Our Experts

Physician Profile

412-692-6000 Phone

412-692-6660 Fax

Jack L. Paradise, MD

Job Title Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

Job Title Lecturer in Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School

General Academic Pediatrics

3420 Fifth Ave.

Pittsburgh, PA 15213

412-692-6000 Phone

412-692-6660 Fax

Email jpar@pitt.edu

Education and Training

Medical School:	1947 Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
Residency:	1949 Salt Lake County General Hospital, Salt Lake City, UT

Memberships

American Public Health Association
Johns Hopkins Medical and Surgical Association
American Academy of Pediatrics
American Academy of Pediatrics, Section on Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics
Pittsburgh Pediatric Society
Ambulatory Pediatric Association
Society for Ear, Nose and Throat Advances in Children
American Pediatric Society
American Association for the Advancement of Science

Board Certifications

American Board of Pediatrics

Awards

Phi Beta Kappa
AB, summa cum laude
American Pediatric Society
The 1994 Ambulatory Pediatric Association Research Award
Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science
Jack L. Paradise Clinical Research Endowment Fund established at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC for faculty research
First recipient, Jack Paradise Investigator’s Award established by the Pittsburgh Pediatric Society
Robert Ruben Research Award, Society for Ear, Nose, and Throat Advances in Children
Establishment of the Jack L. Paradise, MD Endowed Chair in Pediatric Research, Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC
1999 Pennsylvania Pediatrician of the Year, Pennsylvania Chapter, American Academy of Pediatrics
Pittsburgh Business Times 2004 Health Care Hero Awards, Finalist, Lifetime Achievement

Publications

Paradise JL, Bluestone CD, Bachman RZ, Colborn DK, Bernard BS, Taylor FH, Rogers KD, Schwarzbach RH, Stool SE, Friday GA, Smith IH, Saez CA. Efficacy of tonsillectomy for recurrent throat infection in severely affected children: results of parallel randomized and nonrandomized trials. N Engl J Med 1984; 310:674-683.
Paradise JL, Bluestone CD, Colborn DK, Bernard BS, Smith CG, Rockette HE, Kurs-Lasky M. Adenoidectomy and adenotonsillectomy for recurrent acute otitis media: Parallel randomized clinical trials in children not previously treated with tympanostomy-tube placement. JAMA 1999;282:945-953.
Paradise JL, Feldman HM, Campbell TF, Dollaghan CA, Rockette HE, Pitcairn DL, Smith CG, Colborn DK, Bernard BS, Kurs-Lasky M. Janosky JE, Sabo DL, O’Connor RE, Pelham WE Jr. Tympanostomy tubes and developmental outcomes at 9 to 11 years of age. N Engl J Med 2007;356:248-261.

View Dr. Paradise's full list of publications from PubMed.

Biography Summary

Jack Paradise, MD, is nationally and internationally recognized as a pioneer in pediatric primary care research. Dr. Paradise has been a pediatrician in Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh’s General Academic Pediatrics Department for more than 30 years, serving as its director from 1970 to 1991. In addition, he was one of the founders of the hospital’s clinical research program.

Dr. Paradise’s contributions have advanced pediatric medicine worldwide in the diagnosis and treatment of common childhood diseases, most notably ear infections and tonsillitis. His primary area of interest has been the clinical investigation and management of middle ear disease (otitis media) - the most common infection among children in the United States after the common cold - and disorders of the tonsils and adenoids. His studies of these conditions have gained him international recognition.

Among his studies of otitis media, Dr. Paradise discovered the near universality of the disease in infants and young children with cleft palate. He also helped to establish the use of tympanometry, a non-invasive test to determine the presence or absence of middle-ear abnormalities. Tympanometry has since become a standard diagnostic procedure in primary care pediatrics and an important tool in clinical studies of otitis media. Currently, Dr. Paradise’s research efforts focus on determining whether persistent early-life otitis media results in later-life speech, language, cognitive and psychosocial impairments and whether procedures such as ear tubes offer the most effective treatments for young children.

Dr. Paradise’s landmark studies of tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy have helped to promote the use of stringent criteria for these operations. His studies have been credited with playing a major role in the dramatic decline in the number of pediatric tonsillectomies performed in the United States, which dropped from 786,000 to 172,000 between 1971 and 1996.

Together with his colleagues at Children’s Hospital, Dr. Paradise has stimulated and fostered continuous growth in pediatric research in Pittsburgh for more than a quarter of a century. His work has set national standards for the conduct of previously neglected research in common childhood illnesses.

Last Update
April 14, 2009

top