Thomas G. Keens, professor of pediatrics, physiology and biophysics at the Keck School of Medicine, was elected to a three-year term on the board of directors of the American Board of Pediatrics at its annual meeting last month in Quebec City.

Keens, who is also a pediatric pulmonologist at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, is currently finishing a six-year term on the American Board of Pediatrics sub-board for pediatric pulmonology, where he has served as chair for the past two years. The sub-board chairs of the pediatric subspecialties meet annually to elect their representatives to the board of directors of the American Board of Pediatrics, and Keens was elected to represent the interests of subspecialties in pediatrics for the next three years.

He has been involved in the education of medical students, pediatric residents and pediatric subspecialty fellows during his 31-year career at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles. Keens is vice chair of the Childrens Hospital Institute for Medical Education (CHIME), and he focuses his efforts on the education of pediatric subspecialty fellows, who will become the future academic leaders of pediatric medicine.

Keens directs the CHIME core curriculum on scholarship skills, which trains all Childrens Hospital Los Angeles fellows in research methodology and proficiency in teaching.

Keens, who completed a fellowship in medical education at USC in 2007, is the program director for the Pediatric Pulmonology Fellowship Training Program at Childrens Hospital. He teaches a number of courses in biological and biomedical sciences at USC to medical students, pharmacy students and graduate students.

Keens' primary areas of research interest are sudden infant death syndrome, disorders of ventilatory control and respiratory physiology in children.

The American Board of Pediatrics, founded in 1933, was established to set standards of training and knowledge for physicians who treat infants, children and adolescents. The purpose is to assure the public that those physicians who are board certified as pediatricians have all met the same high standards of training and knowledge.

"Over the years, the challenges have changed," Keens said. "Not only are there now a number of pediatric subspecialties, such as neonatology, pediatric pulmonology and pediatric cardiology, but the extent of medical knowledge has exploded so that pediatricians must engage in life-long learning in order to remain competent."