washington, D.C., and Virginia, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Management of multisystem illness and trauma is provided through the Pediatric Emergency Department and the 16-bed Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), which is staffed by pediatric surgeons and pediatric anesthesiology and critical care medicine specialists.
The Pediatric Emergency Department manages the unexpected medical and surgical needs of children through age 18. The service is staffed around the clock and handles over 24,000 cases each year. The Child Protection Team is a multidisciplinary team within the ED devoted to recognizing and treating victims of child abuse.
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http://www.hopkinschildrens.org/
