Fred M. Henretig, MD, MSHP, FAAP, FACMT is Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine (PSOM), University of Pennsylvania, and Senior Toxicologist, Poison Control Center (PCC) and Associate Medical Director of Emergency Preparedness, both at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). He has over 47 years of experience in academic pediatric emergency medicine and medical toxicology. Dr. Henretig participated in the founding of Philadelphia’s regional poison control center in 1985, and then served as its medical director until 2005. His scholarly interests while an active clinician included many areas within pediatric emergency medicine, including its procedural aspects, infectious disease emergencies, pediatric toxicology and environmental health, biological and chemical terrorism defense, and grandparent involvement in child safety and injury prevention. He is an editor or co-author of five textbooks, and has authored or co-authored 60 original articles and over 100 textbook chapters and review articles. Dr. Henretig served on the Board of Directors of the American College of Medical Toxicology (ACMT), and represented the American Board of Pediatrics on the Sub-board of Medical Toxicology, which he chaired in 2000. In 2011, he received a Master Clinician award from the Department of Pediatrics at CHOP, and the Michael Shannon Humanitarian Award from the Section of Emergency Medicine of the American Academy of Pediatrics, that “recognizes a pediatric emergency medicine physician who has demonstrated excellence in clinical care, mentoring, didactic and bedside teaching, voluntary service and scholarly activities”. In 2015, the ACMT awarded him its Matthew J. Ellenhorn award, “to honor an individual who has made extraordinary contributions to the field of medical toxicology”.
Starting in the1990s, Dr. Henretig became involved in disaster preparedness and education, particularly in the realm of hazardous chemical emergencies, and has served in this context on several committees and workgroups of the CDC, NIH, and related federal agencies, as well as the Institute of Medicine. He also participated clinically on one of the U.S. National Disaster Medical System’s disaster medical assistance teams and for the non-governmental organization Project Hope in responding to both natural and manmade disasters, including New York City on 9/11/2001, Banda Aceh, Indonesia after the 2004 tsunami, and New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. He was team leader for CHOP’s medical and nursing team, affiliated with Partners in Health, that responded to Haiti after the 2010 devastating earthquake.
In 2015, Dr. Henretig retired from the clinical practice of pediatric emergency medicine, but maintains staff appointments at CHOP and the PCC. In 2018, an interest in enhancing skills in health policy and advocacy led to his matriculating in the Masters of Science in Health Policy program at the University of Pennsylvania, from which he graduated in May 2022. He joined CHOP’s Emergency Preparedness team and has served as an Associate Medical Director since July 2021. He currently is also exploring the challenges related to physicians as they consider late career transitions, has served on several committees and working groups examining such issues, and is a member of the Executive Council of the Association of Senior and Emeritus Faculty at PSOM.