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Mahoning Valley Beeghly campus in Boardman. While the Center is open five days a week, the multidisciplinary clinics are offered monthly. Dr. Saini leads the team, which also includes a social worker and nutritionist. " This tea m approach encourages families to function as a unit and helps to identify local community resources available to patients with respect to exercise a nd fitness progra ms that everyone can tap into," she says. At Akron Children's Beeghly campus, Dr. Saini is also planning a clinic for newly diagnosed diabetic patients to intensify initial support and education at the time of diagnosis. "For various reasons, kids are strug- gling to maintain long-term diabetes Akron Children's Center for Diabetes & Endocrinology provides subspecialty care for infants, children and teenagers. Dr. Martin is pictured here with one of her teenage patients. care, putting them at risk for early complications, such as kidney disease and eye disease," Dr. Saini explains. "The goal is to help these patients bet- ter manage their diabetes and improve their outcomes from the start." Cancer Clinics Dr. Martin is involved in two clinics at the Akron campus: a neuro-oncology clinic for children with brain tumors and a cancer survivor clinic. In the neuro- oncology clinic, Dr. Martin evaluates children for endocrine disorders that may be caused either by the tumor or the treatment. Specialists from neurology, neurosurgery, hematolog y/oncolog y, nutrition, neurobehavioral health and palliative care are also involved. "Children with cancer often develop pituitary dysfunction and can experi- ence short stature or delayed or no pubertal development. They can also develop diabetes insipidus or thyroid disorders," Dr. Martin says. "Typically, a child coming to the clinic has had imaging studies done that day to see if there's been any progression of their disease. Then the group gets together to discuss the findings." I n t h e c a nc er s u r v i v or c l i n ic , Dr. Martin meets with children to make sure all of their endocrine needs are being met. She says that most children who have received radiation and/or chemotherapy for cancer are at high risk for developing endocrine disorders. "In the past, many cancer survivors who were not followed in multidis- ciplinary clinics could have fertility issues as adults — they might have testicular dysfunction or go into early menopause," Dr. Martin notes. "In addi- tion to screening for potential thyroid problems, we are also starting to work in conjunction with an endocrine fertility clinic for some of these children. We want to give them options when they are young teenagers before they get to a point of no return." Bone Health Clinic Dr. Kambalapalli's idea for a dedicated bone health clinic stemmed from a need she identified during fellowship training at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center in Richmond. "I was always trying to get in touch with experts in the field to come up with optimal management for patients with bone health-related conditions," Dr. Kambalapalli says. "When I joined A k ron Children's [in July 2014], I proposed a multidisciplinary clinic dedi- cated to bone health that would include orthopedics, physiatry and genetics." She points out that juvenile osteopo- rosis is under-recognized because it's relatively uncommon, as is osteogenesis imperfecta (brittle bone disease). "Children with conditions like chronic inf lammator y bowel disease, celiac disease, cerebral palsy, myopathies, 1 6 | Cleveland/Akron/Canton MD NEWS ■ M D N E W S . CO M ■ J U LY/AU G U S T 2 0 1 5