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JOHN J. DOWNES, MD, FAAP
Current Positions:
Medical Director, The Pennsylvania Ventilator Assisted Children’s Home Program
Senior Physician, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
Professor of Anesthesiology & Critical Care Medicine and Pediatrics,
The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia.
John J. Downes was born in 1930 and received his early education in Chicago, Illinois. After obtaining a BS degree from St. Louis University, he attended Loyola University School of Medicine in Chicago where he received his MD degree in 1956. Following internship at the University of Indiana and two years in the Division of Indian Health of the U.S. Public Health Service, he completed residency training in anesthesiology and an N.I.H. research fellowship in pharmacology at the University of Pennsylvania. He then joined the staff of The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania in 1963 where he has spent his entire career.
In 1964 and 1965 he received his first N.I.H. clinical research grants for the study of respiratory failure in premature infants as well as older infants and children with a variety of life threatening pulmonary disorders. This subject has remained his principal clinical and research interest over the years. In 1967 he became the Medical Director of the nation’s first pediatric intensive care unit at Children’s Hospital. In 1972 Dr. Downes became the Director of the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine at Children’s Hospital and Professor of Anesthesia and Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania. He held these positions until 1996 when he retired from full time administrative and clinical activities to concentrate on the problems of children with chronic respiratory failure and their families.
Dr. Downes has participated in the training of over 250 subspecialists in pediatric anesthesia and critical care medicine, many of whom hold leadership positions in the U.S.A. and abroad. He has authored over 100 research papers and book chapters on pediatric anesthesia and critical care, most of which focus on acute and chronic respiratory failure in infants and children. He also has served on the editorial boards of several medical journals, and as an examiner for the American Board of Anesthesiology. He has held a wide variety of visiting professorships, given numerous named lectureships, and lectured throughout North America and around the world. He has been active in anesthesia, critical care, pediatric and medical equipment standards organizations, serving as a founding board member of the Society of Critical Care Medicine and the Society of Pediatric Anesthesia. He has held various committee positions in these organizations, and recently served as a national board member of Physicians for Social Responsibility and President of their Philadelphia chapter, and currently is a Trustee of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, the nation’s oldest medical organization.
Over the years he also has served in a variety of administrative positions at the Children’s Hospital, including President of the Medical Staff, and at the University of Pennsylvania. Among his awards are the Shubin-Weil Award from the Society of Critical Care Medicine, the Career Award in Pediatric Critical Care from the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Robert M. Smith Award from the Society of Pediatric Anesthesia, the Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence from the University of Pennsylvania, and The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Alumni Award. A Chair in Anesthesiology and Critical Care has been named for him at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Dr. Downes continues to be active in the care of patients and families, clinical research, and professional writing. He and his wife, JoAnn Splon Downes, MSW, have four adult children and six grandchildren. His non-professional interests include music, medical history, jogging, skiing and especially visits with the children and grandchildren.
Russell C. Libby, MD, FAAP
Russell C. Libby is founder and President of the Virginia Pediatric Group, one of the largest, most innovative, and highly regarded Pediatric practices in the Washington metropolitan area of Northern Virginia." I believe every child should have optimal physical and mental health so that they have the opportunity to achieve their greatest individual potential." This philosophy has guided Dr. Libby’s approach and has inspired his developing a continuum of special elements integrated into group practice of pediatrics. The use of an office based Lactation support service has helped nurture a successful approach to the initiation and commitment to breastfeeding. He has made early developmental diagnostic and intervention services an important part of the care of routine healthy as well as high risk and special infants and children. His team of developmental and nutrition experts has helped to identify his practice as one of the most trusted for the referral of infants graduating from the neonatal intensive care nursery. He has also become recognized for his work with neurobehavioral problems and learning disabilities. His ancillary support for these patients includes an Educational Specialist and a Neuropsychologist. This focus on family centered pediatric care inspired him to found American Pediatric Consultants in 1992. This is a full service pediatric specialty home care company with the capacity and accreditation to provide for the entire spectrum of pediatric home care services. "The best place to care for the medically stable child is in the home where they can feel safe, receive the best nurturing, and the interruption of family and child routines can be minimized. This requires a committed pediatric homecare agency and pediatricians knowledgeable and willing to use it." Dr. Libby continues to help his medical community find the knowledge, confidence and ability to use home care. He has been involved in efforts to move payors and hospitals into an actively supportive role.
