Delaware’s DuPont Hospital for Children Gets New CP Division Chief

The Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children, in Wilmington, Delaware, has hired Michael W. Shrader as its new division chief for cerebral palsy.

Shrader graduated from the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine and completed his residency in orthopedic surgery at the Mayo Clinic. He did his fellowship in pediatric orthopedics and scoliosis at the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children in Dallas. Shrader also directed children’s rehabilitative services at Children’s of Mississippi, where he treated kids with cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy and similar conditions.

Shrader is board-certified in orthopedic surgery and sits on the board of directors of the American Academy of Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine. His current research is focused on investigating pain control, scoliosis, hip dysplasia and the family dynamics of children with special healthcare needs.

Shrader, who has two children with cerebral palsy, will fill the vacancy left by Freeman Miller, who started the Cerebral Palsy Center at Nemours and recently announced his retirement.

That center offers interdisciplinary care to patients through a team of experts in orthopedics, neurology, rehabilitation and other disciplines. The center is one of the few in the Mid-Atlantic region dedicated solely to caring for children with cerebral palsy.

“Coming to Nemours Children’s Health System already feels like coming home,” Shrader said. “Dr. Miller has built such a legacy here, and I am honored and humbled to follow in his footsteps and lead the CP Center at duPont Hospital for Children.”

Under Freeman’s leadership, the center grew to care for more than 3,000 children each year. He also established one of North America’s few accredited gait analysis laboratories and advanced several protocols now accepted as best practices worldwide.

Miller received several awards for his dedication to children with cerebral palsy and has written a book titled “Cerebral Palsy,” which helps members of a medical team navigate the complexity of cerebral palsy care by explaining unfamiliar treatments that fall outside of their own disciplines and by introducing a review of current practices in different fields of medicine.

“He is an orthopedic surgeon who has spent his career caring for children with cerebral palsy,” Miller said of Shrader in a Nemours news story. “He is the perfect fit for Nemours and will continue to build upon the high quality of care and expertise we all have come to expect.”