Vincent John Palusci

Biography

Vincent J. Palusci, M.D., M.S. is Professor of Pediatrics at New York University School of Medicine in New York City where he is a board certified general and child abuse pediatrician at the Bellevue Hospital Frances L. Loeb Child Protection and Development Center.  He received his medical degree from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (now Rutgers) and completed his internship and residency in pediatrics at New York University / Bellevue Hospital Center.  He entered private practice and later joined the faculty of the College of Human Medicine at Michigan State University where he was a TRECOS scholar and earned a M.S. in Epidemiology and was Director of Forensic Pediatrics at DeVos Children’s Hospital.  He was Professor of Pediatrics at Wayne State University School of Medicine and Director of the Child Protection Center at Children’s Hospital of Michigan in 2005-2007.   In NY, he chairs the NYU Hospitals Child Protection Committee and teaches students, residents and fellow.  Dr. Palusci is a a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and an appointee of  the American Board of Pediatrics Child Abuse Subboard.  He was a member of the board of directors of the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children and  served as Editor of the APSAC Advisor.  He received the Christine Nelson Outstanding Professional Award for Service to Children in Kent County in 2001 and the Ray E. Helfer Award for child abuse prevention in 2004 from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Alliance for Children’s Trust and Prevention Funds.

Education

B.A. with Honors, University of Pennsylvania, 1980
M.D., UMDNJ (now Rutgers) New Jersey Medical School, 1984
M.S., Epidemiology, MSU College of Human Medicine, 2002

Areas of Research / Professional Expertise

Dr. Palusci’s research has focused on epidemiologic and health services issues for child abuse victims and training needs for professionals in this area.  He has written over 100 articles, chapters and reports for pediatric and child welfare publications.  He edited Shaken Baby Syndrome: A Multidisciplinary Response with Dr. Steven Lazoritz (2002), and Child Abuse and Neglect—A Diagnostic Guide (2010) with Dr. Howard Fischer.  He chaired the taskforce in 2010 that produced the APSAC Practice Guideline:  Integrating Child Maltreatment Prevention into Professional Practice.   Dr. Palusci worked with the Michigan Public Health Institute on an analysis of three state programs to assess child maltreatment deaths [Schnitzer PG, Covington TM, Wirtz SJ, Verhoek-Oftedahl W, Palusci VJ.  Public Health Surveillance of Fatal Child Maltreatment: Summary of Three State Programs. American Journal of Public Health. 2008; 98(2):296-303] and methods to better estimate fatality counts [Palusci VJ, Wirtz SJ, Covington TM, Using capture-recapture methods to better ascertain the incidence of fatal child maltreatment. Child Abuse and Neglect 2010;34(6):396-402].  Dr. Palusci has looked specifically at the outcomes after child death review using citizen review panels in Michigan [Palusci VJ, Yager S, Covington TM.  Effects of a citizens review panel in preventing child maltreatment fatalities. Child Abuse and Neglect 2010;34(5):324-331]. He published articles looking at child maltreatment deaths in the National Child Death Review Case Reporting System [Palusci VJ, Covington TM. Child maltreatment deaths in the U.S. National Child Death Review Case Reporting System. Child Abuse & Neglect 2013. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2013.08.014] and the effects of reporting laws on reporting rates with Frank Vandervort [Palusci VP, Vandervort FE. Universal Reporting Laws and Child Maltreatment Report Rates in Large U.S. Counties. Children and Youth Services Review 2014].

Personal Interests

He enjoys the multicultural environment of New York City, music, theater and travelling.

Books