VIDEO: PCCI Celebrates the reopening of its office

PCCI is one of the best places to work in North Texas and recently its team celebrated the reopening of it office after more than two years of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of our culture of collaboration, the team of data science and clinical experts excelled working remotely, but this gathering was a great opportunity to meet in person, and for some, to meet for the first time. Going forward, PCCI will operate in a hybrid manner with its office serving as a resource and home-base for its team.

Have a look at the video of the office reopening here: PCCI Culture – Office Reopening

ECRI Podcast: Fighting Healthcare Disparities l Equitable and Accessible Healthcare for All

This podcast episode is part of a series regarding the ECRI and the ISMP Patient Safety Organization’s (PSO) annual Deep Dive report.

The 2021 Deep Dive report focuses on issues of racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare. Research has repeatedly confirmed that members of racial and ethnic minority groups are more likely to experience disparities in care, including having an increased risk of being uninsured or underinsured, lacking access to care, and experiencing worse health outcomes for treatable and preventable conditions.

In this episode, our guests discuss their data-driven approach to identify and combat disparities and realize their vision of creating a Dallas County with equitable, accessible healthcare for all. Our first guest, Brett Moran, MD, is from Parkland Health & Hospital System, one of the country’s largest and most progressive safety-net hospitals. Our second guest, Steve Miff, PhD, is from Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation, a leading, non-profit, data science, artificial intelligence and innovation organization affiliated with Parkland Health & Hospital System.

Visit ECRI and the ISMP PSO to learn more or to request a demo. Download the executive brief of ECRI and the ISMP PSO’s Deep Dive, Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health and Healthcare today.

Click this link to listen to this important podcast:

https://smart-healthcare-safety.ecri.org/public/58/Smart-Healthcare-Safety-from-ECRI-af7a948d/c7f33164

PCCI Honors: D CEO’s Names PCCI as a Finalist for its Nonprofit and Corporate Citizenship Awards 2022

D CEO has named PCCI as a finalists in its fifth annual Nonprofit and Corporate Citizenship Awards, presented in partnership with the Communities Foundation of Texas. PCCI is a finalist for Organization of the Year (large). All finalists will be featured in D CEO’s August issue and recognized at an awards event in July, where the winners in each category will be revealed.

D CEO’s Names PCCI as a Finalist for its Nonprofit and Corporate Citizenship Awards 2022

Finalists Announced: D CEO’s Nonprofit and Corporate Citizenship Awards 2022

 

PCCI Celebrates its 10th Anniversary of Serving North Texas’ Most Vulnerable

Starting this month, the Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation (PCCI) is celebrating its 10th anniversary of delivering groundbreaking healthcare results that have pioneered innovative, actionable solutions that more effectively identify needs, prioritize services, empower providers and engage patients in Dallas County and beyond.

View a message from PCCI CEO Steve Miff

PCCI, a mission-driven organization with industry leading expertise in the practical applications of advanced data science and Non Medical Drivers of Health, was founded on May 14, 2012, as a strategic department spin-off from Parkland Health (Parkland). The goal was to provide the flexibility needed for PCCI to be a successful digital innovator in the tech sector so it can most effectively support Parkland’s mission and extend partnerships for impact more broadly. To date, PCCI has proven that through passion, creativity and collaboration, breakthrough innovation to advance the health of vulnerable communities using data-driven applications and Non Medical Drivers of Health (NMDOH) is not only possible, but scalable and sustainable.

“From our singular approach to fighting COVID-19 to helping prevent pre-term births and supporting children with asthma, our steadfast mission has been to empower clinical decisions through advanced applications and uses of data. This is intended to tell the full story of every patient and our community’s health and act as a galvanizing force for customizing care at scale to support positive change,” said Steve Miff, CEO and President of PCCI. “Because of the passion of our team, the groundwork we have laid in our first decade and the ongoing collaboration and support of Parkland and many other North Texas partners, PCCI has been able to show how powerful data can be in revealing inequity and guiding actions to understand and support the communities that need care the most.”

During the first 10 years of its existence, PCCI has worked closely with some of the most notable healthcare leaders in Dallas and nationally. This includes its collaboration with Dallas County Health and Human Services, in its launch and implementation of COVID-19 public health initiatives to help minimize the pandemic’s harm on Dallas County and its residents.

