Pamela J. Oatis, MD, has been a Pediatrician for almost 30 years. She has served inner city families through the St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center Family Care Center in Toledo, Ohio for 25 years. She currently heads the Mercy Family Care Team which provides multiple services to children and families including connecting families to a medical provider to care for them and their child, palliative care for those who are complexly ill, and family counseling utilizing the principles of Hand in Hand. She also has served as the Medical Specialist for Ethics from 1990 to the present and chairs the Adult Institutional Review Board.
Under Dr. Oatis’ leadership, Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center, in partnership with the Ohio Department of Health, Bureau for Children with Medical Handicaps (BCMH) and Family Voices of Ohio was awarded a federal Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) three-year grant for the statewide implementation of services for Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs (CSHCN). Under this grant, she trained over 700 Public Health Nurses, Early Intervention workers, and Head Start Teachers in Listening with Connection and other Listening Tools, to improve the quality of support they can offer to children with special health needs and their families. The trainings have been well received and there is discussion at the state about continuation of the trainings at the end of the grant funding. Read more.
Dr. Oatis was named the American Academy of Pediatrics Ohio Chapter Pediatrician of the Year in 2011-12, and the March of Dimes Physician of the Year in 2013. She has won numerous awards for research excellence, and was chosen to participate in the Harvard Program in Palliative Care Education and Practice at Harvard University in 2008/9.
Dr. Oatis is a Certified Hand in Hand Instructor, and raised her two grown sons using this parenting approach. She is married, lives in Dundee, Michigan, and is a world-ranked senior triathlete.