Winnie Whitaker, MD, FAAP
Medical Director
Medical School: University of Texas Health Science Center
Residency: Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center
Clinical Topics: Pediatrics, Trauma and Critical Care
Winnie T. Whitaker, MD, FAAP, is the Medical Director of the Emergency Department at Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas in Austin, TX. She also serves as Division Director for Pediatric Emergency Medicine (PEM) in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School, where she is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics. Additionally, Dr. Whitaker is the Medical Director for Camp Longhorn, a residential summer camp in Burnet, TX, and contributes her expertise as an expert panelist for the Texas Medical Board. She holds board certifications in both General Pediatrics and Pediatric Emergency Medicine.
Dr. Whitaker is a member of multiple committees at USACS, Dell Children’s Medical Center, and Dell Medical School. She has served on the USACS National Clinical Governance Board since 2022. Her roles at Dell Children’s include chairing the Medical Peer Evaluation Committee, serving as vice-chair of the Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee, and sitting on the Pediatric Leadership Board. She is also involved with the Surgical Peer Evaluation and Process Improvement Committees, co-chairs a committee reviewing unplanned transfers to higher levels of care, and is a member of the planning committee for the hospital-wide interdisciplinary case conference series. Dr. Whitaker is the chair-elect for the Dell Medical School Faculty Senate.
Dr. Whitaker has a keen interest in education. She provides bedside teaching for PEM fellows, medical students, and residents across pediatric, emergency medicine, family medicine, and transitional year programs. She serves as a primary mentor for PEM fellows, participates in their scholarly oversight and clinical competency committees, directs the PEM board review curriculum, and leads the camp medicine electives for both PEM fellows and fourth-year medical students. Her recognitions include the Dell Medical School GME Clinical Learning Environment Award and the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center Division Teaching Award.
Dr. Whitaker has secured grants from the Dell Children’s Trust to purchase a portable retinal camera system and tonometer as well as adaptive tools to be used for special needs patients. She has authored numerous book chapters, online materials, posters, and presentations and has served as a peer reviewer. She has spoken at local, regional, and national conferences on promoting women in medicine, wellness and burnout, cybersecurity, and a wide range of pediatric emergency medicine topics, including head injuries, abdominal pain, seizures, altered mental status, non-accidental trauma, genitourinary disorders, and rashes. Dr. Whitaker has been named a Top Doctor by Austin Monthly Magazine multiple times.
Dr. Whitaker was a Benjamin Franklin Scholar and graduated with honors from the University of Pennsylvania. She earned her medical degree from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, and completed both her pediatric residency and pediatric emergency medicine fellowship at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Before joining Dell Children’s Medical Center in 2008, she served on the faculty at Cincinnati Children’s.
- Review the epidemiology of pediatric head injury
- Understand determinants of severity in pediatric head injury
- Discuss clinical cases of pediatric patients and likelihood of clinically significant traumatic brain injury
- Formulate a systematic approach to rash evaluation and documentation
- Recognize common and high-risk pediatric rashes
- Initiate appropriate management and disposition
- Understand pertinent history and physical exam factors when evaluating abdominal pain in children
- Know common causes of acute abdominal pain in children and how to manage them
- Be familiar with the appropriate imaging modalities used to evaluate abdominal pain in children
- Define and characterize altered levels of consciousness
- Review the differential diagnosis of altered mental status in children
- Understand the general approach to evaluation of an altered pediatric patient
- Review some common presentations of children with altered mental status
- Know the factors that place a child at higher risk for non-accidental trauma
- Understand conditions that may mimic abuse
- Recognize red flags in a patient’s history or physical exam that raise suspicion for abuse
- Review the evaluation and management of pediatric non-accidental trauma
- Understand common etiologies for pediatric seizures
- Identify conditions that may mimic seizures
- Discuss common pediatric seizure presentations and their evaluation and management
- Review management options for status epilepticus in children
- Review the important aspects of history and physical examination of the eye
- Discuss several types of ocular injuries
- Know when emergent consultation with an ophthalmologist is warranted
- Know normal newborn infant intake, weight changes, and common feeding issues
- Describe failure to thrive in infants and discuss its differential diagnosis, evaluation, and management
- Define diagnostic criteria for high- and low-risk Brief Resolved Unexplained Events and discuss appropriate evaluation and management
- Describe key anatomic, physiologic, and developmental differences between pediatric and adult patients
- Become familiar with basic pediatric conditions presenting to the emergency department
- Demonstrate awareness of communication and comfort strategies tailored to pediatric patients
- Understand general categories of pediatric abdominal surgical emergencies
- Review relevant historical and physical exam features of pediatric abdominal surgical emergencies
- Discuss common abdominal surgical emergencies seen in children and their ED evaluation and management
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