“These past two years have shown how powerful data can be in revealing inequity in order to focus on those communities that need the most help. For example, our COVID-19 Proximity and Vulnerability Indices helped guide the County’s healthcare leaders to understand where to allocate resources for testing and vaccinations,” Miff said. “During our first decade, we have collaborated with philanthropic foundations, federal agencies, rural and urban health systems, payers, local municipalities, community organizations and others who share our common passion in finding the most impactful ways to address the needs of vulnerable populations. Investments in PCCI have resulted in millions of patients engaged with the impact producing millions of dollars in savings for providers and patients.”

As an affiliate of the Parkland system, PCCI has an ongoing focus on developing and supporting a wide variety of programs that have helped improve care and create efficiencies across the Parkland system.

“Parkland has received continual benefits from PCCI because it has been, achieving advanced innovations that are aligned with Parkland’s strategy,” said Fred Cerise, MD, President & CEO of Parkland and PCCI Board member. “PCCI has been uniquely positioned to support the Parkland community with innovative solutions that empower all of us. It is no exaggeration to assert that with its digital health strategy, Parkland will lead the way for better health for our patient population.”

For the remainder of 2022, PCCI will be celebrating its 10th anniversary with programs and activities highlighting its successes and future initiatives. For more information about PCCI’s anniversary and how to join its efforts to expand equitable access to care, go to: www.pccinnovation.org.

About Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation

Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation (PCCI), founded in 2012, is celebrating a decade a not-for-profit, healthcare innovation organization affiliated with Parkland Health. PCCI leverages clinical expertise, data science and Non Medical Drivers of Health to address the needs of vulnerable populations.

 

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HealthLeaders Podcast: PCCI’s Steve Miff – ACCESS TO CARE MAKES NO SENSE

Listen to PCCI’s CEO Steve Miff on the latest episode of HealthLeaders Exchange’ podcast “Healthcare Makes No Sense.” The podcast description:

If patient care stops when they leave the hospital, can healthcare truly provide access to care for patients where they are?
It makes no sense!

At least not to us anyway…
Steve Miff, President & CEO of PCCI, has been the humble superstar of Dallas’ underserved communities and his passion is apparent. He understands the power of using data analytics to identify social determinants, while also connecting communities to provide swift access to care for those who need it the most.

Perhaps with his drive and knowledge we can #makeitmakesense

Come and join our conversation!
Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/dtV52kwg
Spotify: https://lnkd.in/d3kai3Hr
Google Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/dbvskzmu
Amazon Music: https://lnkd.in/dPumR8K5

“BUILDING CONNECTED COMMUNITIES OF CARE” BOOK EXCERPT CASE STUDY – Building CBO Partnerships

Following is an excerpt from PCCI’s book, “Building Connected Communities of Care: The Playbook For Streamlining Effective Coordination Between Medical And Community-Based Organizations.” This is a practical how-to guide for clinical, community, and government, population health leaders interested in building connected clinical-community (CCC) services.

This section is from Chapter 7, “Community Partners Track.” The Community Partners Track provides the requirements for the workflows and the tools needed for Community-Based Social Service Organizations aka Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) to achieve the goals of the Connected Communities of Care (CCC).

PCCI offers readiness assessments as a service for those organizations interested in building an NMDOH-based CCC. Go here for more information: https://pcci1.wpengine.com/connected-communities-of-care/.

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Case Study: Building CBO Partnerships

A cornerstone of the CCC is the CBO. The community food pantries, homeless shelters, crisis centers, and transportation service providers are the lifeline for many vulnerable and underserved community residents. In addition to providing essential services, these organizations help the individuals cope with the challenges of daily life. For far too long, these organizations were excluded from the clinical care plan process for a host of reasons. Communities Foundation of Texas (CFT) (the initial philanthropic funder of the Dallas Information Exchange Portal [IEP]) and PCCI recognized the vital role these entities play in the health and well-being of the individuals seeking care at Parkland.

