Vanessa Curtis, MD

Contact Information: 

Office: 2024 BT
Phone: 356-4443
Faculty Profile

Brief description of current research:

Dr. Curtis is the Director of the Cardio-Metabolic Clinic at the University of Iowa, which is a multidisciplinary clinic established to treat pediatric patients with obesity and its comorbidities, particularly insulin resistance leading to Type 2 diabetes mellitus and dyslipidemia.  She serves as the pediatric medical advisor for the UI Adolescent Surgery Program, identifying candidates from the Cardio-metabolic Clinic that may benefit from bariatric surgery and prepare them.  Dr. Curtis’s scholarly interests relate to clinical care of patients with obesity and its sequelae, including evaluation behavioral interventions for children with obesity.  She currently collaborates with Dr. Sukirth Ganesan, DDS, on a project evaluating the oral microbiome in adolescents with obesity how it correlates with components of the metabolic syndrome.

3 most influential diabetes/obesity/metabolism publications:

  • Pinnaro C, Christensen GE, Curtis V. Modeling Ketogenesis for Use in Pediatric Diabetes Simulation. J Diabetes Sci Technol. 2021 Mar;15(2):303-308. doi: 10.1177/1932296819882058. Epub 2019 Oct 14. PMID: 31608650; PMCID: PMC8256079.
  • Ada Reyes, DDS; Ahmed Sidahmed; Vanessa Curtis, MD; Sukirth Ganesan, BDS PhD. Childhood obesity and MetS are associated with Oral Microbial Dysbiosis. Horm Res Paediatr 2021;94(suppl 2):1-203
  • Curtis VA, Allen DB. Male Pubertal Timing-Boys Will Be Men, but When? JAMA Pediatr. 2019 Sep 1;173(9):819-820. doi: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2019.2306. PMID: 31329236.

Quote:

Successful treatment children with obesity needs to be focused on the entire family and environment