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Sandra Chihyun Kim, MD

  • Associate Professor of Pediatrics
  • Co-Director, Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center, UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh

Sandra Kim, MD, a nationally recognized expert in pediatric and adolescent inflammatory bowel diseases, is the Director of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) Center at UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, a part of the Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition. She is active within the Department of Pediatrics, serving as co-chair of the Wellness Burnout Task Force and the Biorepository Core steering committee and as assistant GI fellowship director. Dr. Kim’s clinical and research interests focus on pediatric IBD, including adolescent transitioning and quality improvement in pediatric IBD, advocacy, and the impact of the gastrointestinal microbiota in IBD. Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation. She has authored numerous studies and book chapters on pediatric and adolescent IBD.

Dr. Kim has held numerous national leadership roles in her discipline including past chair of Pediatric Affairs and current chair of Government Affairs/Advocacy for the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation. In addition, she co-chairs the Clinical Practice committee and serves on the Physician Leadership committee and Strategy Council for Improve Care Now (National pediatric IBD quality improvement network). She has been active in NASPGHAN as faculty and chair for fellow and mentoring conferences. As a reflection of her dedication to her profession, Dr. Kim was awarded the Rosenthal Award in 2011 and 2018 for her leadership in patient education and advocacy and one of the 2020 “Uniting to Care and Cure” honorees by the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation. She also was the 2015 faculty inductee at the Ohio State University College of Medicine chapters of Gold Humanism Honor Society and Alpha Omega Alpha.

Professional and Scientific Society Memberships

  • American Gastroenterological Association, 2001-Ppresent
  • Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation: 2003-Present
  • North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition, 2013-Present
  • Alpha Omega Alpha: 2015-Present
  • Gold Humanism Society: 2015-Present

Education & Training

  • BS/BA, Biomedical Sciences and Psychology, University of Michigan, 1991
  • MD, Integrated Pre-Medical/Medical Program, University of Michigan, 1994
  • Residency in General Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, 1994-1997
  • Clinical Fellowship in Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, Baylor College of Medicine, 1997-2000
  • Postdoctoral Fellowship, Mucosal Immunity/Intestinal Inflammation, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Center for GI Biology and Disease, 2000-2003

Selected Publications

Michel HM, Noll RB, Siripong N, and Kim SC. 2020. Patterns of Primary, Specialty, Urgent Care, and Emergency Department Care in Children with Inflammatory Bowel Diseases. JPGN (ePub).

Prathapan KM, Ramos Rivers C, Anderson A, Koutroumpakis F, Koutroubakis IE, Babichenko D, Tan X, Tang G, Schwartz M, Proksell S, Johnston E, Hashash JG, Dunn M, Wilson A, Barrie A, Harrison J, Hartman D, Kim SC, and Binion DG. 2020. Peripheral Blood Eosinophilia and Long–Term Severity in Pediatric–Onset Inflammatory Bowel Disease. Inflamm Bowel Dis (in press)

Park KT, Ehrlich OG, Allen JI, Meadows P, Szigethy EM, Henrichsen K, Kim SC, Lawton RC, Murphy SM, Regueiro M, Rubin DT, Engel-Nitz NM, Heller CA. 2020. Cost of Inflammatory Bowel Disease: An Initiative from the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation. Inflamm Bowel Dis; 26(1): 1-10.

Mackner LM, Hatzakis E, Allen JM, Davies RH, Kim SC, Maltz RM, Bailey MT. 2019. Fecal microbiota and metabolites are distinct in a pilot study of pediatric Crohn's disease patients with higher levels of perceived stress. Psychoneuroendocrinology; 3;111. 

Denson LA, Curran M, McGovern DPB, Koltun WA, Duerr RH, Kim SC, Sartor RB, Sylvester FA, Abraham C, de Zoeten EF, Siegel CA, Burns RM, Dobes AM, Shtraizent N, Honig G, Heller CA, Hurtado-Lorenzo A, Cho JH. 2019. Challenges in research: Precision medicine. Inflamm Bowel Dis; 25 (suppl 2): S1-S39. 

Schmitz JM, Tonkonogy SL, Dogan B, Leblond A, Whitehead KJ, Kim SC, Simpson KW, Sartor RB. 2019. Murine Adherent and Invasive E. coli Induces Chronic Inflammation and Immune Responses in the Small and Large Intestines of Monoassociated IL-10-/- Mice Independent of Long Polar Fimbriae Adhesin A. Inflamm Bowel Dis; 25(25): 875-885.

Michel HK, Noll RB, Siripong N, Kim SC, and Lipstein EA. 2019. Shared decision making about starting aTNFs: A pediatric perspective. JPGN; 68(3): 339-342.

Serpico M, Maltz R, Crandall WV, Bricker J, Dotson JL, Kim SC and Boyle B. 2018. Combination therapy with thiopurines and allopurinol in children with inflammatory bowel diseases. JPGN; 67(3): 341-345.

Shaikhkhalil AK, Boyle B, Smith J, Dotson JL, Donegan A, Kim SC, Maltz RM, Crandall W. 2018. Utilizing quality improvement to increase enteral therapy in pediatric Crohn’s disease: results and outcomes. JPGN; 66(6): 909-914. 

Maltz RM, Keirsey J, Kim SC, Mackos AR, Gharaibeh RZ, Moore CC, Xu J, Bakthavatchalu V, Somogyi A, and Bailey MT. 2018. Prolonged restraint stressor exposure in outbred CD-1 mice impacts microbiota, colonic inflammation, and short chain fatty acids. PLoS One; 9; 13(5): e0196961.

Full Publication List via NIH PubMed »