As part of the design of the Dallas IEP, PCCI began an ongoing effort to establish meaningful partnerships with local CBOs to foster their involvement in (and support of) the Dallas IEP, through linkages to each other and to Parkland. PCCI recognized early on that given the large geography covered by Dallas County, more than a couple CBOs would be needed to make the IEP robust and meaningful. In the past, efforts to engage CBOs typically involved recruitment at the individual CBO level, something that in the case of the IEP would likely prove problematic given the number needed. Instead, the PCCI team, with support from CFT, proposed a new approach of engaging the major
Sponsors of the CBOs, which in this case included the North Texas Food Bank (NTFB), which worked with many local food pantries, and the Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance (MDHA), a large umbrella organization coordinating services for dozens of smaller homeless shelters. By working directly with these umbrella organizations, PCCI only needed to execute two contracts rather than multiple contracts with the individual CBOs. The NTFB and the MDHA were then responsible for recruiting their members in sufficient numbers to increase the IEP’s scale.

While this approach proved successful, it did not remove the need for PCCI to “make the case” for the IEP with the NTFB and the MDHA. In addition to explaining how this program would involve NTFB’s food pantries and MDHA’s homeless shelters, it was imperative to make the business case for their involvement—how will this work benefit them and their members and what will be needed from the membership. In addition to helping improve the health and well-being of community residents, we found the following to be key incentives for CBO participation: (1) ability to provide funding to support the IEP or its usage, (2) enhanced reporting and analytic capability— either through the technology platform software itself or through PCCI analytical staff, (3) opportunity to participate in future research projects that would bring visibility to other sources of funding, and (4) greater operational efficiency.

Once the list of participating CBOs was shared with PCCI, the team installed the software at the participating sites, trained CBO staff, and communicated expectations and next steps. This process proved to be one of the critical success factors behind the initiative. CBO staff members that reported training as helpful and beneficial were more likely to use the IEP than those for whom training was deemed less helpful. Feedback from those receiving training suggested that two shorter training sessions (each 1.5 hours) and involving hands on practice exercises was far more helpful than one longer training session (3 hours). When PCCI staff members (1) set clear expectations of what was expected of the CBO and how the IEP was to be used and (2) reinforced that
Community Partners Track message through follow-up question and answer sessions and individual consultations, CBO use of the IEP (as it was intended to be used) was materially higher than where less emphasis was placed on expectations.

With the software installed and training completed, PCCI implemented several short pilot test periods to ensure that the technology was performing as expected and that the CBO staff felt comfortable in using it. These short pilot test periods, lasting from 2 to 4 weeks, were critical in a successful launch of the broader IEP implementation. As anticipated, the pilot work uncovered some software issues that needed to be addressed to ensure optimal use by the CBOs. The work also revealed some modifications to the CBO and clinical/CBO workflows that needed to be made. It is important to note that
all pilot testing was done without involving any patients or residents in the testing phase.

While the preparatory work helped to ensure a successful launch of the IEP both with Parkland and the participating CBOs (whose numbers grew appreciably after the launch due to continued recruitment into the network), we found that additional steps were needed to ensure ongoing success. Much like processes that are measured regularly as part of an improvement campaign and then ended abruptly when the campaign ends, we found that to optimize the effectiveness of the IEP and maintain its momentum, we needed to institute a continuous monitoring process with both the CBOs and Parkland. This ongoing involvement with the IEP Participants proved to be a greater time commitment than we had originally foreseen. While the frequency of challenges declined with the length of time since launch, we continually uncovered new issues or new opportunities to strengthen the initiative. This was especially true for the CBOs, where most staff members include volunteers and the turnover rate is quite high. Because of this, we employed a train the-trainer model, which proved largely effective. Again, most CBOs have a very small staff. Thus, the departure of a manager or experienced frontline worker often proved a major disruption to the use of the IEP. Constant contact with the CBOs (even when the number of CBO Participants approached 100) helped ensure that any challenges could be addressed as quickly and effectively as possible.

The key takeaway from the past five years of working with the CBO community in Dallas is that relationships matter, and that these relationships need constant, open and honest, two-way communication and nurturing to bring about success. We believe that these lessons apply far beyond this initiative.

