Anthony Marcus Hlavacek, MD

Dr. John Melville is a child abuse pediatrician. His passion is ensuring that the very best information is available to parents, courts, and other authorities making difficult decisions about keeping children safe. Dr. Melville attended medical school at the University of California, San Diego, and completed a combined internal medicine and pediatrics residency in Akron, Ohio. After residency, Dr. Melville achieved his first &"dream job&" as a rural physician 30 miles north of the Arctic Circle in the Alaskan bush. When family concerns made continued rural life untenable, Dr. Melville moved to San Antonio, Texas for a fellowship in child abuse pediatrics.Children and their families are served best when physicians and law enforcement have accurate information about a potentially abused child's medical condition. Dr. Melville developed PhotoDoc &- a computer program that allows child abuse pediatricians to organize, analyze, and present forensic information. PhotoDoc helps physicians to find and use all the information known about a child abuse allegation, regardless of its source or format.Children and their families are also best served when physicians have ready access to the latest and best information about the science of child abuse assessment. As co-chair of the research committee of the Ray Helfer Society, Dr. Melville designed the Online Bibliography of Child Abuse Pediatrics, or OBCAP. OBCAP organizes and indexes current literature related to treating abused children. OBCAP is a closed database, so parents cannot access it directly. Dr. Melville's ambition for OBCAP is that the very best and latest information about abusive injuries will become quickly available to child abuse pediatricians everywhere.When a child may have been abused, information is critical. Missing abuse can leave children vulnerable to further abuse, injury, or even death. Mistakenly finding abuse disrupts a family and harms children by offering them unnecessary and restrictive &"protection." In the clinic, Dr. Melville takes the time to listen to everyone, document carefully, and think clearly. As a researcher, Dr. Melville develops new technologies to get the best information into the hands of decision makers to ensure the safety of children everywhere.

Dr. Ramin Eskandari grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan and received his bachelors in science in biology/neurobiology at the University of Michigan. After college Dr. Eskandari lived in Switzerland while working at a sports camp for kids. This was followed but two more years of international travel while receiving his Master's in Medical Science. He participated in research projects in artificial vision and hydrocephalus, fueling his future research interests in pediatric hydrocephalus and brain injury.Ramin Eskandari is an associate professor of neurosurgery and chief of pediatric neurosurgery at the Medical University of South Carolina. He holds adjunct positions in the Departments of Pediatrics (Child Neurology), Surgery (Plastic Surgery) and Immunology/Microbiology (Director of Pediatric Brain Injury and Hydrocephalus Research). His clinical expertise focuses on the surgical management of children with disorders of the brain and spine, minimally invasive methods for treating pediatric neurosurgical disorders, and endoscopic treatment of multiple disorders including complex hydrocephalus and brain tumors. Dr. Eskandari has always had a very fervent desire to maintain basic science research alongside clinical therapeutics. He opened the first pediatric hydrocephalus and brain jury research laboratory in South Carolina in 2014 and has maintained active research through internal, state level and philanthropic grant funding. Currently, his laboratory has invented a novel cell culture model of elevated intracranial pressure and has collaborated on a novel medical therapeutic to prevent progressive brain injury and hydrocephalus in neonates with brain hemorrhage.

Shannon D’Alton received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and a Master of Science in Nursing at The Medical University of South Carolina. She completed a post-graduate fellowship at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, focusing on neuro-oncology and pediatric hospice and palliative care. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Nursing at The Medical University of South Carolina. Mrs. D’Alton is certified by the Pediatric Nursing Certification Board and a member of the Hospice and Palliative Care Nurses Association. She specializes in the care of children with complex chronic conditions and has expertise in pediatric neurology and palliative care. Her clinical interests include recognition of the physical, social, and psychological burdens associated with chronic illness and loss. Her research interests include grief and bereavement, palliative care and understanding the impact of sibling death on surviving children and the parent-child dyad. Mrs. D’Alton currently practices perinatal palliative care as a Certified Pediatric Nurse Practitioner in the Advanced Fetal Care Center at the Medical University of South Carolina.