David Repaske, MD, PhD
Changes are afoot at UVA Pediatric Endocrinology, which has experienced significant growth over the past six months. The addition of two new faculty members — including division head David Repaske, MD, PhD, who joined in September 2014 — paired with the increase in existing faculty hours is allowing UVA to expand pediatric endocrinology services to new sites, enrich offerings at existing clinics and improve response time.
Repaske has 27 years of experience in the field of pediatric endocrinology, including past positions as director of the endocrinology program at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, and director of the diabetes program at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Drawn to UVA by the reputation of the UVA School of Medicine and specifically its Pediatric Endocrinology division, he arrived right as UVA Pediatric Endocrinology moved its Charlottesville clinic into the new Battle Building at UVA Children’s Hospital, which brings UVA pediatric specialty clinics together under one roof.
The new location offers Pediatric Endocrinology patients and their families easy access to patient resources, such as lab and radiology services, as well as many other outpatient pediatric clinics that they may need, including gastroenterology, cardiology and developmental pediatrics. “Everything is together,” Repaske explains. “If the patient has more than one appointment, essentially all of pediatrics is right there.” Appointment scheduling is also now easier than ever with one direct number (434.924.0123) for single or multiple clinic appointments.
UVA Pediatric Endocrinology offers both diabetes and nondiabetes endocrinology services at its Children’s Hospital Outpatient Clinics and the move allowed it to incorporate the Fitness Clinic, which was previously part of nephrology, into its practice. This six-month program is designed for overweight children and features services including nutrition and exercise counseling, as well as screening for weight-related complications such as high blood pressure, cholesterol, sleep apnea, thyroid problems, pre-diabetes and polycystic ovaries.
With its increased staff, the division is looking to expand its offerings at satellite locations. UVA Pediatric Endocrinology has offered full-service diabetes clinics at UVA Children’s Hospital Specialty Clinic Winchester and Fall Hill Pediatrics in Fredericksburg for many years. Now, the division plans to launch a nondiabetes endocrinology clinic at its Winchester location, providing endocrine care that includes growth, thyroid and pituitary gland disorders. The clinic is set to open in June. Meanwhile, in Fishersville, the division will soon launch a Fitness Clinic at UVA Pediatrics Augusta modeled after the clinic offered at the Battle Building and at UVA Pediatrics Orange.
Further expansion into other locations is also under consideration. “We’re actively working toward other satellite clinics,” Repaske says.
With its growth in staff, the division also drastically reduced the wait time for new patient appointments. “Now we can accommodate people within days,” Repaske says. “That’s really a significant change in our ability to provide service to doctors and their patients.”
Moving forward, Repaske and his team want to continue enhancing the division’s ability to help children and their families, building up UVA Children’s Pediatric Endocrinology to also include diabetes educators, social workers and more dieticians.
“I think we’ll be able to meet people’s needs a little bit better,” Repaske says. “We’ll have more time to spend on education, for instance; we’ll have a whole lot more time and effort devoted to trying to understand the stress of chronic disease and diabetes on a family and trying to help them cope with it.”
The UVA Children’s Pediatric Endocrinology team includes the following physicians:
David Repaske, MD, PhD
Division Head
Specialties: Juvenile diabetes; adrenal disorders; pituitary disorders
Fellowships: Human Genetics, Vanderbilt University; Pediatric Endocrinology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Residency: Pediatrics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Christine Burt Solorzano, MD
Assistant Professor; Pediatric Endocrinology Fellowship Program Director
Specialties: Polycystic ovary syndrome
Fellowship: Pediatric Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles
Residency: Pediatrics, UVA Health System
Mark DeBoer, MD, MSc, MCR
Associate Professor
Specialties: Risk factors for childhood obesity and the role of the metabolic syndrome in predicting future chronic disease; regulation of growth and puberty in chronic disease
Fellowship: Pediatric Endocrinology, Oregon Health and Science University
Residency: Pediatrics, UVA Health System
Mareen Thomas, MD
Assistant Professor
Specialties: Pediatric endocrinology; genetic forms of diabetes
Fellowship: Pediatric Endocrinology, Washington University School of Medicine
Residency: Pediatrics, Yale New Haven Hospital
Read more about pediatric endocrinology services at UVA Children’s Hospital.