Michael L. Rinke

Every year, Michael Rinke takes takes time off from his job as a pediatric quality and safety researcher and pediatric hospitalist at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center to be camp doctor at Camp Echo Lake in New York’s Adirondack Mountains, a place he knows well. He and his sisters all spent summers there, first as campers, then counselors. “Working with people and finding new ways to help them is something I’ve always been passionate about,” says the assistant professor of pediatrics. Since 2010, he’s been focused on the prevention of central line infections. “Up to 50 times a day, people are going in and out of that line,” Rinke says. “A piece of plastic that runs from the outside of the body into a vein near the heart is a great way for bacteria to get in.” Rinke and his colleagues have been able to reduce central line infections among oncology inpatients by 65 percent and in outpatients by 50 percent. “We’d like to reach the ideal scenario of zero central line infections, ” he says, “providing high-quality care that’s safe every time to these vulnerable pediatric patients.”