ABA Honors Tina Palmieri, M.D., Assistant Chief of Burns at Shriners Hospitals for Children

Dr. Tina Palmieri Honored by American Burn Association for Professional Leadership and Collaborative Research Shriners Hospital Doctor Recognized for Efforts to Forge New Alliances
in Disaster Management and Burn Prevention

(SACRAMENTO, CALIF.) – Tina Palmieri, M.D., Assistant Chief of Burns at Shriners Hospitals for Children – Northern California, will be honored for her efforts to improve patient outcomes through collaborative care and research at the 45th Annual Meeting of the American Burn Association taking place in Palm Springs, Calif., April 23 - 26, 2013.

“Being president of the ABA is an honor and privilege,” said Dr. Palmieri, who is completing her one-year term as president of the professional society of more than 3,500 burn care professionals this month. “Over the past year, the ABA has helped build bridges that will leave a lasting impact on the quality of burn care, and I am thrilled with the example set by my own Shriners Hospitals for Children network,” she added, noting that 40 of the studies to be presented at the conference were submitted by professionals at Shriners Hospitals for Children.
According to statistics published by the ABA, every two minutes a hospital in the United States cares for a least one burn-related injury, accounting for more than 450,000 burn-related injuries in a year.

Dr. Palmieri has expertise in treating both pediatric and adult burn injuries. As Assistant Chief of Burns at the Northern California Shriners Hospital, Dr. Palmieri is at the helm of California’s busiest pediatric burn center. She also is Professor and Director of the Firefighters Burn Center at the University of California, Davis, where she treats adults with burn injuries and has been honored with two prestigious awards: 1) the Dean’s Award of Excellence in Clinical Care in 2009; and 2) the Women’s Leadership Development Program Award in 2002.
During her tenure as ABA president, Dr. Palmieri worked to foster greater collaboration among health care professionals. Her efforts to forge new alliances resulted in a partnership conference that brought together representatives of the International Association of Fire Fighters, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the National Fire Protection Agency, health care professionals, hospital administrators and burn survivors. Dr. Palmieri’s collaborative approach also resulted in disaster planning sessions that may form the foundation for a national burn disaster response strategy.r. Palmieri has held leadership roles in the ABA for many years. In 2012, she led the presentation on the Anatomy of
the National Burn Repository, which with more than 300,000 records is one of the largest collections of data on burn outcomes in the world. Dr. Palmieri also chaired the Program, Education and Research Committees and was on the Steering Committee for the ABA Multicenter Trials Group, which united burn researchers to perform meaningful outcomes research.

“The main goal of my research is to improve the quality of life of people who have sustained burn injury,” says Dr. Palmieri. “Survival alone shouldn’t be our goal anymore. It should be to give people the best possible quality of life after a burn injury,” she said.
“The future of the ABA – and of expert burn care in general – rests in strategic partnerships and a commitment to innovative scholarship. These are values we embrace every day at the ABA and at Shriners Hospitals for Children,” said Dr. Palmieri.

The ABA is dedicated to improving the lives of everyone affected by burn injury through patient care, education, research and advocacy. ABA membership includes burn care physicians, nurses, physical and occupational therapists, social workers, psychologists, rehabilitation experts, researchers, firefighters, burn survivors and others with an interest in the field of burn care.

A leader in pediatric burn care and research, Shriners Hospitals for Children is devoted to transforming the lives of children through excellence in treatment, teaching and research. Located at 2425 Stockton Boulevard in Sacramento, Shriners Hospitals for Children – Northern California provides care to children with orthopaedic conditions, spinal cord injuries, burns, cleft lip and scars from any cause. There are no barriers to care as admission is based on age and diagnosis.
For further information call (916) 453-2000 or go online to www.shrinershospitalsforchildren.org.