Introducing… a pediatric endocrinologist

Dr. Katherine Morrison is a pediatric endocrinologist in the Children’s Exercise and Nutrition Centre at McMaster Children’s Hospital. Within this centre, she is the medical director of two clinics, the Growing Healthy Weight Management program and the Pediatric Lipid clinic. She has been at McMaster Children’s Hospital for 18 years.

As a pediatric endocrinologist, what do you do?

As a physician and clinician-researcher, I have the opportunity to do a number of jobs! In the Growing Healthy Weight Management program I help families of children who are overweight and in the Pediatric Lipid clinic I work with families with abnormalities in cholesterol, many of which are genetic. I also conduct research that is closely related to my clinical work and work with trainees in pediatric clinical training and in research.

research was something I wanted to incorporate into my clinical work

What do you love most about your job?

There are many things I love about the work I do, so it’s hard to choose. I am very privileged to have a position where I can care for families, work with an amazing team, have the joy of interacting with clinical and research trainees and have the opportunity to research unanswered questions that I come across in my clinic. But, what I think I would say I love the most about my job is interacting with the wonderful people that I work with.

What made you enter your field of work?

I knew I wanted to be a pediatrician since I was in high school. When I studied Biochemistry at McMaster University as an undergraduate student, it became clear that pediatric endocrinology was my target career direction. In my fellowship, I decided that research was something I wanted to incorporate into my clinical work to try to help more children than just my own patients. It was also during my training that I became interested in understanding the pathways that lead to how we use energy and consume nutrients, as well as how the body handles sugar and fats. I have incorporated this in my clinic and in my research!

My vision is that my research will help us better understand why some children have challenges with energy balance which result in health problems and to develop better treatment programs.

What do you hope to accomplish while at Hamilton Health Sciences?

My first priority is to do everything I can to help the families who come to our clinic. However, I also want to help children with similar problems elsewhere. I hope to accomplish both by continuing to grow and develop with the amazing team of professionals in the Children’s Exercise and Nutrition Centre and through my research. My vision is that the research I do with others at the Centre for Metabolism, Obesity and Diabetes Research will: help us better understand why some children have challenges with energy balance which result in health problems and to develop better treatment programs.