Endocrinology

Keeping hormones in check

In Dalhousie’s Division of Endocrinology, you’ll find a range of activities focusing on helping children with diabetes, obesity, osteoporosis and other diseases relating to endocrinology.

Clinical activities

Our clinical work is well supported by an excellent endocrine and diabetes team made up of nurses, a dietician, a social worker and administrative assistants. Together, we have the expertise required to support our families by providing:

• comprehensive diagnoses
• treatment
• education
• 24-hour support to the families followed in the clinic

Since close to 50 per cent of our patients are on insulin pumps, we offer an insulin pump program for children of all ages with Type 1 diabetes. We also provide group education workshops for patients and families with diabetes—an offering that helps us meet our goal of providing families with the tools they need to manage their own diabetes. We focus on helping to equip youth with the skills they need to transition successfully to adult care and collaborate with our adult endocrinology colleagues to provide diabetes transition clinics.

Our endocrinology service is an active outpatient service providing a wide variety of services including:

• long-term care of malignancy survivors
• the supervision of Maritime patients with growth hormone deficiency
• support of the neonatal TSH screening program
• consultations regarding bone health in children and teens
• endocrine care for transgender youth

Teaching activities

Undergraduate training: All of our division members actively participate in undergraduate medical education in:

• Metabolism 1
• an ongoing lecture series for Med 3 related to diabetes and growth
• as preceptors for Med 2 students in Pediatric Clinical Skills

Our endocrine service provides a popular elective experience for both Dalhousie and visiting students.

Residency training: We participate in postgraduate education for:

• pediatric residents
• adult endocrinology residents
• reproductive endocrinology residents
• the Academic Skills Course for pediatric and obstetrics/gynecology residents

Not only do our members lead various sessions within the academic half-day for the pediatric residents, they’re also involved in the regular didactic sessions for adult endocrinology residents. We also hold weekly pediatric endocrinology journal clubs for residents and staff.

Research interests

In collaboration with local and national organizations, we’re able to work on a variety of research areas, but our most active area is in diabetes prevention and management. International collaborations include the TRIALNET diabetes prevention studies. National collaborations include the iCARE study of youth with type 2 diabetes and the Tran Youth Can! Research team.

Advocacy and outreach  

Our group provides consultative support to the Diabetes Program of Nova Scotia and the Nova Scotia Insulin Pump Program. We are part of the national SunLife Child and Youth Type 2 Diabetes Prevention Initiative and the national working group for Diabetes at School, a Canadian Paediatric Society led initiative to support optimal management of diabetes in schools.

Our people

We’re proud of our innovative team. Members include:

• Dr. Elizabeth Cummings, MD FRCPC
• Dr. Arati Mokashi, MD FRCPC (Division Head)

• Dr. Teresa Pinto, MD FRCPC
• Dr. Carly Baxter, MD FRCPC

Contact info

Phone: 902-470-6955 and 902-470-8707

Address:
Division of Pediatric Endocrinology

PO Box 9700

5850/5980 University Avenue

Halifax, NS  B3K 6R8