BOSTON - Boston Medical Center (BMC) has named Sadiqa Kendi, MD as division chief of pediatric emergency medicine. Kendi, an AOA graduate of the Yale School of Medicine, will also have an academic appointment at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM).
In her new role as the division chief, Kendi will utilize her leadership and experience to build the nation’s first social pediatric emergency department. Social pediatrics focuses on incorporating patients’ social context into routine pediatric emergency care, conducting high-quality translational research on best practices for applying the social determinants of health to patient care, instituting community-informed interventions in the pediatric emergency department to improve population health, and fostering racial justice and equity into every aspect of care. To this end, she will build on the multitude of innovative social programs that already exist for BMC patients, identifying resources to expand on them and make them available consistently to pediatric emergency department patients.
Kendi received her pediatrics training from the Social Pediatrics Program at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Montefiore Medical Center, where she spent an additional year as a pediatric chief resident. She completed her fellowship training in pediatric emergency medicine at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Previous to her role at BMC, Kendi was on faculty at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, DC where she was an assistant professor in the Departments of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine. She was also the medical director of Safe Kids District of Columbia and the Children’s National Safety Center.
“Dr. Kendi brings enormous energy and leadership to the Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine, and we are fortunate to have her expertise and caliber of talent,” says Bob Vinci, chief and chair of pediatrics at BMC and BUSM, and the Joel and Barbara Alpert professor of pediatrics at BUSM.
Frequently recognized for teaching and research excellence, Kendi was recently elected to the Society for Pediatric Research in recognition for her research accomplishments. Kendi is currently studying injury prevention interventions using technology (such as digital car seat trainings for families), as well as structural changes in the built environment (such as providing access to safe crosswalks and green spaces in all communities), to prevent serious unintentional injuries or deaths in children. Unbeknown to many, injuries are the top cause of death in children in the United States.
Kendi was elected to the executive committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Injury Violence and Poison Prevention, and is currently serving a 3 year term. She was also recently selected as a Bloomberg American Health Initiative Fellow, a program providing public health training to leaders engaged with organizations tackling critical challenges facing the nation. As a Bloomberg Fellow, Kendi is pursuing her Masters of Public Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
“I am excited to be joining such a talented team of experts and leaders in the pediatrics division, and to be contributing to the mission of Boston Medical Center by pursuing health equity for all children and families,” added Kendi.
About Boston Medical Center
Boston Medical Center (BMC) is a private, not-for-profit, 514-bed, academic medical center that is the primary teaching affiliate of Boston University School of Medicine. It is the largest and busiest provider of trauma and emergency services in New England. BMC offers specialized care for complex health problems and is a leading research institution, receiving more than $166 million in sponsored research funding in fiscal year 2019. It is the 13th largest funding recipient in the U.S. from the National Institutes of Health among independent hospitals. In 1997, BMC founded Boston Medical Center Health Plan, Inc., now one of the top ranked Medicaid MCOs in the country, as a non-profit managed care organization. Boston Medical Center and Boston University School of Medicine are partners in Boston HealthNet – 12 community health centers focused on providing exceptional health care to residents of Boston. For more information, please visit http://www.bmc.org.