Biography

Dr. Kanekal Gautham, MD, DM, MS, FAAP, is the Chair of Pediatrics and the Pediatrician-in-Chief at Nemours Children’s Hospital, Orlando, FL. He is also the Research Director of Nemours Children’s Hospital. He previously served as a Tenured Professor of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine, as a neonatologist at Texas Children’s Hospital and as Section Head and Service Chief of Neonatology at Texas Children’s Hospital. He is a Deputy Editor of The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Safety, and a Senior Editor for the Neonatal Review Group of the Cochrane Collaboration, and the Editor in Charge of Diagnostic Test Accuracy reviews. He is an editor of a well-known textbook, Assisted Ventilation of the Neonate, editor of Clinical Guidelines in Neonatology, and editor of the neonatology section in Rudolph Textbook of Pediatrics. He is on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Perinatology. After his fellowship in neonatology at the University of Vermont, he served as a faculty member there and was a postgraduate fellow at the Vermont Oxford Network. He has worked closely with the Vermont Oxford Network for many years, as a faculty member of the Vermont Oxford Network’s quality improvement collaborative, the Neonatal Intensive Care Quality (NICQ) project, and as an advisory board member for NICQ. He has set up and directed several educational courses on patient safety, on evidence-based medicine and on communication in healthcare. He was chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics program, Education in Quality Improvement for Pediatric Practice (EQIPP) for 13 years and is now a member of the group managing this program.

He is a graduate of the Master’s Program at The Dartmouth Institute of Health Policy and Clinical Practice where his concentration was Continuous Quality Improvement in Healthcare. He previously worked in Lebanon, New Hampshire, where he was faculty at The Dartmouth Institute, and at Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, and a neonatologist at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. At Dartmouth-Hitchcock he served as the Medical Director of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Program Director for the Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine fellowship, Associate Program Director and coach for the Leadership Preventive Medicine Residency, and member of the Clinical Ethics Committee.

Dr. Gautham joined the University of Central Florida College of Medicine in 2022. He will be working with students in Pediatrics and serving as a faculty resource for his faculty members and librarian colleagues. His interests include patient safety, quality improvement, evidence-based practice, ethics, leadership, and physician resilience and burnout. He is the author of several peer reviewed scientific publications, Cochrane systematic reviews, and book chapters on these topics. A popular speaker and teacher, he has given numerous invited lectures and workshops on these topics.

Recent Publications:

Peer Reviewed:

• Humphrey J, Hagan J, Suresh GK, Sundgren N. Neonatologists less frequently discuss long term complications: A simulation based study of prenatal consults beyond the threshold of viability. J Neonatal Perinatal Med 2018; Oct 23.
• Shafer GJ, Suresh G. Diagnostic errors in the neonatal intensive care unit: a case series. American Journal of Perinatology Reports 2018 Oct; 8(4): e379-e383.
• King BC, Gandhi BB, Jackson A, Katakam L, Pammi M, Suresh G. Nasal mask versus binasal prongs for the delivery of CPAP in preterm infants: systematic review and meta-analysis. Neonatology 2019; Published online, June 4.
• Shivananda S, Twiss J, Paterson D, Dyck G, Becker S, Razack A, Gupta S, Dutta S, Suresh GK. Development and validation of early warning criteria to identify escalated care events in NICU patients. Am J Perinatol 2019; May 23.
• Brasher M, Patil M, Hagan J, Suresh G. Mortality and morbidity in outborn extremely low birth weight neonates: a retrospective analysis. J Perinatol 2019 Nov 7. doi: 10.1038/s41372-019-0543-2.
• Premkumar MH, Pammi M, Suresh G. Human milk-derived fortifier versus bovine milk-derived fortifier for prevention of mortality and morbidity in preterm neonates. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2019 Nov 7; 2019 (11). doi:10.1002/14651858.CD013145.pub2.
• King BC, Richardson, T, Patel RM, Lee HC, Bamat NA, Patrick SW, Gautham KS, Hall M, Slaughter J. Cost of Clinician-driven Tests and Treatments in Very Low Birth Weight and/or Very Preterm Infants. Journal of Perinatology 2021; 41: 295-304.
• Shivananda S, Osiovich H, de Salaberry J, Hait V, Gautham KS. Improving efficiency of multidisciplinary bedside rounds in the NICU: a single center quality improvement project. Pediatric Quality and Safety 2022;7: e511.
• Horn D, Ehret D, Gautham KS, Soll R. Sunlight for the prevention and treatment of hyperbilirubinemia in term and late preterm neonates. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2021 Jul 6;7(7):CD013277.
• Shafer G, Singh H, Thomas E, Thammasitboon S, Gautham KS. Determining the frequency and types of diagnostic errors in the neonatal intensive care unit. Journal of Perinatology. 2022 Mar 4. doi: 10.1038/s41372-022-01359-9
• Singh N, Gautham KS. Pattern of postnatal steroid use for bronchopulmonary dysplasia in extremely preterm infants. Journal of Perinatology. 2022 Mar 9. doi: 10.1038/s41372-022-01353-1
• Shivananda S, Thomas S, Dutta S, Fusch C, Williams C, Gautham KS. Designing behavioral interventions using the Capability-Opportunity-Motivation- Behavior (COM-B) model and the theoretical domains framework (TDF) to optimize Oxygen saturation (SpO2) maintenance among NICU by providers. Accepted, Canadian Journal of Respiratory Therapy.

