Melanie G. Kitagawa, MD
Medical Director - TICU
Assistant Professor, Section of Critical Care Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine
Languages: English
Departments:
Get to know Melanie G. Kitagawa, MD
Personal Statement
In my role as Medical Director for the Transitional Intensive Care Unit, a unit which specializes in caring for children with chronic medical conditions, I have the opportunity to ensure the highest level of care is provided to children and their families cared for in our unit. In addition, I have the opportunity to help our multidisciplinary team work with the families of the children to successfully transition from the hospital environment back to home by ensuring families have the education and skills they need to be successful at home.
We, as critical care providers, have the opportunity to interact with families and patients at some of the most vulnerable times of their lives. It is a privilege to be able to do this work and I strive to ensure that every patient I care for receives an excellence of care from both me, as well as from their whole care team.
My academic interests focus on social determinants of health and the impact these have on a child’s hospital admission. This includes trying to understand the unmet needs of our patient population of children with chronic medical conditions and how we can provide better care to our patients by addressing these needs.
Clinical Interests:
Critical care management of pulmonary hypertension
Critical care management of liver failure
Research Interests:
Pulmonary hypertension
Education
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* Texas Children’s Hospital physicians’ licenses and credentials are reviewed prior to practicing at any of our facilities. Sections titled From the Doctor, Professional Organizations and Publications were provided by the physician’s office and were not verified by Texas Children’s Hospital.
Publications
Kitagawa MG, Reynolds JO, Durgan D, Rodney G, Karmouty-Quintana H, Bryan R, Pandit LM. Twik-2 -/- mouse demonstrates pulmonary vascular heterogeneity in intracellelular pathways for vasoreactivity. Physiol Rep. 2019 Jan; 7(1): e13950. PMID: 30632293.
Kitagawa MG, Reynolds JO, Wehrens XHT, Bryan RM Jr, and Pandit LM. Hemodynamic and Pathological Characterization of the TASK-1 -/- Mouse Does Not Demonstrate Pulmonary Hypertension. Frontiers in Medicine 2018 October 23: 4:177.
Melanie G Kitagawa, Nick Ettinger, Day Breen, Jennifer Erklauer, Emmanuel Chang, Honey Herce, Katherine King, Swati Naik. Transmission of West Nile Virus Through a Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant, Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society 2018 May 15;7(2):e52-e54.