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Christopher Cannavino, MD

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CHRISTOPHER R. CANNAVINO, MD
FELLOWSHIP DIRECTOR
PROFESSOR OF CLINICAL PEDIATRICS

Education

  • Undergraduate: University of California at Los Angeles, B.S. Psychobiology
  • Medical School: University of California at San Diego School of Medicine, M.D.
  • Residency: University of California at San Diego, Pediatric Residency Program
  • Chief Residency: University of California at San Diego, Pediatric Residency Program
Fellowships:
  • University of California at San Diego, Pediatric Infectious Diseases
  • Rady Children’s Hospital San Diego, Pediatric Hospital Medicine
Leadership Roles:
  • Director, UCSD Pediatric Infectious Disease Fellowship Program
  • Associate Director, UCSD Pediatric Residency Program
  • Director, Pediatrics Clerkship and Pediatric Medical Student Education, UCSD School of Medicine
  • Director, Master Clinician Program, UCSD School of Medicine
  • Director, Center for Mentorship in Medicine, UCSD Sanford Institute of Empathy & Compassion
Awards
  • UCSD Pediatric Residency Program Teaching Award: Fellow of the Year, 2007-2008
  • UCSD Pediatric Residency Program Teaching Award: Attending of the Year, 2007-2008
  • UCSD Pediatric Residency Program Teaching Award: Attending of the Year, 2010
  • National Center of Leadership in Academic Medicine, UCSD School of Medicine, 2010-2011
  • Master Clinician, UCSD School of Medicine, 2016-Present
  • Physician Award of Excellence: Career Excellence in Teaching Award, Rady Children’s Hospital San Diego, 2015-2016
  • 2018  Physician Development Award, Rady Children’s Hospital San Diego
  • Endowed Directorship, Center for Mentorship in Medicine, Sanford Institute for Empathy and Compassion, 2019-Present
  • Distinguished Teaching Award, UCSD Academic Senate, Campus-Wide Saltman Distinguished Teaching Award for Non-Senate Faculty Member, 2020-2021
  • Kaiser “Excellence in Teaching” Award, UCSD School of Medicine, 2020-2021
  • UCSD Department of Pediatrics Teaching Award: “Excellence in Curriculum Development and Education Innovation Award”, 2023-24
Dr. Cannavino’s clinical and translational research interests focus on two areas: (1) clinical treatment algorithms and (2) anti-infective agent development. He is the principle investigator or co-PI on clinical research projects involving the development of clinical decision rules for a variety of infections in the pediatric population. He is also involved in studies examining the utility of novel rapid diagnostic testing methods for infections, using cell-free pathogen next generation sequencing technology. He is involved in the development of antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal agents; with phase I, II and III clinical studies. Specifically, he is the PI or sub-investigator for a number of studies examining the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and efficacy of antiinfectives in the pediatric population. He also serves on advisory boards and is involved in the design of such studies.
 
Dr. Cannavino's educational research interest involves the development and implementation of novel delivery methods for medical education.  Among his many educational innovations, he designed and implemented the Master Clinician Program at the UCSD School of Medicine.  He holds numerous leadership positions at the Medical School, Residency, Fellowship, and Department levels at UCSD and is the endowed Director for the Center for Mentorship in Medicine at the Sanford Institute.
  1. Suzuki, Wolf, Akiyama, Horstman, Grant, Cannavino, Bing. Effect of Inhibitors of Inducible Form of Nitric Oxide Synthase in Infarcted Heart Muscle. Proceedings of the Association of American Physicians. 1996 March;108(2):173-178.
  2. Cannavino CR, Abrams J, Palinkas LA, Saglimbeni A, Bracker MD. The Efficacy of Transdermal Ketoprofen for Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness. Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine. 2003 July;13(4):200-208.
  3. Nigrovic LE, Kuppermann N, Macias CG, Cannavino CR, Moro-Sutherland D, Schremmer R, Schwab S, Agarwal D, Mansour KM, Bennett J, Katsogridakis Y, Mohseni M, Bulloch B, Steele D, Kaplan R, Herman M, Bandyopadyay S, Dayan P, Troung U, Wang V, Bonsu B, Chapman J, Malley R. Multi-center Validation and Refinement of a Clinical Decision Rule for Identifying Children with Cerebrospinal Fluid Pleocytosis at Low Risk of Bacterial Meningitis. JAMA. 2007 January 3;297(1):52-60.
