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Virginia Business// December 30, 2023//
Dr. Douglas R. Allen, pediatric cardiologist, UVA Health Children’s – Pediatric Specialty Care Richmond, Richmond
Education: Bachelor’s degree, William & Mary; medical degree, Medical College of Virginia at Virginia Commonwealth University (now VCU School of Medicine); pediatrics residency and pediatric cardiology fellowship, VCU
Family: Married 27 years to Christina Allen, a senior project manager with Sentara Health. Children: Henry, 19, studying international relations with a minor in Korean at the University of Virginia; Sarah, 22, with a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Washington & Lee University and working for CBS19 News in Charlottesville.
Career mentor: The late Dr. Arnold Salzberg, legendary chief of pediatric surgery at VCU.
Dr. Salzberg taught me that being the best physician you could be was important, but being the best man you could be was more important.
Where would you like to travel that you haven’t yet visited? As a bit of a foodie and the cook in our home, I would most like to travel to both France and Italy, primarily to eat my way through their cuisines.
Is there a particular innovation in pediatric cardiology you’re excited about? There has been a growing acceptance that regionalization and development of multi-institutional networks yields better results in the management of congenital heart disease. I am now part of a statewide collaboration including UVA Health, Children’s Hospital of The Kings’ Daughters and Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU, through which we are able to confidently provide the highest level of care for our often-fragile patients in the most appropriate and convenient locations.
I strongly believe such cooperation among multiple institutions is the best way to care for children with heart disease and am excited to see such networks develop and thrive.
Dr. Alexander Ellis
Pediatric and adult congenital cardiologist, Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters; associate professor of internal medicine and pediatrics, Eastern Virginia Medical Center, Norfolk
Other medical specialties: I am also the co-director of advanced cardiac imaging at CHKD and the director of the adult congenital heart disease program.
Education: Bachelor’s degree, Princeton University; master’s in biology, McGill University; medical degree, Medical College of Virginia/Virginia Commonwealth University; internal medicine/pediatrics residency and pediatric cardiology fellowship, Medical University of South Carolina; adult congenital heart disease training, Children’s Hospital Philadelphia
Family: My wife, Amy Skorupa, and I met in medical school at MCV (literally over a dead body). She is now an adult medical oncologist here in Hampton Roads, specializing in breast oncology. We have two children, Jacob, 20, and Sarah, 17. Jacob is a junior at the University of Richmond, concentrating in political science and leadership and running on the cross-country/track team. Sarah is a senior at Princess Anne High School in the international baccalaureate program and will also be attending the University of Richmond, where she was recruited to play field hockey.
Career mentors: Growing up, my next-door neighbor was Dr. Edwin Myer, chair of pediatric neurology at MCV, and he was a major influence for me to enter medicine, especially pediatrics. Within cardiology, I have had many wonderful mentors and attending physicians at MUSC, but especially Dr. Andy Atz, and Dr. Gary Webb from the Children’s Hospital Philadelphia.
Fan of: I married into a Chicago Cubs household so I certainly cheer for them, but it is often a source of frustration and disappointment (except in 2016!). I am a big fan of music — of many genres — and love to attend concerts or shows. I also love to see my kids’ athletic events — especially track meets and field hockey games.
You worked in Panama’s rainforests. How did you go from that to working in medicine? After college, I knew I did not want to go straight to medical school. My thesis adviser at Princeton offered me the opportunity to do field work for him on Barro Colorado Island in Panama (part of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute). After a few months in the rainforest working on his projects, I was fortunate that he helped me develop my own research project involving climate change and tropical forests, which then became my graduate thesis at McGill.
However, after lugging heavy gas analyzers and other equipment miles into the rainforest every day, dealing with aggressive monkeys and mosquitoes, and especially having to write never-ending grant-funding proposals, I thought I could have a more immediate and concrete impact on peoples’ lives as a physician. If nothing else, I would not get as many bug bites.
What new congenital heart disease treatments are you particularly excited about? I am especially interested in cardiac imaging, whether that be echocardiography or CT/MRI. One of the major advances that our field has had in the last 30 years has been the ability to noninvasively image the heart and great vessels with significantly more clarity/resolution than we have ever had, allowing for better preoperative/transcatheter procedural planning, shorter intervention times and higher success rates.
I am also enthusiastic about new research collaboratives for patients with congenital heart disease. This is a vulnerable, complex population that has previously not benefited from many dedicated research initiatives. Now, there are pharmacologic and medical device trials specifically geared towards patients with congenital heart disease, especially the teenagers and adults living with it.
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