UF names division chief of pediatric urology

Kirstan K. Meldrum, M.D., has joined the University of Florida College of Medicine department of urology as chief of pediatric urology.

A board-certified pediatric urologist, Meldrum will provide the community with comprehensive pediatric urological care, a medical specialty more commonly found in large cities and previously unavailable in north central Florida.

Pediatric urologists care for patients with abnormalities of the genitalia and urinary tract, treating conditions such as urinary reflux, bladder abnormalities, obstruction of the urinary tract, undescended testicles, penile and urethral abnormalities and ambiguous genitalia.

Her arrival expands UF’s nationally recognized urology program, which is ranked 23rd in the nation and No. 1 in Florida by the U.S. News & World Report, according to Johannes Vieweg, M.D., professor and chairman of the department of urology in the College of Medicine,

“Dr. Meldrum brings enthusiasm for her work and a breadth of surgical expertise that will provide our community and northern Florida with much-need comprehensive pediatric urological care,” Vieweg said. “She embodies the multidisciplinary vision of our program as a clinician, surgeon and researcher.”

Prior to her arrival at UF, Meldrum spent 10 years at Riley Children’s Hospital in Indiana, where she maintained a busy clinical practice and served as the director of pediatric urological research. Riley Hospital has one of the highest ranked pediatric urology programs in the country and is a nationally recognized center of excellence for complex genitourinary reconstruction in conditions such as spina bifida and disorders of sexual differentiation.

Meldrum completed her undergraduate degree at Smith College, her medical degree with honors at the University of Colorado, her urology residency training at Indiana University and her pediatric urology fellowship training at John Hopkins University.

“Since I’ve been here, I have been overwhelmed with the amount of support I have received from Dr. Vieweg and the University of Florida, and have been truly amazed at the excitement that exists out in the community over having a pediatric urologist back at Shands,” Meldrum said. “I went into pediatric urology because I love taking care of children and having the ability to make a meaningful contribution to their lives. It is incredibly rewarding to have the opportunity to practice in a community that has been in such great need of pediatric urological care.”

Meldrum’s most memorable case involves a little girl who was born with nonfunctioning kidneys, an absent bladder, a blind-ending vagina and abnormal genitalia. Doctors didn’t expect her to survive to term, but she was born healthy aside from her kidney disease and urological issues. After massive reconstructive surgery to create a bladder, vagina and normalize her genitalia, she is growing up to be a healthy girl and is now a candidate for kidney transplant, Meldrum said.

Meldrum moved from Indiana to Florida with her husband, Daniel Meldrum, M.D., chief of cardiothoracic surgery in the UF College of Medicine department of surgery’s division of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery.

Meldrum’s immediate goals for the division of pediatric urology are to provide comprehensive pediatric urological care to Gainesville and the surrounding area, but ultimately, she would like to make UF&Shands a major referral center in the state of Florida for fetal anomalies and complex genitourinary reconstructive cases.

“I love Gainesville and am very excited to have the opportunity to rebuild the pediatric urology program at the University of Florida,” Meldrum said. “There is a great history here, and it is an honor to follow in the footsteps of Dr. Dixon Walker, the former chief and one of the true pioneers in pediatric urology.”