When a child needs specialized medical care, Riverside County families often travel to Orange or Los Angeles County to find it. That can mean hours on the road and time away from work and school.
But a growing range of children's specialty care is available closer to home — at Riverside Medical Clinic (RMC).
Among the physicians providing that care are Payal Patel, MD, a pediatric cardiologist, and Kareem Shahin, DO, a sports medicine physician who works with many young athletes. Although they address very different health care needs, both work to give children specialized care while helping families remain close to home.
From an early age, Payal Patel, MD, knew she wanted to follow in her grandfather's footsteps.
A family medicine physician in India, her grandfather treated patients on the ground floor of his home while he and his family lived upstairs.
Dr. Patel was drawn to pediatrics and the opportunity to care for children. When she had the chance to expand her training into pediatric cardiology, she took it. "I wanted to keep learning, and I was fascinated by the heart," she said.
Early in her career as a pediatric cardiologist, Dr. Patel identified an aortic abnormality in a 1-year-old boy that had gone undetected by his previous care team. The potentially life-threatening condition required immediate attention. Twelve years later, the patient continues to rely on Dr. Patel for his cardiac care.
Dr. Patel also performs fetal echocardiograms for RMC's expecting patients. These specialized ultrasound examinations allow her to evaluate a developing baby's heart before birth and identify certain heart conditions as early as possible.
Sports Medicine
Board-certified sports medicine physician Kareem Shahin, DO, treats both children and adults at RMC's Brockton Avenue location. He sees patients across a broad range of sports. Treating young athletes, he notes, requires particular attention to how their bodies are still growing and developing.
"I focus on making an accurate diagnosis while avoiding overly aggressive treatment. Whenever possible, I use a conservative, evidence-based approach that emphasizes activity modification, rehabilitation, proper biomechanics, and gradual return to sport. At the same time, I am careful not to dismiss pain as 'growing pains,' particularly when symptoms are persistent, focal, or affecting performance."
Treatment depends on the athlete and the injury. Once a diagnosis is made, Dr. Shahin may recommend reducing the volume of a particular movement or temporarily modifying the athlete's activities to allow the body to recover.
He recently treated a 16-year-old football player who was referred to him after visiting an RMC urgent care location. Dr. Shahin determined that the athlete had fractured his scapula, commonly known as the shoulder blade. He developed a plan for early mobility, placed the patient's arm in a sling and referred him to a local rehabilitation provider to support his recovery.
Dr. Shahin's experience treating athletes of different ages helps him guide both young patients and their parents through the recovery process. His advice to families concerned about a sports injury is to seek an appropriate evaluation rather than risk allowing the problem to worsen. "You want to make sure they rehab appropriately," Dr. Shahin said. "You don't want the injury to compound and have other parts of the body make up for it."
More Pediatric Expertise, Close to Home
Riverside Medical Clinic's pediatric specialty care extends beyond the heart and the playing field. Local families can also turn to RMC physicians for conditions affecting a child's growth and hormones, digestive system and nervous system.
Care for Digestive and Nutritional Concerns
Ghanim Aljomah, MD, specializes in pediatric gastroenterology, the care of digestive and nutritional conditions in children and adolescents. Families may be referred to a pediatric gastroenterologist when a child experiences persistent abdominal pain, reflux, constipation, chronic diarrhea or other ongoing digestive concerns.
Among the most common reasons Riverside families come to see him are recurring stomachaches that keep returning even after routine tests come back normal.
When the Gut and Brain Talk to Each Other
The gut and the brain are in constant communication through nerves, hormones and even the bacteria that live in the intestines. In some children, that communication becomes overly sensitive, so that normal signals — food simply moving through the digestive tract — get amplified and felt as pain. The pain is not imaginary, Dr. Aljomah notes; these are real, diagnosable conditions that can be treated.
Doctors describe them as disorders of gut–brain interaction, sometimes called functional abdominal pain disorders. They include irritable bowel syndrome, in which belly pain is tied to changes in bowel habits; functional dyspepsia, an uncomfortable fullness in the upper belly, especially after eating; abdominal migraine, intense episodes of pain with nausea, vomiting or pallor separated by stretches of feeling fine; and functional abdominal pain that does not fit neatly into any one category. Many children have features of more than one at the same time.
Diagnosis rests on a child's symptom pattern rather than on ruling out every possible disease through extensive testing. Using an internationally recognized standard known as the Rome IV criteria, a pediatric gastroenterologist can make a confident, positive diagnosis during a careful clinical visit, reserving invasive testing for cases where specific warning signs point to something else.
Because the gut–brain connection involves both the body and the mind, Dr. Aljomah's approach works best when it addresses both. Education and reassurance come first — helping children and families understand what is happening, and that the pain is real. From there, treatment may draw on gut–brain therapies such as cognitive behavioral therapy, delivered with a psychologist, to help children build skills for managing pain and limiting its effect on daily life. Dietary strategies are guided by a dietitian, with care taken to avoid unnecessarily restrictive diets. For children who need more support, certain low-dose medications can help quiet pain signals, used thoughtfully alongside the other therapies.
Dr. Aljomah encourages Riverside families to seek an evaluation when a child's belly pain occurs several times a month for two months or more, causes missed school or skipped activities, comes with significant anxiety, mood changes or sleep problems, or has not improved after initial advice from a primary care doctor. Having that evaluation available locally spares families a long drive during a stretch that is already stressful.
By evaluating these symptoms through the needs of a child's developing body, Dr. Aljomah can help families better understand the source of a gastrointestinal problem and determine an appropriate treatment plan.
Supporting Healthy Growth and Development
Hormones affect nearly every part of a child's growth and development. Shilpa Gupta, MD, is board-certified in pediatrics and pediatric endocrinology and cares for young patients with conditions involving hormones and metabolism.
Pediatric endocrinology can include the evaluation and management of diabetes, thyroid disorders, growth concerns and early or delayed puberty. Having this specialized care available locally also makes it easier for families to manage conditions that may require regular appointments and continued monitoring over time.
Specialized Care for the Developing Nervous System
James Nelson, MD, is a pediatric neurologist who is board-certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. Pediatric neurology focuses on conditions affecting a child's brain, spinal cord, nerves and muscles.
Children may be referred to a pediatric neurologist for seizures, recurring headaches, developmental concerns or other symptoms involving the nervous system. Dr. Nelson evaluates these conditions and works with families on a treatment plan.
Specialized Care Without Leaving the Region
These physicians address very different medical needs, but they offer Riverside County families a shared benefit: access to children's specialty care within their own community. Local appointments can mean more convenient access to follow-up care.
From pediatric cardiology, gastroenterology, endocrinology and neurology to sports medicine for young athletes, RMC's specialists are helping families find the care their children need without automatically having to travel to Orange or Los Angeles County.
To learn more about pediatric specialty care at Riverside Medical Clinic, visit riversidemedicalclinic.com.
