Jaffe Named President of Pediatric Association

David M. Jaffe, MD, was elected president of the Academic Pediatric Association at its recent annual meeting in Boston.

Jaffe is the Dana Brown Professor of Pediatrics and director of the Division of Emergency Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics at School of Medicine in St. Louis and medical director of emergency services at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, where the emergency department staff treats between 55,000 and 60,000 patients a year. 

The 60-year-old Academic Pediatric Association is dedicated to improving the health and well-being of children and adolescents by promoting research, advancing a scholarly approach to education, developing innovations in health-care delivery, advocating for an equitable child-health agenda and fostering leadership and career development of child-health professionals.

Jaffe was chosen to lead the association for the 2012-13 term in recognition of his numerous professional achievements and dedication to the field.

He was named president-elect and joined the association’s board of directors in May 2011.

Jaffe is considered a pioneer in the field of pediatric emergency medicine. He was the first pediatric emergency medicine fellow in the United States, participated in writing the first textbook and published an article in the first volume of Pediatric Emergency Care. In addition, he was a founding member of the Pediatric Emergency Medicine Collaborative Research Consortium and the federally funded Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network, both multi-institutional research networks. He has long been involved in leadership and strategic planning with national pediatric emergency organizations. He has served as a mentor and faculty adviser to residents and fellows since 1985.

Jaffe’s research focuses on young children with fever, spine and brain injuries and multi-center collaborative research.

He has been named among the Best Doctors in America by Best Doctors Inc.

Jaffe earned a medical degree from the University of Chicago and completed residencies and a fellowship at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.