Princess DennarThis month’s MPPDA Member Spotlight features Dr. Princess Dennar.  Dr. Dennar is an Assistant Professor at the Tulane University School of Medicine, and has been Med-Peds Program Director for the past 6 years.

Dr. Dennar began her stint as the Program Director for Tulane Med-Peds Residency program by fortifying the resident’s curriculum with a self-created “Womb to the Tomb” board review series. The series provides an intense review of high content areas from both ABP and ABIM for each organ system in one setting. Residents are taught the similarities and differences in management approach from both disciplines for particular diseases, one system at a time. The resulting academic success of the residents include a 100% Pediatric board pass rate for first time Tulane Med-Peds exam takers for the past 3 years and higher in-service examination scores. She subsequently coupled Med-Peds residents to form an innovative mini-private medical homes that reifies continuity of care ensuring that patients are seen by the same residents throughout the year. Further, by working with community physicians and her institution’s faculty, she facilitated the formation of a targeted MP Ambulatory procedure clinic and a Sickle Cell Transition of Care clinic.

Very fond of the transition of care topic and understanding it relevance, she developed the Sickle Cell Transition of Care clinics in collaboration with both adult and pediatric Hematologist/Oncologist. PGY1-and PGY-2 residents are assigned to a pediatric Sickle Cell Transition of Care clinic in their first 2 years where they provide primary care to sickle cell young patients and transition them to the resident’s Med Peds clinic and the adult sickle cell Heme-Onco clinic when they age out. PGY 3 and PGY4 residents are assigned to an Adult Sickle Cell Transition of Care in their last 2 years where they provide primary care to older sickle cell patient. The idea behind these clinics is to create a collaboration between specialty providers and Med Peds primary care residents providers, to create a continuum care paradigm for patients with special need, and to reduce the incidence of negative outcomes during this critical transition period for adolescents with special needs.

The identity of Med-Peds at Tulane stems just as much from her artfully designed Med-Peds residency curriculum as it does from her resonant voice about all the community work spear headed by Med-Peds residency. The curriculum includes Med-Peds Journal Clubs, quarterly Transition of care grand rounds, a Med-Peds Adolescent Series, a Med-Peds Transition of Care Index Ambulatory Quality Improvement, and the Med-Peds Professional Development Series. The community work includes a yearly Wal-Mart Health Multisystem Educational Health Fair, Prevention Speaking Events at a local college, the Major’s-affiliated Youth Run Sport Physicals, and an annual end of year sharing with homeless adolescents at Covenant House.

Dr. Dennar has also been successful in integrating academic medicine with community health. When she arrived in New Orleans in 2008, she noticed that there was a higher percentage of delayed identification of children with developmental delay. In 2011, Dr. Dennar developed the state’s only Daycare Developmental Surveillance Program (DDSP) through her Child Development initiative sponsored initially through the Exxon Mobile GNO and then the American Academy of Pediatrics CATCH grant. As a certified Child Care Health Consultant from the National Training Institute in North Carolina and from Louisiana Office of Public Health, Dr. Dennar goes into daycare centers with some residents physicians to create community screening clinics using Ages & Stages at various set points.

Nelson Mandela once said, “What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.” Dr. Dennar is a devoted mother, wife, daughter, sister, teacher and learner who truly believe in making a difference in other people lives as part of her dedicated mission. She was born in Brooklyn, New York as the youngest of 3 older sibling brothers and the only girl—hence her father named her Princess as a first name and her middle name Eronmwon means “precious stone.” Dr. Dennar spent her formative years in Nigeria, where she developed a strong sense of identity and an appreciation for service and community—thanks to her parents. After relocating back to America, she completed her schooling at Overbrook High School, Haverford College as a Biology Major and MCP-Hahnemann (now Drexel University) School of Medicine. In medical school, Dr. Dennar met her husband at a neighboring med school and was introduced by him to the world of Med-Peds. They both completed their Med-Peds Residency in New Jersey at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center and subsequently worked as Med-Peds physicians in Philadelphia. In 2008, they decided that they wanted to expand their service efforts to New Orleans and help with the rebuilding of communities and health systems. Thus, they relocated to New Orleans and Dr. Dennar became the Program Director for Tulane’s Med-Peds Residency. She believes that the integration of community networks and health systems networks will reduce disparities in health. Consequently she has participated and created various community programs at Tulane and in the communities of Philadelphia, New Jersey and New Orleans such as AYAF (Adolescent and Young Adult Female) Rite of Passage Fellowship, Youth Mentorship Programs, and Community Developmental Screening Clinics through her Child Developmental Initiative, and Minority STEM Program, to name a few. She states, “We believe that the child is our most precious resource, and that his or her unhindered development will not only sustain us as a society but will also make us a far-more productive and humane people as we move forward together into the future” (Dr. Princess Dennar, M.D., Child Development Initiative, Inc., New Orleans, Louisiana, 2011).

Dr. Dennar has an eclectic array of interest and hobbies— she likes to do some of everything rather than none of something and loves the taste of life. She is a mother of three beautiful girls, ages 10 and identical 5-year old twins. At an early age, she was introduced to the arts of music and performance. Consequently, she likes to act, write poetry and short prose, and occasionally perform spoken word at various venues. She also plays both classical piano and violin proficiently and spends her time teaching her daughters the piano, arts and craft, and science. Her favorite sport is basketball, although her “smack-talking” is better than her actual playing skills. In her spare time, she likes traveling to see new places, tasting various cultural cuisines, relaxing with her family, and improving the quality of life for youths everywhere.

In this section, we would like to spotlight individual MPPDA members who are doing amazing and innovative things in education, clinical programs, or community service with their Med-Peds programs.  If you would like to nominate an individual MPPDA member, please leave us a comment below or email us at [email protected].