Morissa Ladinsky

Professor of Pediatrics, University of Alabama at Birmingham

Areas of Expertise:

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About Morissa

Dr. Ladinsky is a clinician and medical educator with focus on child health equity for vulnerable populations. She leads the region's only youth focused gender health team, medically fragile NICU graduate care team, and interdisciplinary medical-legal care teams for women facing substance dependence in pregnancy and parenting. She serves on several regional and state advisory boards and traverses the arena of policy engagement relative to gender affirming care. She speaks and lectures locally and nationally to enhance understanding of gender diverse young people, substance affected dyads and the elements sustaining today's health disparities.

Contributions | No Jargon Podcast | In the News | Publications

Contributions

UAB Doctor: No Legislature Should Be Any Child’s First or Worst Bully

Commentary, April 2022

In the News

Quoted by Helen Santoro in "Transgender People in Rural America Struggle to Find Doctors Willing or Able to Provide Care," CBS News, January 20, 2023.

Quoted by Anne Branigin in "Alabama’s Ban on Medication for Trans Youths Is Blocked by Judge," The Washington Post, May 14, 2022.

Quoted by Jacob Holmes in "Doctors Testify Against Alabama Law Criminalizing Transgender Medical Treatment," Alabama Political Reporter, May 6, 2022.

Interviewed in "Fighting for Their Lives: Jewish Pediatrician in Middle of Alabama Transgender Battles," (with Richard Friedman) Southern Jewish Life, May 4, 2022.

Guest on 1A, April 14, 2022.

Opinion: "I’m a Doctor and Alabama Could Arrest Me for Doing My Job," Morissa Ladinsky, Advance Local, May 10, 2021.

Opinion: "I’m a Pediatrician Who Treats Trans Youth. Alabama Could Soon Put Me in Jail," Morissa Ladinsky, Them, April 29, 2021.

Guest on Let's Think On It, April 10, 2021.

Quoted by Melissa Block in "‘It’s Hurtful’: Trans Youth Speaks Out As Alabama Debates Banning Medical Treatment," NPR, March 28, 2021.

Opinion: "Stripping of Transgender Protections Does Not Have to Hamstring Our Ability to Help All Patients," Morissa Ladinsky, AAP Voices, July 22, 2020.

Quoted by Anna Claire Vollers in "New Moms in Alabama Face Suspicion Over Error-Prone Drug Screens," Advance Local, February 9, 2020.

Quoted by Mike Cason in "Doctors Question Need for Alabama ‘Born Alive’ Bill," Advance Local, May 23, 2019.

Publications

"Use of Term Reference Infants in Assessing the Developmental Outcome of Extremely Preterm Infants: Lessons Learned in a Multicenter Study" (with Charles E. Green, Jon E. Tyson, and Roy J. Heyne et al.). Journal of Perinatology 43 (2023): 1398–1405.

Assesses the impairment rates of extremely preterm (EP) infants using a comparison with healthy term reference (TR) infants born in the same hospital to determine if EP impairment rates are underestimated using Bayley III norm-based thresholds scores. Findings suggest that EP impairment rates are significantly underestimated when using Bayley III norms, and utilizing TR-based thresholds provides a more accurate assessment.