Ekemini A. Ogbu, MD, MSc, FAAP, Leads the Pediatric Rheumatology Committee

Participating with ACR projects and committees has given Ekemini A. Ogbu, MD, MSc, FAAP, “a lot of fulfillment doing things that are impactful for the field,” says this assistant professor of pediatrics, Division of Rheumatology, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Ohio.

Dr. Ogbu

Now, as she begins her three-year term as chair of the ACR’s Pediatric Rheumatology Committee, she views the post as an opportunity to give back to the field. Her motivation for accepting this position is partly personal as well: Dr. Ogbu was a direct beneficiary of an ACR-sponsored program that allowed her to complete her formal rotation in the specialty.

Goals for the Committee

Cincinnati Children’s serves many surrounding states as well as Ohio and accepts international referrals. Through her multiple appointments, including Director of Neuroinflammatory Disease Services, Co-Director of Cincinnati Children’s Lupus Center and a co-appointment in the Division of Neurology, Dr. Ogbu has witnessed firsthand what families go through to access care for their children with rheumatic disease.

The goal, she says, is to improve access to care and continue to provide the support services that are needed to provide high-level care for patients. With that in mind, she asserts, “We need to have a collaborative overview or assessment of the state of clinical care and practice, as well as research in pediatric rheumatology. That’s where the Pediatric Rheumatology Committee comes in, as the central body to do this.”

To advance these aims, Dr. Ogbu will pursue collaboration with other key ACR committees, such as the Workforce Solutions Committee. It’s imperative to avoid silos, she notes, so that committees do not duplicate their efforts. Collaborating with other ACR committees will ensure that the pediatric voice is heard and will enhance efforts to improve the workforce pipeline.

Early Interest in Medicine

Dr. Ogbu’s interest in medicine began in childhood. At the early age of six or seven, she recalls, she was already asking questions related to health and disease. She was enthralled when her parents took her to a teaching hospital to get a cut sutured. “I was really just watching as they were stitching my wound,” she says, curious about the process and admiring the physicians.

Her career choice established, she obtained her MD at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria, then came to the U.S. to complete her residency at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Ga.

She considered specializing in cardiology (which she calls “my first love”), then neonatology and hematology oncology. Eventually, though, she experienced the allure of rheumatology, drawn toward the complicated cases and the isolation that families experienced due to the rarity of their children’s diseases.

That uncertainty, Dr. Ogbu saw, could provide an opening for research to better understand the disease process. She completed a fellowship in pediatric rheumatology and an MS in clinical research at Emory University, Atlanta. After her fellowship, she joined Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md., where she led the pediatric rheumatology clinics and service.

Pandemic Possibilities

In 2021, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Ogbu accepted a faculty appointment at Cincinnati Children’s. The pandemic “opened our eyes to the greater potential of telemedicine and to ways of communicating that we wouldn’t have ordinarily thought to do to deliver care,” she says.

The pandemic also clearly revealed the dearth of pediatric rheumatologists. At the same time, with the complication of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children associated with SARS-CoV2 (MIS-C), awareness of pediatric rheumatologists increased. “This helped people realize that pediatric rheumatology is a very interesting field,” she says. In 2022, the ACR published clinical guidance on MIS-C and hyperinflammation in pediatric COVID-19.

All in all, the opportunity to help children get better and support families provides a sense of fulfillment, purpose and “just joy,” Dr. Ogbu says. Her work with the Pediatric Rheumatology Committee, she believes, will bolster those rewards.

Gretchen Henkel is a health and medical journalist based in California.