Send in the clown doctors! Big Apple Circus's Clown Care Unit brings the joy of the classical circus to patients at the University of Chicago's Comer Children's Hospital as well as 17 other leading pediatric hospitals across the United States.

In partnership with medical and administrative staff, members of the Clown Care team conduct "clown rounds," their version of medical rounds, where the prescription is always the healing power of humor. In this presentation, Nurse Grandma and Dr. Sparkle Gong get serious for a moment to demonstrate how their innovative program empowers children and improves staff and parent morale.

H. Barrett Fromme, assistant professor of pediatrics, University of Chicago, will join them.

About the Participants

• Dr. H. Barrett Fromme is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Associate Program Director of the Pediatric Residency Training Program at the University of Chicago. As a Pediatric Hospitalist, her clinical and educational duties focus on the optimal care of hospitalized children and the supervision and training of medical residents and students in that setting. On a daily basis she witnesses and appreciates first-hand the often unequaled therapeutic effect of laughter and humor in the medical process.
• Big Apple Circus Clown Care Unit Clown Care Unit is a community outreach program of the Big Apple Circus. It's an award-winning presenter of live family entertainment, and a leading not-for-profit performing arts institution. Using juggling, mime, magic, and music, Clown Care's specially trained "doctors of delight" bring the joy and excitement of the circus to the bedsides of hospitalized children one to five days each week, year round, nationwide.