Child Abuse Pediatrics Fellowship
1000 W Carson St, Box 437
Torrance, CA 90502
choskins@dhs.lacounty.gov
Overview
The Department of Pediatrics offers a three-year ACGME accredited fellowship in Child Abuse Pediatrics for physicians who have completed an ACGME-accredited pediatric residency and are eligible for certification or have been certified by the American Board of Pediatrics. The program aims to prepare pediatricians for careers in child abuse, neglect, and child advocacy. The program offers an enriched experience in the areas of child physical abuse, sexual abuse, failure to thrive, neglect, and maternal substance use, as well as the opportunity for rotations at other hospitals and community sites and agencies (e.g., law enforcement, child protection services, dependency court, criminal court).
Los Angeles County hosts seven Hub clinics that assess children with suspected abuse or neglect. The Hub clinics serve as centers of excellence for the assessment of theses infants, children and adolescents. The K.I.D.S. Hub Clinic at Harbor handles approximately 600 referrals yearly for child sexual and physical abuse evaluations. These include forensic assessments (physical exams and interviews) and evaluations of children entering the foster care system. In addition, there is a separate Failure to Thrive Clinic (FTT), which handles 400 visits per year. Children followed in the F.T.T. clinic have various conditions contributing to faltering growth. Approximately two-thirds of these children are or have been in the foster care system. In addition, the program follows children exposed in utero to various substances in what is called SAFE clinic (Secure Attachment for Emerging Families).
Fellows also evaluate inpatients and patients in the pediatric emergency department with the S.C.A.N. (Suspected Child Abuse and Neglect team. Â In addition to the Harbor Hub, the fellows attend the Hub clinics at Martin Luther King Jr. Hospital with Dr. Janet Arnold-Clark and Los Angeles County- General Medical Center with Dr. Catherine DeRidder. While at LA County General, fellows also complete a burn rotation. Fellow also complete S.A.R.T. (Sexual Assault Response Team) training and may attend a program at the Kempe Center for an introduction to research in the area of child maltreatment.
C.A.P. fellows attend numerous video conferences, including monthly peer-review with cases from Harbor and other L.A. County Hub clinic. There is also monthly journal club where recent and classic articles are reviewed. Fellows also participate in case review conferences from the Miller Children’s Hospital under the leadership of Dr. Corey Rood. In addition, there are block rotations at Miller Children’s Hospital with Dr. Corey Rood and at LA County General with Dr. Catherine De Ridder. Fellows also attend the Los Angeles County Child Death Review Team’s monthly conferences.
Los Angeles County is renown for ICAN, The Interagency Council on Abuse and Neglect, a multiagency group including county agencies such as the Department of Children and Family Services, the office of Medical Examiner, the LA Sheriff’s Department to name a few. The Los Angeles County Child Death Review Team operates under ICAN as does the ICAN Legislative Committee, Policy Committee, and Operations Committee. Involvement with ICAN offers a unique opportunity to be involved with child advocacy at the highest level.
Leadership
Carol Berkowitz, M.D. FAAP, FACEP, Division Chief of General Pediatrics, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, was graduated from Barnard College and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and then completed a pediatric residency at the Roosevelt Hospital in New York. A board-certified general pediatrician, Dr. Berkowitz has been board-certified in Pediatric Emergency Medicine as well as in Child Abuse Pediatrics.
She is a Past President of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Past President of the Ambulatory Pediatric Association (APA, now the Academic Pediatric Association), Past President of the Association of Pediatric Program Directors (APPD), Chair of the Residency Review Committee (RRC) for Pediatrics, Chair of the Council of RRC Chairs, Past President of the Council of Medical Specialty Societies (CMSS). She has served on the Board of Directors of the American Board of Pediatrics (ABP), the American Board of Emergency Medicine, and the Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education (ACGME).
She is a delegate from the AAP to the AMA and served on the AMA’s Council on Medical Education where she was Chair. She is currently on the Board of Directors of the Accreditation Council on Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the National Resident Match Program (NRMP), and the Stakeholder Council of the American Board of Medical Specialties.
In 2006, she was the recipient of the Joseph W. St. Geme Jr. Leadership Award, and in 2007, she received the Abraham Jacobi Memorial Award. She is the author of several hundred articles and book chapters and is the editor of Berkowitz’s Pediatrics: A Primary Care Approach, a textbook now in its 6th edition.
Faculty
Fellows
Residency: Albert Einstein College of Medicine; Children’s Hospital at Montefiore
July 1, 2022 – June 30, 2025
Residency: University of California Los Angeles
July 1, 2022 – June 30, 2025
Fellow Alumni
Sara Stewart MD, MPH
- Physician, Southern California Medical Group
- Physician Champion, Child Abuse and Prevention Team, South Bay Kaiser Permanente
- LIC Pediatric Preceptor, KP School of Medicine
Cat-Tien Vo MD
- Child Abuse Pediatrician, HUB Clinic Martin Luther King Jr. Medical Center
Melissa Egge, MD
- Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Stanford University
- Child Abuse Pediatrician, Loma Linda University
Kelly Callahan, MD, MPT
- Assistant Clinical Professor of Pediatrics, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine
- Acting Chair, Department of Pediatrics
Catherine De Ridder, MD
- Associate Program Director Violence Intervention Program, LAC+USC Medical Center
- Assistant Clinical Professor, USC Keck School of Medicine
Gauri Kolhatkar, MD, MPH
- Interim Medical Director, Foster Care Hub
- Attending Physician, Altamed General Pediatric Clinic
- Division of General Pediatrics, Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles
- Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, USC Keck School of Medicine
Kate Canty, MD
- Attending Physician, Child Protection Program
- Division of General Pediatrics, Boston Children’s Hospital
Supriya Sharam, MD, FAAP
- Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics & Emergency Medicine, USC Keck School of Medicine