Meet Dr. Sheetal Vora
Dr. Vora and her family
Dr. Sheetal Vora, MD, MS, is a pediatric rheumatologist with Atrium Health Levine Children’s Hospital in Charlotte, NC. Originally from Northern California, Dr. Vora started out as a general pediatrician at Kaiser Permanente for 4 years. She found she was seeing patients with rheumatic conditions who had a very difficult time to get in to see a rheumatologist. So she got a textbook and started teaching herself about it with basic guidance from the folks in the division of pediatric rheumatology at Stanford University.
She eventually decided it was a pretty cool specialty, went to Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, WI for a fellowship, and stayed on as faculty for 7 years. She was the first fellow ever trained in pediatric rheumatology at Milwaukee and found it was such a warm division. She got her MS in Clinical Epidemiology while working in the lab investigating immune regulatory cells. She met her husband in Chicago and both stayed for a while as faculty in WI but later decided to move to the warmer city of Charlotte, NC.
There she joined Atrium Health, a community health hospital, that has recently merged with academic medical center Wake Forest in Winston Salem, NC. To date, Charlotte is the largest city in US with no medical school but one is slated to open to its first medical school class in 2024.
Dr. Vora considers herself fortunate to have been exposed to PR-COIN. Her mentor suggested that Milwaukee become involved and they agreed. When she left and joined Atrium in 2012, Atrium completed the process to become a member.
Her passion for PR-COIN follows logically from Dr. Vora’s research in Quality Improvement. Most of that is related to access, including time to and barriers to be seen. She is excited about a recent Arthritis Foundation grant that will enable her local team to look at barriers and access for children from marginalized ZIP codes and those diagnosed through hospital admission. They will also look at depression screening in all children.
“It's not often, but when an intervention works on even one kid, it’s a winner,” she says. “Success in the division is equal parts parents, kids, medical staff, and nurses. That creates a culture of safety. And In PR-COIN, there is a culture of safety, vulnerability, and generosity. Everyone has a voice.
She hopes her work helps pediatric rheumatologists to identify the kid with utmost need and reduce unneeded consultations. She wants to see pediatricians educated to think about rheumatology conditions.
PR-COIN’s Treat-To-Target initiative involves the family and patient in the outcome and to participate in self-management.
“We can only hammer in so much of “take your meds”. We seek to address certain variables for providers and family and kids incorporating the which, when and where to take their medications and what outcomes they want to see. Some kids need good, not perfect. We physicians need to be okay with that.”