Drs. Jennifer Nicholas and Janice McDaniel, who met while training at Cincinnati Children’s in pediatric radiology, are working to improve radiology education in Haiti. Dr. Nicholas is currently a pediatric radiologist at Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology in St. Louis. Throughout her career, she has been passionate about global health and increasing diagnostic imaging capacity in other parts of the world. Over the years, she has made trips to Nicaragua, Kenya, Haiti, Rwanda, and Ecuador to support education of the physicians in these countries. Through generous grants and assistance from the Radiological Society of North America, Society of Pediatric Radiology, Association of University Radiologists, and Microsoft, she was able to purchase Surface Pro computers for the radiology residents training at Hôpital d l’Universite d’Etat d’Haiti (HUEH) in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The computers were loaded with radiology text books–many in French–educational videos, an imaging viewer, and several radiology learning modules.
Image: Drs. Jennifer Nicholas (left) and Janice McDaniel.
Dr. Janice McDaniel, who is a pediatric interventional radiologist at Akron Children’s Hospital, accompanied Dr. Nicholas to deliver the computers to Haiti and help set up a learning lab, complete with wall-mounted wireless monitor, to be used for both onsite and web-based teaching conferences.
They traveled to Haiti in the beginning of September with plans to spend a couple days with the radiology residents ay HUEH and a couple days at the pediatric hospital, St. Damien’s, which is about an hour away. Unfortunately, their trip had to be cut short due to Hurricane Irma. They were able to travel to the pediatric hospital for one day to work with the pediatric radiology fellow and pediatric surgery fellows. Dr. McDaniel brought some tools to teach basic ultrasound-guided procedures. She also delivered a storage bin full of medical supplies generously donated by Akron Children’s Hospital. This was the first of many future trips to Haiti for Dr. McDaniel.
The doctors were on one of the last planes to leave Haiti the day the hurricane struck the region. After arriving in Florida, they were unable to get a flight home, having to rent a car and drive with the Florida evacuees north to Georgia. They were able to safely get back home.
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Drs. Jennifer Nicholas and Janice McDaniel are a perfect example of the caliber of doctors that Cincinnati Children’s Radiology recruits and produces. Not only do they have the technical and medical knowledge in their field, but they also posses the humanitarian characteristics of a person who seeks to promote the welfare of others, especially by the generous donation of money or equipment to good causes.
Contributions by Drs. Jennifer Nicholas, Janice McDaniel, and edited by Glenn Miñano, BFA.
