The families of pediatric patients have long been able to rely on expert care from their physicians and their teams at UTMB. Now, with the newest addition to UTMB’s Pediatric Surgery team, even more young patients and their families will have this
assurance for their surgery needs.
Bindi Naik-Mathuria, MD, MPH, FACS, FAAP, joined UTMB this fall as Chief of the Division of Pediatric Surgery. She joins UTMB from Texas Children’s Hospital, where she spent 10 years, and is fellowship trained in Pediatric Surgery and Pediatric
Critical Care.
Her arrival presents an opportunity to significantly expand pediatric surgery services at UTMB. She joins Dr. Ravi Radhakrishnan as a second general pediatric surgeon, while surgeons across other UTMB departments and surgical divisions, like ENT, Urology,
Orthopedics, and Neurosurgery, also treat pediatric patients as part of their specialty care.
“(We) are experienced pediatric surgeons… and we really can handle all things pediatric surgery. We are hoping to keep as many patients as we can and not have to transfer to the Medical Center,” Dr. Naik- Mathuria says.
Her scope of services includes surgeries for a wide range of pediatric health conditions: among them, hernias, circumcisions, inflammatory bowel disease, chest wall deformities, cancer, thoracic problems, lung masses, cysts, congenital problems, and trauma.
She notes the increase in pediatric GI services at UTMB and anticipates working with this team regularly to care for their patients.
She performs surgeries at the Clear Lake and Galveston campuses, which are equipped to support most pediatric surgeries. The only difference, she says, is there is not a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) in Clear Lake, which is needed for some complex
procedures that require intensive care afterward. However, she is hopeful that Clear Lake will have a PICU soon.
“Parents and primary care providers can still be sure that they’re going to get great quality of care closer to home,” she says.
In addition to helping more pediatric patients who need surgery receive their care at UTMB, Dr. Naik- Mathuria also hopes she can be a resource for education, both for parents and pediatricians.
She says telemedicine could provide an opportunity for this, as surgeons sometimes field calls from parents for situations that do not have to be seen in person. Pediatric primary care providers also sometimes refer patients to a surgeon when they aren’t
sure how to manage a particular condition.
“I think it would help with patient satisfaction, because they could avoid that unnecessary travel,” she says.
In the coming months, Dr. Naik-Mathuria aims to continue expanding pediatric surgery services. Between her and Dr. Radhakrishnan, there is currently coverage at Clear Lake three days a week, and she is hoping to increase that to five days a week once
more surgeons are onboarded.
In the long term, she sees the possibility of collaboration with other hospitals along the Texas Gulf Coast to provide pediatric surgical services to more patients throughout the state. And she is interested in generating more research and building a
strong all-around program to establish UTMB as a provider of choice for pediatric surgery.
“We want to provide the top, cutting-edge, innovative surgical care that people expect from a major academic center,” she says.