Dr. Thakker named interim chief of pediatric critical care medicine

Jayesh Thakker, M.D., has been appointed interim division chief of the Division of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine for UNMC and Children’s Hospital & Medical Center.

The appointment, which was effective July 1, was announced today by John Sparks, M.D., professor and chair of the UNMC Department of Pediatrics.

“Dr. Thakker has done an exceptional job,” Dr. Sparks said.

For the past nine years, Dr. Thakker has been serving as medical director of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at Nebraska Medicine. He will continue as an associate professor of pediatrics in the UNMC College of Medicine.

As interim division chief, he will oversee the PICUs at both Nebraska Medicine and Children’s Hospital & Medical Center.

The Nebraska Medicine PICU is a 10-bed multidisciplinary unit with a major focus on caring for children who experience Level I trauma or undergo a solid organ transplant (liver, small bowel, pancreas and kidneys).

The Children’s PICU is a 19-bed multidisciplinary unit caring for critically ill medical patients in all surgical specialties, including Level II trauma. Nearly half of all admissions and patient days are cardiac patients. Earlier this year, an additional nine-bed satellite PICU was added for a total 27-bed capacity.

Dr. Thakker earned his medical degree in 1987 from Seth G.S. Medical College at the University of Bombay in Bombay, India, and did a three-year pediatrics residency at the same institution. He then came to the United States for a two-year pediatrics residency at Cook County Hospital in Chicago followed by a three-year fellowship in pediatric critical care medicine at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.

He received a master’s degree in physiology from the Medical College of Wisconsin in 1995 and is on track for receiving a health care-focused Executive MBA in 2019 from Creighton University.

From 1995-1998, Dr. Thakker worked in the PICU at Mount Sinai Hospital in Chicago, serving as medical director in 1997-1998. He moved to Omaha in 1998 to take a position as a pediatric intensivist at Children’s Hospital & Medical Center. He gained his faculty appointment with UNMC in 2009.

He replaces Mohan Mysore, M.D., who has served as division chief for the past 10 years. Dr. Mysore will assume Dr. Thakker’s previous position as medical director of the PICU at Nebraska Medicine. Dr. Mysore is a professor in the Pediatric Critical Care Division.