Profiles in Giving

Scott Krugman DMS '95: Making a Big Difference in Little People's Lives

Dr. Scott Krugman

"According to my mom, I decided to go into medicine when I was six," says pediatrician Dr. Scott Krugman, a third-generation pediatrician who followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather. "I knew I wanted to be a doctor when I was in high school; I liked science and volunteering and helping people."

For Krugman, the desire to help people—especially children—has led him to focus on child protection and advocacy, an interest that developed during his residency at Johns Hopkins, where he saw many cases of child abuse and neglect, but no staff in place to help protect children or educate their parents or caregivers. In 1998, when he joined the staff at Franklin Square Hospital Center in Baltimore, "we had a number of abused kids come in [to the hospital]," Krugman recalls. "I did a review of what was going on in the ER and it looked like we were missing a lot of cases. So, I worked to get a grant to pay for social work coverage, hire a coordinator, and streamline the system."

Krugman founded the Franklin Square's Child Protection Team in 2000 and since then, the hospital has been the evaluation site for all child abuse and child assault cases in Baltimore County. "Pretty much any child who's suspected of being a victim of sexual abuse or neglect gets a complete evaluation in the hospital," he notes.

In addition to leading the Child Protection Team and caring for his young patients, Krugman, who became Chairman of Pediatrics just three years out of residency, also trains family practice residents in pediatrics. Over the past few years he has also been busy growing Franklin Square's Department of Pediatrics, which he has helped build from scratch. "We started a hospitalist program and got pediatricians in the hospital 24/7, we developed a pediatric emergency department and combined it with an inpatient unit and got that covered 24/7 by pediatricians, and we've developed a pediatric practice and done a lot of community outreach," Krugman explains. "We've been able to make a big difference in the community and it's been really rewarding."

Krugman is also making a big difference at DMS. Since graduation, he has faithfully supported the Fund for DMS, which provides much-needed support for scholarship, curriculum development, the recruitment and retention of faculty, the creation of innovative programs and state-of-the-art facilities, and the overall operation of the medical school. In 2005, he encouraged his classmates to support the Fund in honor of their 10-year reunion as part of the Class of 1995 reunion gift committee. And most recently, he joined the Fund for DMS Working Group, which comprises alumni from a broad range of geographic regions and class years and is charged with the task of increasing support for the Fund for DMS.

"The most valuable thing I took from my time at DMS was the skill and motivation to make a difference," Krugman observes. "I think if you get something out of an educational experience, you should give back."

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