In June 2018, Dr. Andrea Hayes-Jordan began her role as the Chief of the Division of Pediatric Surgery at the UNC School of Medicine, and Surgeon in Chief at the North Carolina Children’s Hospital. A few months in, Dr. Hayes-Jordan discussed her outlook on improvements to the hospital and her pioneering work on a rare disease.
Daily Tar Heel: How did you choose to come to UNC?
Andrea Hayes-Jordan: I took this job because it was very enticing to be able to lead a group of surgeons, and more importantly, to be able to participate in the improvement of the Children’s Hospital such that we could optimize the care for children in North Carolina. It’s really exciting to work for a public hospital, one that services the whole state, essentially, and be able to provide for these children, the highest level of care. It also is a great opportunity for me leadership wise because I will be leading, or am leading, several dozen surgeons whereas earlier, in my previous job, I did not have that leadership opportunity. It gives me the opportunity to shape a place and help build it into the place I know they want to be.
DTH: Are there any specific things you hope to accomplish during your tenure as Chief of Pediatric Surgery?
AHJ: The Children’s Hospital is pretty large, and I’m in charge of all the surgical services in the Children’s Hospital. One of my goals is to provide a children’s operating room that has 24/7 coverage for all the children. The other thing I’d like to do is continue my research and be able to impact the outcome of this very rare tumor that I’ve become quite familiar with called Desmoplastic Small Round Cell Tumor.
In the outpatient setting, I hope to be able to provide a telemedicine model, not just at my clinic, but at several other children’s clinics here, where we would contact the patient via something similar to Skype so that we could see the patient and examine them electronically and save the parents from having to drive in, park, pay for parking, come see us and drive back home. It would be much easier if we could actually see the patients while they’re in their own homes through the telemedicine app.
DTH: Are there any specific triumphs that stick out from your time in med school or your residency that have influenced you, and you would like to share?
AHJ: My time in residency has really shaped the way my career looks now because of a patient that I encountered when I was the Chief Resident, actually called a fellow, at St. Jude’s Hospital in Memphis.
I was at St. Jude’s, and I met a patient there who had a disease called Desmoplastic Small Round Cell Tumor, and it was very extensive, and he had hundreds of tumors in his belly cavity. We couldn’t help him, and I was the one who had to tell his mother that his tumor was inoperable, and that he was going to die. That experience really impressed upon me how important it was to be able to find a cure for this disease. After reading about it and studying the disease and the outcomes, it was clear to me that new therapy was needed. That changed my career and what I do now, being a pioneer and developing this hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy that we deliver to the patients with the desmoplastic small round cell tumor, and that procedure — which is abbreviated HIPEC — is what I’ve built my career on.
