MUSC, Shriners Hospitals form affiliation to support burn center

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The Medical University of South Carolina and Shriners Hospitals for Children are forming an affiliation to elevate pediatric burn care and research at the MUSC Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital. This is a component of the comprehensive South Carolina Burn Center.

As a part of the affiliation, Shriners Children’s announced a $3 million grant to establish the Shriners Children’s Endowed Professorship in Pediatric Burn Care. The funds will be matched by funding from MUSC and support the only pediatric burn care center in the state, which includes a specialized pediatric burn unit. The organizations’ mutual goal is to establish cutting edge research and best-in-class pediatric burn care delivery, a news release said.

“This collaboration helps ensure that the children of South Carolina will have continued access to high-quality and comprehensive burn care,” said Dr. David J. Cole, MUSC president. “It’s a natural maturation of our work to date with Shriners and further, I am incredibly excited to see how this affiliation and resultant research will help synergize the care our top-notch team is already providing to patients and families from all over South Carolina. This is a great example of public and private entities coming together in the best interest of the citizens of our state.”

“As a South Carolina native, I am so pleased that our organizations are helping to make best-in-class pediatric burn care accessible to children and families of this state and beyond,” Kenneth G. “Kenny” Craven, imperial potentate of Shriners International and CEO of Shriners Children’s, said in the news relesae. “For 100 years, Shriners Children’s has provided hope and healing to children. Through our collaboration with MUSC, we can continue our mission of helping more kids closer to home.”

Dr. Rohit Mittal has been named the Shriners Children’s Endowed Professorship in Pediatric Burn Care at MUSC. In that role, Mittal will treat pediatric burn patients and augment the team at MUSC in their current efforts to perform innovative research that improves quality of care and life of burned children.

Mittal is a trauma surgeon who is double board-certified in general surgery and surgical critical care. Since 2019, he has served as director of the Burn Reconstruction Program at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta.                  

“The arrival of Dr. Mittal and the Shriner's collaboration represents an important milestone for the South Carolina Burn Center,” Dr. Steven Kahn, South Carolina Burn Center director and chief of burn surgery, said in the news release. “It will facilitate growth and development and allow us to provide the highest quality, patient and family centered care even beyond the borders of our state. This collaboration represents a novel paradigm in burn care with the potential to become a model for regional delivery of care around the United States.”