Gina Maria Jansheski, MD, FAAP: Kidsit Medical Reviewer & Contributor

Dr. Gina Jansheski is a board-certified pediatrician with over 20 years of experience treating infants and children of all ages in many different settings.

She attended medical school at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. After her residency training in general pediatrics at the U of A Department of Pediatrics, she entered a one-year fellowship in Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics at Children’s Hospital Colorado. This was a program with a particular emphasis on genetic and autism spectrum disorders and child abuse.

She returned to Arizona to work as a pediatric hospitalist at Tucson Medical Center, where she eventually became the medical director of her group of hospitalists. She was personally responsible for year-round, 24/7 coverage of a busy inpatient pediatric unit, newborn nursery, consultations in the emergency department, resident training program, procedural sedation service, and pediatric hospice. She founded the child abuse review team and initiated a pediatric palliative care program, the first of its kind in her area.

She then moved on to another medical director position at The Painted Turtle, one of the Paul Newman Serious Fun camps for children with life-threatening medical conditions. This was another highly energized position with full responsibility for the round-the-clock staffing and medical care of children with kidney and liver transplants, hemophilia, spina bifida, immunodeficiencies, rheumatic conditions, skeletal dysplasia, cerebral palsy, and more, allowing them the chance to experience an authentic camp experience all year.

In her last years of practice, Dr. J decided to work in a private office and provide temporary physician services in areas of need. She has sold her home and most of her possessions to pursue a more volunteer-based lifestyle over the past three years, serving periodically at an ashram in Rishikesh, India.

She has also devoted her time to a charity that she founded, Helping Hands M.D., feeding street animals in Thailand and India. In order to maintain her flexibility to live abroad, participate in, and fund this charitable work, she has made the transition into medical editing and transcription through her new company, Helping Hands Transcription.

Dr. J raised her three sons while completing college, medical school, and residency. Her oldest is a pilot in the Air Force Reserves, the second was a U.S. Marine who served five deployments and now teaches for the military, and the third is currently in pilot training for the U.S. Marine Corps. Her fourth son had been placed for adoption as a newborn with close family friends. He has come back into their lives, and the families enjoy a very special relationship.