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   Columbia, MO. 65212 (573) 882-2923

   Affiliated with University of Missouri Health Care

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STUDENT INFORMATION

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Child health

» Child Health Website
» Course Information

The Department of Child Health focuses on the health of children within the framework of family and society. Faculty emphasize the growth, nutrition, development and mental and physical health of children while teaching skills in interviewing and patient care. Medical students learn to recognize the special emotional and physical features of infancy and childhood.

Research activities encompass a wide range of topics: adolescent medicine, critical care, cardiology, child abuse, cystic fibrosis, diabetes, endocrinology, gastroenterology, genetics, growth, hematology, infectious diseases, neonatology, nephrology, nutrition, rheumatology and developmental problems.

Medical students are involved in daily conferences, lectures, teaching rounds and the admission and care of hospitalized and ambulatory patients. Students gain experience with premature infants and those with birth complications by working in the 36-bed neonatal intensive care unit, or NICU. Children's Hospital has a 16-bed adolescent unit, an 11-bed pediatric intensive care unit and mid-Missouri's most experienced Level III NICU. Students also get experience in the 30-bed general pediatric unit and eight-bed rehabilitation unit located in Rusk Rehabilitation Center. An interdisciplinary patient-care program helps children with multiple disabilities.

Students learn about the early processes of growth and development during their first two years. During their third year, students enroll in an eight-week clerkship, during which they participate in history taking, examinations and clinical and laboratory evaluation of normal newborns, infants and older children as well as those with intensive illnesses. There is special emphasis on primary care of children in rural settings, and all students have the opportunity to work with pediatricians in private and rural practices during their third-year clerkship. Divisions in the department include:

  • Adolescent Medicine
  • Cardiology
  • Developmental/Behavioral Pediatrics
  • Endocrinology
  • Gastroenterology
  • General Pediatrics
  • Genetics
  • Hematology/Oncology
  • Infectious Disease
  • Neonatology
  • Nephrology
  • Pediatric Critical Care
  • Pulmonary Medicine and Allergy
  • Rheumatology

Last Updated 9/4/08