Books Edited:

• Assisted Ventilation of the Neonate, seventh edition. Eds. Keszler and Gautham.
• Editorial board member, Perinatal Continuing Education Program, 2^nd edition. American Academy of Pediatrics, 2^nd Edition.
• Rudolph Textbook of Pediatrics, 23^rd Edition. Co-editor for neonatology section (with Haresh Kirpalani).
• Clinical Guidelines in neonatology, 2019. Editors Jain L, Suresh GK

Book Chapters:

• Suresh GK, Raghavan A. Quality and safety in respiratory care. Chapter in Assisted Ventilation of the Neonate, Eds. Goldsmith, Karotkin, Suresh, Keszler, 6th edition. Elsevier, 2016.
• Null D, Suresh GK. Pulmonary function and graphics. Chapter in Assisted Ventilation of the Neonate, Eds. Goldsmith, Karotkin, Suresh, Keszler, 6th edition. Elsevier, 2016.
• Suresh GK. Transition at birth and umbilical cord blood gas analysis. Chapter in Golden hours: The handbook for care of the very low birth weight infant. Published in 2013, updated 2018.
• Padmanabhan V, Suresh GK. Quality Improvement. Chapter in Klaus and Fanaroff’s care of the High-risk Neonate, Eds. Fanaroff J, Fanaroff A, Elsevier, 2019. K. S. Gautham
• Suresh GK. Management of ethical challenges in neonatal intensive care. Chapter in Essentials of neonatal ventilation. Eds. Rajiv, Vidyasagar, Lakshminrusimha, Elsevier, 2018.
• Shafer GJ, Govande V, Suresh GK. Anemia. Chapter in Clinical Guidelines in Neonatology. Eds. Jain L, Suresh GK, McGraw Hill, 2019.
• Shekhawat PS, Suresh GK. Hypoglycemia. Chapter in Clinical Guidelines in Neonatology. Eds. Jain L, Suresh GK, McGraw Hill, 2019.
• Shekhawat PS, Suresh GK. Adrenal insufficiency. Chapter in Clinical Guidelines in Neonatology. Eds. Jain L, Suresh GK, McGraw Hill, 2019.
• Basu SK, Suresh GK. Perinatal stroke. Chapter in Clinical Guidelines in Neonatology. Eds. Jain L, Suresh GK, McGraw Hill, 2019.
• Shafer GJ, Srivaths PR, Suresh GK. Acute renal failure. Chapter in Clinical Guidelines in Neonatology. Eds. Jain L, Suresh GK, McGraw Hill, 2019.
• Suresh GK. Quality and safety in neonatal care. Hot Topics and Controversies in Neonatology. Eds Elaine Boyle, Jonathan Cusack, 2020.