  4. Nigrovic L, Kuppermann N, Malley R., for the Bacterial Meningitis Study Group of the Pediatric Emergency Medicine Collaborative Research Committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Children with Bacterial Meningitis Presenting to the Emergency Department during the Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine Era. Academic Emergency Medicine. 2008; 15:1-7. Acknowledged Contributor and Investigator.
  5. Nigrovic L, Malley R, Macias CG, Kanegaye JT, Moro-Sutherland DM, Schremmer RD, Schwab CH, Agrawal D, Mansour KM, Bennett JE, Katsogridakis YL, Mohseni MM, Bulloch B, Steele DW, Kaplan RL, Herman MI, Bandyopadhyay S, Dayan P, MD, Truong UT, Wang VJ, Bonsu BK, Chapman JL, Kuppermann N, for the American Academy of Pediatrics, Pediatric Emergency Medicine Collaborative Research Committee. Effect of Antibiotic Pretreatment on Cerebrospinal Fluid Profiles of Children with Bacterial Meningitis. Pediatrics. 2008 October; 122(4):726-30. Acknowledged Contributor and Investigator. *Collaborator
  6. Kanegaye J, Nigrovic L, Malley R, Cannavino C, Schwab SH, Bennett JE, Mohseni MM, Wang VJ, Katsogridakis YL, Herman MI, Kuppermann N, for the American Academy of Pediatrics, Pediatric Emergency Medicine Collaborative Research Committee. Diagnostic Value of Immature Neutrophils (Bands) in the Cerebrospinal Fluid of Children with Pleocytosis. Pediatrics. 2009 Jun;123(6):e967-71.
  7. Bratincsak A, El-Said H, Bradley J, Shayan K, Grossfeld P, Cannavino C. Fulminant Myocarditis Associated with Pandemic H1N1 Influenza A Virus in Children. Journal of the American College of Cardiology. 2010 Mar 2;55(9):928-9.
  8. Bradley J, Cannavino C, Franzon D and Duthie S. Chapter 94: Bacterial Infection, Antimicrobial Use, and Antibiotic-Resistant Organisms in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. In: Pediatric Critical Care, Fuhrman and Zimmerman eds. Elsevier Press, 1315-1324, 4th edition, 2011.
  9. Tewhey R, Cannavino CR*, Leake JA, Vikas Bansal, Eric J Topol, Ali Torkamani, John S Bradley and Nicholas J Schork. Genetic Structure of Community Acquired Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococus aureus USA300. BMC Genomics. 2012 Sep25;13:508 *Co-First Author
  10. Arnold J, Cannavino C, Ross M, Westley B, Miller TC, Riffenburgh RH, Bradley J. Acute Bacterial Osteoarticular Infections: Eight Year Analysis of C-Reactive Protein for Oral Step-Down. Pediatrics. 2012 Oct;130(4):e821-8
  11. Cannavino C. Chapter 17: Diagnosis and Treatment of Atypical Pneumonia and Community-Acquired Pneumonia in Pediatrics. In: Curbside Consults in Pediatric Infectious Diseases: 49 Clinical Questions, AL Myers ed. SLACK Inc. 2012.n
  12. Cannavino C. Chapter 18: Diagnosis and Treatment of Atypical Pneumonia and Community-Acquired Pneumonia in Pediatrics. In: Curbside Consults in Pediatric Infectious Diseases: 49 Clinical Questions, AL Myers ed. SLACK Inc. 2012.
  13. Cannavino C. Chapter 37: Diagnosis and Treatment of Atypical Pneumonia and Community-Acquired Pneumonia in Pediatrics. In: Curbside Consults in Pediatric Infectious Diseases: 49 Clinical Questions, AL Myers ed. SLACK Inc. 2012.
  14. Cannavino C. Chapter 38: Diagnosis and Treatment of Atypical Pneumonia and Community-Acquired Pneumonia in Pediatrics. In: Curbside Consults in Pediatric Infectious Diseases: 49 Clinical Questions, AL Myers ed. SLACK Inc. 2012.
  15. Harvey H, Shellington D, Duthie S, Bush R, Peterson B, Cannavino C, Hilfiker M. Infectious Complications After Open, Depressed Skull Fractures Do Not Vary with Choice of Antibiotic Prophylaxis Regimen. Surgical Infections. 2015 April;16(S1):S33-4.