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Authors:

Steve Miff, CEO and President of PCCI

Keith Kosel, Executive Advisor for PCCI

PCCI Announces New Hire, Executive Promotions, Strengthening Its Team of Healthcare, Technology Experts

Dallas, Texas – Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation (PCCI), which improves healthcare for vulnerable populations using advanced data science and clinical experts, announced the hiring of Natasha Goburdhun, MS, MPH, as Vice President, Connected Communities of Care, and the promotions of Yolande Pengetnze​, MD, MS, FAAP, to Vice President, Clinical Leadership, and Albert Karam, MS, MBA, to Vice President, Data Strategy Analytics​.

These executive leaders will boost PCCI’s innovative clinical and data analytics programs that have made a significant impact, including helping North Texas navigate through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Natasha Goburdhun

As Vice President, Connected Communities of Care, Goburdhun uses PCCI’s advanced analytics to provide detailed insights on community health and social needs and assists community organizations, payers and providers in developing strategies and impact/equity measures that address the needs of vulnerable populations. She brings over 20 years of strategic planning and operations experience in health plan, provider and community-based organization sectors to PCCI.

Goburdhun was most recently the Vice President of Business Development & Operations at YMCA of the USA. Prior to that, she held senior leadership roles at Aetna Accountable Care Solutions and the American Hospital Association and served in consulting roles at Sg2 and Navigant.

She holds an MPH in Health Management from Yale University, an MS in Neurobiology from Northwestern University and a BS in Neurobiology from the University of Michigan.

“Natasha brings an amazing set of skills matched with experience and passion to help the underserved in our communities,” said Steve Miff, CEO and President of PCCI. “She is a true expert at the practical implementation of Non Medical Drivers of Health (NMDOH) principles that will benefit all of the programs she supports. Natasha is a true trailblazer and we are eager to see where she leads PCCI’s NMDOH efforts.”

Dr. Yolande Pengetnze

Dr. Pengetnze, as Vice President, Clinical Leadership, leads multiple projects at PCCI, including a population health quality improvement project on pediatric asthma and the development of a program supporting the prevention of pre-term births. She joined PCCI in December 2013 as a Physician Scientist while remaining a Clinical Faculty at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UTSW). Her interests include the use of advanced predictive analytics integrating traditional data sources and novel “Big data” sources to improve health outcomes at the individual and population level.

Dr. Pengetnze, received her MD in 1998 from the University of Yaounde in Cameroon and completed a Pediatric Residency training in 2008 at Maimonides Medical Center in New York City. She joined the General Pediatric Hospitalist Division of UTSW as a faculty in 2008. She completed a General Pediatric/Health Services Research Fellowship training and a Master of Sciences in Clinical Sciences at UTSW in 2013.

“Yolande has contributed heavily to PCCI’s success and is an important leader advocating for mothers and children,” said Miff. “Her passion for helping children has resulted in a number of successful partnerships with Parkland Health (Parkland) and the Parkland Community Health Plan (PCHP). This includes preterm birth prevention and pediatric asthma care programs. She recently joined other Parkland leaders to raise awareness of the harm COVID-19 can have on unvaccinated children with asthma, an important action with direct impact on the health of children in our region.”

Albert Karam

Albert Karam, as Vice President, Data Strategy Analytics, focuses on data science platforms, infrastructure and innovative patient care solutions. He is responsible for creating predictive algorithms and real-time decision support to Parkland and other institutions across the Dallas/Fort Worth Area.

Karam has been with PCCI since 2016 and has researched, identified, managed, modeled and deployed several predictive models for Parkland and PCHP. He has also managed elements of PCCI’s data analytics teams that supported the Dallas County Health and Human Services  (DCHHS) efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic. Karam’s extensive experience offers a diverse understanding of modeling workflows and implementation of real-time models.

Albert obtained an MS in Mathematics from The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) in 2015, and in 2020, he earned a duel degree MBA and MS in Data Analytics from UTD with a focus in Healthcare Administration.

“Albert and the team he leads at PCCI are the unsung analytics heroes of the Dallas healthcare community,” Miff said. “The impact of Albert’s work can be felt all through our community, as his predictive modeling plays a pivotal role in many programs at Parkland and DCHHS. He brings an exceptional set of standards to his work and is committed to using technology to create better clinical outcomes.”

About Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation

Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation (PCCI), founded in 2012, is celebrating a decade as an independent, not-for-profit, healthcare intelligence organization. Affiliated with Parkland Health, PCCI leverages clinical expertise, data science and Non Medical Drivers of Health to address the needs of vulnerable populations.

