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Our mission is to promote the health of all children in an inclusive, equitable culture through compassionate family-centered care, tireless advocacy, scientific discovery, and education of future leaders. Our vision is transforming care and inspiring hope for all children.

Child-Centered, Family-Focused Care

The Department of Pediatrics has expert clinicians in all pediatric and pediatric surgical subspecialties, enabling us to care for children who need specialized care beyond the capability of a community hospital. The breadth and depth of our experience give us the ability to treat children suffering from virtually any acute or chronic illness. Our range of services includes treating premature infants (sometimes smaller than a pound), full-term newborns, toddlers, children, adolescents, and young adults.

While we treat complex medical problems as a focus, we also provide general pediatric care. Our staff cares for patients at North Carolina Children’s Hospital and by appointment in clinics in Chapel Hill and throughout the state, including Alamance, Asheville, Cary, Charlotte, Fayetteville, Greensboro, Lumberton, Raleigh, Rutherfordton, Tarboro, and Wilmington. We additionally offer emergency care in a specialized Pediatric Emergency Medicine Department, located on the UNC medical campus in the lower level of the UNC Neurosciences Hospital next to the adult Emergency Department.

Our health care practitioners build partnerships with our patients and families, keeping them at the center of decision-making, supporting and educating them, and encouraging them to participate in care whenever possible. Family points of view and choices are recognized as an integral part of the planning and delivery of care and are always listened to and held in high esteem.

The Department provides specialized care in a full range of pediatric subspecialties.

Research

The Department of Pediatrics has nationally and internationally renowned research experts in the fields of cystic fibrosis, oncology (cancer), hemophilia, sickle-cell disease, infectious diseases, genetics, neonatology, child abuse, adolescent medicine, behavioral pediatrics, endocrinology, bronchoscopy, and congenital heart disease.

Our faculty continually develops new knowledge through research, using it to understand and treat children’s illnesses. The Department is ranked 14th in the country for research funding from the National Institutes of Health. Our accomplishments and research leadership not only raises our visibility nationally but provides the faculty and staff opportunities to participate in the development of new treatments and potential cures. Most importantly, this means having the latest clinical trials available to our patients.

Each of our pediatric subspecialty divisions’ pages details more information about their specific research endeavors.

Education and Training: an Academic Center of Excellence

The Department of Pediatrics remains a strong leader in clinical education, training tomorrow’s physicians and surgeons today. Of 160 academic pediatric residency programs nationally, North Carolina Children’s Hospital’s residency program is ranked 22nd, with residents coming from top programs across the country. Two-thirds of all the medical students applying to pediatrics will apply for one of North Carolina Children’s Hospital’s 16 positions. Physicians from this training program are caring for children in each of the 100 counties in North Carolina. On a more local note, we were voted the Best Clinical Clerkship for 3rd-year medical students nine out of the past eleven years.

Our triple mission of providing clinical care to patients while serving as a learning institution and a center for pediatric medical research helps distinguish the Department of Pediatrics. Not only is our faculty assuring the next generation of physicians is fully prepared to take on tomorrow’s health care challenges, but we have also earned a reputation as leaders in medical research. This means we are very often at the forefront of developing and providing state-of-the-art treatments for the many routine and complex medical problems that afflict children. All of this translates into new and better ways to care for our patients, which is at the heart of everything we do and aspire to be.