SPRINGFIELD, IL - The Illinois Department of Public Health and Illinois Emergency Medical Services for Children program today announced three individuals as recipients of the 2003 Ron W. Lee, MD., Excellence in Pediatric Care Awards.

The awards are given in recognition of excellence to those dedicated to pediatric emergency care and childhood injury prevention initiatives. Individuals or organizations can be nominated for one of the following three award categories – Lifetime Achievement, Clinical Excellence and Community Service. Nominations for the awards were received from throughout the state.

Those selected for this year's awards are:

Lifetime Achievement – Barbara Velsor-Friedrich, associate professor, Niehoff School Of Nursing, Loyola University Chicago, Chicago.

Clinical Excellence – Barbara Weintraub, clinical nurse specialist, Emergency Department, Northwest Community Hospital, Arlington Heights.

Community Service – Commander Joseph "Rocky" J. Roccasalva, coordinator, Community Services and Public Affairs, Chicago Fire Department, Chicago.

Velsor-Friedrich has been a clinician, educator and researcher in the area of pediatrics for more than 20 years. A nationally recognized expert in the management of asthma in children, Velsor-Friedrich initiated in 1995 an asthma education program with African-American students, which resulted in a 1998 grant award from the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) to continue her work in asthma education with minority students. Her research has led to the development of a healthcare program that assesses asthma treatment outcomes in order to decrease the incidence of a student's asthma attacks. She is currently working on a program that supports adolescents in making a successful transition from parent-managed care to self-care.

Several years ago, Weintraub, a nurse for more than 20 years, recognized that healthcare and other service personnel who came in contact with children needed to be more prepared in identifying children at risk for abuse and neglect. Subsequently, she co-authored a child maltreatment training module which has been utilized to educate hundreds of firefighters, paramedics, law enforcement personnel, teachers and school nurses throughout Illinois. This training module received the statewide Prevent Child Abuse-Illinois Excellence Award in 2002. In addition, Weintraub serves on the Department's State Pediatric Bioterrorism Committee, which is responsible for developing educational resources and guidelines for healthcare professionals throughout Illinois who will be called to respond to and to manage pediatric patients in the event of a bioterrorism event.

Roccasalva, who first joined the Chicago Fire Department as a fire paramedic in 1990, became a member of the fire department's Division of Public Education in 1996. This role – more – add 2 allowed him to share his knowledge with others, especially young children. In 2001, he was appointed coordinator of Community Services and Public Affairs and worked to secure grant funding to develop the "Survive Alive" project, which was designed to educate children and their families on fire safety, health safety and appropriate utilization of the 911 system. This program soon led to the development of a children's safety museum, which is currently housed at Navy Pier and has been visited by more than 250,000 children.

The Ron W. Lee, M.D., Excellence in Pediatric Care Awards are presented annually each May in recognition of Emergency Medical Services Week. Dr. Lee was the director of emergency medicine at Loyola University Medical Center and was instrumental in establishing and fostering the EMSC program in Illinois. He passed away in 1998.

The Illinois EMSC program, a collaborative effort of the Department and Loyola University Medical Center of Chicago, was established in 1994 to ensure that the emergency medical care needs of children are adequately addressed.