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Steve Miff Named Among Dallas 500 Honorees

We are thrilled to announce that PCCI’s CEO, Steve Miff, has been named to the Dallas 500 list for the second year running! Announced by DCEO Magazine, the Dallas500 recognizes influential leaders in North Texas across a variety of industries. Congratulations to Steve Miff for the well-deserved recognition!

https://www.dmagazine.com/sponsored/2021/12/steve-miff-named-among-dallas-500-honorees/

PCCI Annual Impact Report

PCCI has released it’s Annual Impact Report. This report, which is available for free download, outlines PCCI’s efforts over the past year to help support those most in need in our communities.

The report includes PCCI’s efforts to fight COVID-19 in Dallas, partnering with Dallas County, Parkland Hospital and other community partners to develop analytics showing community vulnerabilities that helped guide testing, vaccinations, herd immunity (https://lnkd.in/dNUutqnu) and the changing needs of Dallas County.

The report also provides insights into other programs PCCI’s innovations contributed to, including, pediatric asthma mitigation, preterm birth prevention and much more.

Click here to read the PCCI 2021 Annual Impact Report.

Click here to download the PCCI 2021 Annual Impact Report PCCI-AIR-2021_Final-SPREAD.

Following is a video from PCCI Steve Miff on the organization’s past year:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hx60eCgB9Eg

Children’s COVID-19 Vaccine: A Key to Protecting Pediatric Asthma Patients

By Yolande Pengetnze, MD, MS, FAAP, PCCI’s Vice President of Clinical Leadership

What Has Everyone Excited about COVID-19 Vaccines for 5-11-year-olds?

With the rollout this month of COVID-19 vaccine for those 5-11 years of age, we can now directly protect children with asthma for whom COVID-19 infection is an even bigger hazard for our children during the pandemic.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the term “comorbidities” has entered our daily vernacular, mostly in reference to adults’ chronic illnesses such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes, but with pediatric asthma, children and parents have their own harmful comorbidity that can be associated with life threatening COVID-19 infection. However, with the vaccinations for children now available, there is help for asthma sufferers to avoid the worst of COVID-19.

We are off to a good start. For older children in Dallas, a protective vaccine has been available for some months and, so far, more than 50 percent of high school students and more than one-third of middle/junior high students have received their vaccinations. However, we still have some ways to go. In Dallas County, many children with asthma live in zip codes with low rates of COVID-19 vaccination (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Dallas County Maps Comparing Top Zip Codes of Children with Asthma vs. Children Not Vaccinated Against COVID-19

We need to step up outreach efforts into communities with high numbers of vulnerable children to enhance vaccine education and increase vaccine uptake for children. A special focus should be directed to the top five zip codes, 75217, 75211, 75228, 75227, and 75243, that have overlapping high pediatric asthma prevalence and low COVID-19 pediatric vaccination rates. Most concerning is ZIP code 75217, located in southeast Dallas in the Pleasant Grove area, which has the highest pediatric asthma prevalence and lowest COVID-19 pediatric vaccination rate in Dallas County. Also, ZIP code 75211, in the Cockrell Hill and Oak Cliff neighborhoods, has the third highest pediatric asthma prevalence and third lowest COVID-19 pediatric vaccination rate in the county. These two ZIP codes are two of the most challenged socioeconomic areas of Dallas County and have been battered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Help Protecting Our Children Is Here

The Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine was approved for use among 5-11-year-olds on November 2. The two-dose Pfizer vaccine is safe and effective for 5-11-year-olds at one third of the adult dose. Pediatricians, parents, schools, and other community stakeholders had been waiting for this breakthrough, especially for the benefit of vulnerable children with comorbidities such as asthma.

The COVID-19 pandemic is caused by the SARS-Coronavirus 2 (SARSCoV-2) which is primarily transmitted through airborne respiratory droplets and the most important tool in fighting respiratory pandemics is mass vaccination.

COVID-19 vaccines were developed with unprecedented speed, initially approved for adults, quickly followed by adolescents 12 years and older. As is typically, however, additional efficacy and safety studies were required for approval among children 5-11-year-olds.