Dr. Libby is Board Certified in Pediatrics and has been certified as a Home Care Medical Director by the American Academy of Home Care Physicians (AAHCP). He is on the Board of the AAHCP and serves as liaison to the AAP. He is a Chair of the Executive Committee of the AAP Section on Home Care. He is the Editor of and an author of several chapters in the AAP Guidelines for Pediatric Home Health Care. He is an active member of the AAP Committee on Child Health Financing. He is Chief of General Pediatrics at the Inova Fairfax Hospital for Children, a Board member of the Medical Society of Virginia, and serves on a variety of committees and task forces dealing with community school and health issues. He is on clinical faculty at University of Virginia, Medical College of Virginia, and Georgetown University. He has written articles and spoken at national conferences on a variety of topics including Home Care, ADHD, and medical economics. He hosts two medical information television shows in the Northern Virginia Area.
David Edward Milov, MD, FAAP
Dr Milov completed his residency training in pediatrics and his fellowship in gastroenterology at the University of Florida’s Shands Teaching hospital in Gainesville. He is board certified in pediatrics and in pediatric gastroenterology. He is employed by the Nemours Children’s Clinic, one of America’s largest providers of pediatric subspecialty services where he is Chief of Clinical Informatics. Most of his professional efforts are directed at the implementation and optimization of computer applications that facilitate and support patient care. His professional interests include service delivery to children and families, EMR, PHR and patient portal, population management (inflammatory bowel disease), computer simulation of discrete care events and computerized decision support at the point of care. He has authored numerous peer reviewed manuscripts reflecting these interests. His decision support work is supported in part by contracts from AHRQ. He serves on the Executive Committee of the AAP Home Care Section. David loves golf, fishing, playing the banjo and painting in water colors.
Elizabeth"Libby" Ruppert, MD, FAAP
Dr Ruppert is a professor, a clinician and community activist. She graduated from The Ohio State University College of Medicine in 1961 and subsequently completed her Pediatric Residency and neonatology fellowship at Columbus Children’s Hospital. As a junior faculty in neonatology in 1966 she started the first NICU graduate long term follow-up program at OSU .Because of that longitudinal follow-up work she became passionate about children with special health care needs and focused on that area for the rest of her clinical career. As an active clinician, innovator in computer assisted instruction for medical students and respected teacher of medical students and residents she was awarded full professorship with tenure in 1976 at OSU. In 1977 when her husband became president of The Medical College of Ohio they moved to Toledo Ohio and Libby continued her work with children with CSHCN. In 1993 she founded the Prescribed Pediatric Center, a medical day treatment program which provides medically complex infants and children with nursing care, developmentally appropriate education and lots of time for play and socialization. She continues as medical director of this innovation center which is a model program in Ohio. Finally Dr. Ruppert was President of The Ohio Chapter of AAP from 1995-2000 and examiner for the American Board of Pediatrics from 1982-1994. The Ohio Chapter of the AAP recently awarded her the highest of all recognitions by renaming the annual Pediatrician of the Year Award The Elizabeth Ruppert, M.D. Award. She is a life long member of AAP and active in the Home Care section.
Robert A. Schoumacher, MD, FAAP
Dr. Schoumacher is Professor of Pediatrics at the University Of Tennessee Health Sciences Center and Medical Director of the Sleep Disorders Center at Le Bonheur Children’s Medical Center in Memphis, TN. He also served as Director of the Memphis Cystic Fibrosis Center from 1993-2007. He has been involved with technology dependent children since he developed the Home Ventilator Program at the Children’s Hospital of Alabama in Birmingham in the late 1980s, serving as the Program’s first Director. He has given many lectures on Technology Dependent Children and Sleep Disorders, and continues to work with home care issues involving Sleep Disorders, Technology Dependent Children and Cystic Fibrosis care on a daily basis. He tries to incorporate his approach to home care into all of his teaching responsibilities and materials for medical students and housestaff. He been a member of the Section on Home Care for several years, and served on the Nominating Committee before joining the Executive Committee in late 2007. He is the current Editor of the Section’s Newsletter.
Dr. Schoumacher received his medical degree from Vanderbilt University in 1982, and completed his Residency in Pediatrics at the University of Virginia in 1985. He trained in Pediatric Pulmonology under Dr. Ralph Tiller at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, before joining the faculty there in 1988. He moved to Memphis and the University of Tennessee in 1993 and has been there ever since. Among other roles in Memphis, he is a prominent part of the University Medical Group’s drive to implement an Electronic Medical Record. He is Board Certified in Pediatrics, Pediatric Pulmonology, and in Sleep Medicine. Dr. Schoumacher and his wife, Becky, have one son in college at Rose Hulman and a daughter starting at Indiana University in the fall. When he is not working, his passions are biking, chess, especially directing children’s chess tournaments, and electronic conflict simulation (yes, playing computer games).
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