  16. Cannavino CR, Castaneda-Ruiz B, Redmond R, Go O, Cirillo I, Barauskas V, Senatorova F, Emeryk A, Bradley JS. Safety and Tolerability of Doripenem in Hospitalized Children With Complicated Intra-Abdominal Infection, Complicated Urinary Tract Infections and Pneumonia. Pediatr Infect Dis J. 2015 Nov;34(11):1264-7
  17. Basnett A, Nguyen TA, Cannavino C, Krakowski AC. Ablative fractional laser resurfacing with topical paromomycin as adjunctive treatment for a recalcitrant cutaneous leishmaniasis wound. Lasers Surg Med. 2015 Dec;47(10)788-91
  18. Shah NS, Greenberg JA, McNulty MC, Gregg KS, Riddell J, Mangino JE, Weber DM, Herbert CL, Marzec NS, Barron MA, Chaparro-Rojas F, Restrepo A, Hemmige V, Prasidthrathsink K, Cobb S, Herwaldt L, Raabe V, Cannavino CR, Hines AG, Bares SH, Antiporta PB, Scardina T, Patel U, Reid G, Mohazabnia P, Kachhdiya S, Le BM, Park CJ, Ostrowsky B, Robicsek A, Smith BA, Schied J, Bhatti MM, Mayer S, Sikka M, Murphy-Aguilu I, Patwari P, Abeles SR, Torriani FJ, Abbas Z, Toya S, Doktor K, Chakrabarti A, Doblecki-Lewis S, Looney DJ, David MZ. Severe Influenza in 33 US Hospitals. 2013-2014: Complications and Risk Factors for Death in 507 Patients. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2015 Nov;36(11)1251-60.
  19. Shah NS, Greenberg JA, McNulty MC, Gregg KS, Riddell J, Mangino JE, Weber DM, Herbert CL, Marzec NS, Barron MA, Chaparro-Rojas F, Restrepo A, Hemmige V, Prasidthrathsink K, Cobb S, Herwaldt L, Raabe V, Cannavino CR, Hines AG, Bares SH, Antiporta PB, Scardina T, Patel U, Reid G, Mohazabnia P, Kachhdiya S, Le BM, Park CJ, Ostrowsky B, Robicsek A, Smith BA, Schied J, Bhatti MM, Mayer S, Sikka M, Murphy-Aguilu I, Patwari P, Abeles SR, Torriani FJ, Abbas Z, Toya S, Doktor K, Chakrabarti A, Doblecki-Lewis S, Looney DJ, David MZ. Bacterial and Viral Co-infections Complicating Severe Influenza: Incidence and Impact Among 507 US Patients, 2013-14. J Clin Virol. 2016 Jul;80:12-19.
  20. Cannavino CR, Nemeth A, Korcozowski B, Bradley JS, O’Neal T, Jandourek A, Friedland HD, Kaplan SL. A Randomized, Prospective Study of Pediatric Patients with Community-Acquired Pneumonia Treated with Ceftaroline Versus Ceftriaxone. Pediatr Infect Dis J. 2016 Jul;35(7):752-9.
  21. Blummer JL, Ghonghadze T, Cannavino CR, O’Neal T, Jandourek A, Friedland HD, Bradley JS. A Multicenter, Randomized, Observer-blinded, Active-controlled Study Evaluating the Safety and Effectiveness of Ceftaroline Compared with Ceftriaxone Plus Vancomycin in Pediatric Patients With Complicated Community-acquired Bacterial Pneumonia. Pediatr Infect Dis J. 2016 Jul;35(7):760-6.
  22. Cannavino CR, Mendes RE, Sader HS, Farrell DJ, Critchley IA, Biek D, Le J, Skochko SM, Jones RN, Bradley JS. Evolution of Ceftaroline-Resistant MRSA in a Child with Cystic Fibrosis Following Repeated Antibiotic Exposure. Pediatr Infect Dis J. 2016 Jul;35(7):813-5.
  23. Farnaes L, Schiff D, McElroy AK, Coufal NG, Crawford JR, Cannavino CR. Encephalitis and Thalamic Injury From Neuroinvasive West Nile Virus in Children on Treatment for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. Pediatr Neurol. 2018 Mar;80:84-87.