Early in the pandemic, children were less impacted as the original SARSCoV2 virus strain (so-called Alpha strain) had a low transmission rate and caused mild disease among most children. As the pandemic progressed, however, the face of the pandemic evolved from a predominantly adult disease to a progressive increase in pediatric cases. Children went from representing around 4 percent of all cases early in the pandemic to accounting up to 25 percent of all cases more recently.

Contributing factors to rising pediatric cases include the emergence of highly transmissible variants (including the Delta variant, now the dominant strain in the US), in-person school reopening in the fall of 2021, relaxation of Public Health measures, reduced community mask wearing and social distancing, reopening of public spaces, and, importantly, no vaccine approval for school-age children 5-11 years old.

COVID-19 Vaccine Brings Children Needed Relief

Children 5-11 years old represent approximately 15 percent of the US population, can acquire and transmit COVID-19 in school and in the community. The absence of vaccines for this population denied them access to the most effective tool in our toolbox to fight this pandemic, making it difficult if not impossible to reach herd immunity goals of 80-90 percent community vaccination required to curb this pandemic.

Additionally, the toll of the COVID-19 pandemic among children has been rising. In 19 months since the beginning of the pandemic,

  • ~6.4 million COVID-19 cases have been diagnosed among US children (~8.5 cases per 100 children)
  • In Texas, over 211,000 cases have been reported among Public School students within the first three months of in-person school reopening in the fall
  • ~25,000 hospitalizations have been recorded among US children (~2.6 percent of all hospitalizations), and
  • 600 US children have died from COVID-19 complications

In comparison, 39,000 flu-related hospitalizations and only 366 flu-related deaths were reported among US children during the 2018-2019 flu season. The COVID-19 pediatric death toll, therefore, is ~64 percent higher than expected in a typical flu season.

Vaccines Protect Children with Asthma

Children with medical comorbidities, including poorly controlled asthma, are particularly vulnerable to severe COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and death. Appropriate asthma control is key to mitigating COVID-19 morbidity and mortality among children.

Underlining the urgent need for vaccinating children, leading expert on pediatric asthma, Dr. Mark Clanton, Chief Medical Officer at Parkland Community Health Plan, offers clear guidance for parents with children who suffer from pediatric asthma.

“Good asthma control can be achieved through controller medication adherence, trigger avoidance, timely use of rescue inhalers, frequent follow-up with doctors, and effective use of asthma action plans at home and in school. Additionally, parents should ensure their child’s school follows pandemic prevention measures of aeration and their children assiduously follow pandemic prevention measures, including mask wearing (masks are safe and effective for children with asthma!) and physical distancing. Most importantly, parents need to their children the COVID-19 vaccine as soon as their child become eligible,” said Dr. Clanton.

The two-dose Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, administered three weeks apart, is safe and effective for 5-11-year-olds. The vaccine elicits a strong, protective immune response and is over 90 percent effective against COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths. The vaccine likely confers protection against community spread, although data for this outcome is still forthcoming. Fewer and less severe side effects have been observed among 5-11-year-olds compared with adults. Preliminary data from the Moderna vaccine also show a similarly favorable safety and effectiveness profile.

Protect Your Children Now

With this new tool in our arsenal, we are one step closer to winning the battle against COVID-19. Vaccines, however, only work if they are administered to people who need it.

We call on all stakeholders, including parents, healthcare leaders, schools and communities to team up and make vaccines available and accessible to all eligible children. Parents, YOU are most the important stakeholders of all! We encourage you to get your elementary- middle- and high-schoolers vaccinated against COVID-19 to keep our schools safe and our community open! #GiveItAShot

(Contributors to this article include: Xiao “Michelle” Wang, PhD, PCCI Senior Data and Applied Scientist, and Steve Miff, PCCI CEO and President.)

About Yolande Pengetnze
Yolande Pengetnze, MD, MS, FAAP, is PCCI’s Vice President of Clinical Leadership where she leads multiple projects including population health quality improvement projects focusing on preterm birth prevention and pediatric asthma at the individual and the population level. Dr. Pengetnze received her MD from the University of Yaounde in Cameroon and completed a Pediatric Residency at Maimonides Medical Center in New York. She was a faculty member at UTSW’s General Pediatric Hospitalist Division where she completed a General Pediatric/Health Services Research Fellowship training and earned a Master of Sciences in Clinical Sciences.