Project Director

Albert C. Hergenroeder, M.D.

Settings

• Located in the Texas Medical Center with 45 institutions and over 100 permanent buildings, including hospitals, health-related schools, and research institutions
• The Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) Leadership Education in Adolescent Health (LEAH) program is administrated in the Section of Adolescent Medicine and Sports Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, BCM and is based at the Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, Texas 

Mission

• The mission of the BCM LEAH training program is to train medium and long-term trainees in medicine, nursing, nutrition, social work, psychology and public health, to be leaders in adolescent health through contact with interdisciplinary faculty with expertise in multiple aspects of adolescent health, including mental health; the application of primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention and treatment strategies for clinical and public health problems in adolescents;
• The BCM LEAH program also strives to provide training in conjunction with the broad MCH community, using culturally competent and family-centered activities.
  

Philosophy and Guiding Principles

• Fostering trainees' abilities in clinical service, teaching, research, and advocacy
• The primary Baylor LEAH curriculum has been developed using Adult Learning Theory and incorporates the Theory of Experiential Learning.
  

Scientific & Research Capabilities

• The BCM Department of Pediatrics has more NIH-funded research than any pediatrics department in the U.S.  For the fiscal year 2006, the Department will receive $89 million in extramural grants.
• The Section of Adolescent Medicine and Sports Medicine and the BCM LEAH faculty have received $3,767,751 in research and demonstration grants between 1999 and 2006. 
• A recent example of the collaboration between the Department of Pediatrics, BCM, BCM LEAH, Texas Children's Hospital, the Section of Adolescent Medicine and Sports Medicine  is the Center for Childhood Obesity, which was established in 2004 with a local foundation grant of $2.5 million.  The grant includes faculty positions for new research faculty in five sections, including Adolescent Medicine. 
• The Adolescent Medicine and Sports Medicine Section has faculty experienced in multiple areas of research including sexually transmitted infections, immunization delivery and compliance, adolescent pregnancy, obesity, eating disorders, sports medicine, and hormonal replacement therapy in young females. 
• Scholarly activity includes provision of training to the MCH Community.  Over the past four years, faculty and trainees have provided 2718 training activities., published 43 book chapters and 89 papers.

Academic Programs

The BCM LEAH program has institutional relationships with numerous hospitals and schools in the Texas Medical Center, including BCM Departments of Pediatrics and Psychiatry, Texas Children's Hospital, University of Houston School of Social Work, Texas Woman's University Schools of Nursing and Nutrition and Food Science, the University of Texas at Houston School of Public Health, and Rice University.  Each discipline in the LEAH training program has a graduate school in the Texas Medical Center that allows close working relationships to facilitate recruitment of LEAH trainees, curriculum development, clinical care and research.  Many of the institutions are within walking distance of each other.

Distance Learning 

The BCM LEAH faculty:

• Are part of the LEAH collaborative training program for state adolescent health coordinators
• Participate in pediatric grand rounds which are broadcast to several local hospitals 
• Produced videotaped presentations for middle school physical education teachers that are viewed as required in-services before each school year 
• Have helped produce a videotape regarding clinical care for teens supported by the Texas Nurses Association, which has been distributed statewide 
• Have a weekly call-in sports nutrition radio show
  

Internships and Training Programs

• Master's degree training in nursing, nutrition, social work and public health; post-doctoral training in psychology and medicine; internships in psychology are incorporated into the BCM LEAH training program
• Medical fellows can obtain an M.P.H.degree
• Less formalized i.e. non long-term LEAH trainee programs exist for other MCHB trainees, graduate, undergraduate and high school students
  

Other MCH-Funded Program Initiatives

• The BCM LEAH program has sponsored an annual Chronic Illness/Transition CME Conference for seven years. The conference goals and objectives have been developed with the LEND programs in Region 6. 
• Faculty have worked closely with the AUCD in developing goals and activities for the Annual AMCHP Meeting
  

Clinical Programs

The BCM LEAH has15 training sites with youth presenting with clinical problems ranging from obesity to eating disorders, those associated with homelessness, sexually transmitted infections, mental health problems, musculoskeletal injuries, chronic illness in both inpatient and outpatient settings, across all socioeconomic, cultural and religious groups.

Public Health Networks

Networks to which the BCM LEAH faculty belong include ACIP, Be Wise - Immunize, a state immunization panel, Title V Block Grant reviews, SSDI and TA to states regarding Title V block grants, content experts for the Texas state legislature, a state committee on mental health and mental health care by primary care providers; local, state and national groups working on all hazard's response for teens and families; TCH immunization reporting in connection with city and county.

Professional Relationships

Include: Director of Publications for SAM, SAM Liaison to ACIP, Texas DSHS, Title X Family Planning Medical Directors Meetings, Texas State Cervical Cancer Prevention Initiative Technology Work Group, American Medical Association, the American Dietetic Association.

Communications

• Our media work includes TV spots, interviews with newspapers, magazines, consumer publications and DVDs on pertussis and HPV with national distribution.
• The BCM LEAH program has 50 web pages accessible at www.bcm.edu/pediatrics/adolescent medicine. 

Relationships with Non-Traditional Communities 

Include: A crisis shelter for homeless youth, a local GLBT youth community center, the Houston Hispanic Forum, an annual gathering of over 10,000 youth and families that address all aspects of life for youth, a rural primary care clinic, a ballet school, a professional football team, university and high school athletic and a peer-based consulting program in a community recognized as one of the 13 most violent in Texas with immigrants from over 50 countries.