About the author - Steven M. Shapiro, MD, MSHA
website kernicterus.org also known as newbornjaundice.org in April 2001, was a co-founder of Parents of Infants and Children with Kernicterus (PICK), and has been on its Medical Advisory Board since its inception.
He transitioned from academic bench research to clinical research and practice in the mid 1980’s. He continued laboratory research and began to see children and young adults with kernicterus in the late 1990’s. With support from PICK and VCU he launched The Kernicterus Center and Clinic in 2001 and hosted a pilot PICK Parent’s Conference with physicians, researchers, and 22 children and their families in 2002. Over the years he has spoken and chaired meetings at medical conferences for pediatricians, child neurologists and audiologists and at parent and family meetings and support groups. Frequently, PICK board members and families participated and contributed to education for the medical community on the importance of awareness of bilirubin monitoring to prevent the occurrence of kernicterus, which their children suffer from, and which, in most cases, could have been prevented. Dr. Shapiro has presented at bilirubin conferences around the country and the world. He has conducted, directly and via mentoring and guidance, research in the USA and around the world. He has trained many physicians and researchers to do clinical and academic research. He developed a Kernicterus Tool Kit, a questionnaire which is being tested as a standardized way to predict if a child has kernicterus or a kernicterus spectrum disorder.
Dr. Shapiro has seen and evaluated approximately 300 individuals with KSDs over the last 25 years.
Dr. Shapiro is currently board-certified in Pediatrics and in Neurology with Special Qualification in Child Neurology, and has been board-certified in Neurology with Special Qualifications in Clinical Neurophysiology, and Neurology with Added Qualifications in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities. He has been a Tenured Professor, and Vice Chairman of Pediatric Neurology, and Chief of Pediatric Neurology. He obtained a Master of Science in Health Administration (MSHA) in 2009.
Dr. Steven M. Shapiro is a Pediatric (Child) Neurologist. Dr. Shapiro’s interest in neonatal neurology and ways to prevent brain damage in newborn babies was sparked during his Pediatrics Residency at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital in Cleveland Ohio and continued during his Pediatric Neurology fellowship at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh followed there by basic science research in brain neurophysiology.
He has been active in research of bilirubin neurotoxicity his entire professional career, starting at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1982, then at the Medical College of Virginia Campus of Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in Richmond, VA starting in 1988, and finally as Chief of Neurology at Children’s Mercy Hospital and Pediatric Neurology at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, and as Director of the Kernicterus Center of Excellence from 2011 through 2020. He received years of funding from the NIH (NINDS, NIDCD, and NINDS) as well as other foundations and private organizations. He launched the