Dr. Jennifer S. Li

I take care of kids who have autoimmune diseases, from infancy to early adulthood. Classically, it’s things like arthritis and lupus that are well-known, but there are also more rare conditions that are caused by the immune system misfiring. I have a particular interest in autoimmune brain diseases. I think it’s really important that as a pediatrician you are the child’s doctor first, but you also have to consider how families feel about care. It’s a partnership from the start. We educate families about the risks and benefits and then find a treatment plan that works. I think the best part of being a pediatric rheumatologist is the treatments we have that are so remarkable in our ability to bring kids back to their old life. It is also a specialty that allows you to follow children throughout their childhood and be a part of that journey. That is so rewarding and really fun. Dr. Van Mater is rated as an Experienced provider by MediFind in the treatment of Kawasaki Disease. Her top areas of expertise are Childhood Disintegrative Disorder, Kawasaki Disease, and Osteomyelitis in Children.

My clinical interests include the non-invasive assessment of congenital heart disease in the fetus to the adult, with a particular focus in fetal cardiology and patients with single ventricles. I am the director of Duke Pediatric Noninvasive Cardiac Imaging and I am an attending physician in the Duke Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Center. I am an American citizen who was born in England and raised in Canada. I have lived in the United States since I received my undergraduate education at Cornell University. I joined the Duke Children’s Heart Program in 2004. Dr. Barker is rated as an Experienced provider by MediFind in the treatment of Kawasaki Disease. His top areas of expertise are Transposition of the Great Arteries, Congenital Heart Disease (CHD), Tetralogy of Fallot, and Partial Atrioventricular Canal.

I take care of children and adolescents who have pediatric rheumatic diseases. These include juvenile idiopathic arthritis, lupus, juvenile dermatomyositis, scleroderma, and vasculitis. I take a particular interest in taking care young people who have different forms of juvenile myositis, which is an autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks one’s own muscles or skin. In order to be a good rheumatologist, you have to listen to the patient and the family because we don’t have a fancy test that just gives you an answer. The answers come from what the patients and their families share with me. Some of our patients are some of the most challenging and sometimes even the sickest patients, yet we can help them get them much better. For that reason, I find my work is very hopeful because I get to see young people really persevere through very tough times and achieve really amazing things in their lives. Dr. Ardalan is rated as a Distinguished provider by MediFind in the treatment of Kawasaki Disease. His top areas of expertise are Juvenile Dermatomyositis, Dermatomyositis, Localized Scleroderma, and Discoid Lupus Erythematosus (DLE).