With the recent arrival of a pediatric endocrinologist at New Hanover Regional Medical Center, area children and teenagers will be able to get highly specialized care they need closer to home.

Dr. Kateryna Kotlyarevska came to the hospital in February, ready to treat young patients with diabetes, growth disorders and other endocrine diseases. Before Kotlyarevska’s arrival, the specialized care was only available at facilities more than a two-hour drive from Wilmington.

“I am very excited to be here at the Nunnelee Pediatric Clinic in the new Betty H. Cameron Women’s and Children’s Hospital. My work here will help improve the quality of care for children affected by these diseases and will also allow me to work with their families to give them the support they need,” Kotlyarevska said a hospital-released statement.

Pediatric endocrinology is the study and medical treatment in children of a variety of hormonal diseases, including diabetes and hypoglycemia, growth problems and thyroid disorders. The medical discipline also covers disorders of puberty, sexual differentiation, calcium metabolism, steroid metabolism and hypopituitarism.

Pediatric endocrinologists have four years of medical school training, three years of pediatric residency and three or more years of fellowship training in pediatric endocrinology.

“Children with these diseases not only need special medical care, but they also need a strong support network of family, friends and medical professionals to help and encourage them through the many unique challenges they face,” Kotlyarevska said.

Kotlyarevska said the psycho-social needs of children impacted by endocrine diseases are often misunderstood. Plans to help further address those needs include assembling a multi-disciplinary team of healthcare professionals to treat all aspects of the disease process to maximize benefits to the patient.

“I hope to build a program that meets the different needs of all our children and their families,” she said. “The staff here at the Nunnelee Pediatric Clinic (is) great, and I know our team approach will take us a long way in building our program.”

Kotlyarevska is a native of the Ukraine, where she graduated from Dnepropetrovsk State Medical Academy in Ukraine and completed a residency in pediatrics with a focus on adolescent medicine and growth and puberty disorders. After immigrating to the U.S., she did a general pediatrics residency at SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, N.Y., and recently completed a fellowship in Pediatric Endocrinology at the University of Michigan.

As part of her fellowship training, Kotlyarevska pursued research training. The focus of her research was the growth hormone role in the development of diabetic kidney disease. Her clinical interests include diabetes, growth disorders and pubertal disorders.