Pediatric and Adolescent Integrative Medicine
Dr. Robert Pendergrast is a Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University. He has been part of the GW University Center for Integrative Medicine since 2023, seeing patients by telemedicine as a pediatric Integrative Medicine and Mind-Body Medicine provider.
Dr. Pendergrast has been practicing Pediatrics with a specialty in Adolescent Medicine since 1987.
He has been passionate about helping children and teens thrive and grow into healthy young adults since he completed residency training in pediatrics and a fellowship in adolescent medicine. Dr. Pendergrast was mentored by the late Dr. William Long at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Immediately after that training, he chose to return to graduate school at the School of Hygiene and Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. He wanted to broaden his perspective to the health of populations more than just the individual patient. This broad perspective energized his entry into academic medicine, teaching medical students and pediatricians in training to see their work as having long term effects on families and communities.
In the 1990s, in addition to clinical pediatric and adolescent work in ambulatory and hospital settings, teaching medical students and pediatric residents, he became a sought-after speaker at continuing medical education conferences in the southeastern US. This was also a decade of trying to find his academic and medical home, moving from Georgia to a 3-year stint on the faculty at Johns Hopkins, then into private practice for 3 years, then back to the Medical College of Georgia to direct the adolescent medicine training program again.
But it turned out that the dissatisfaction and search for an academic medical home was rooted in a sense that there was something incomplete, something missing the point, in conventional biomedicine as practiced in the US. He knew that “the way things have always been” in healthcare was not enough. Spurred on by his own health concerns and the encouragement of his wife Gail (always the one in the family with new ideas!), he began exploring integrative medicine in the late 1990s.
2001 to 2007: a time of transformation of Dr. Pendergrast’s medical practice.
He attended conferences, networked with other integrative medicine physicians, learned to love and respect the views of non-physician healers and practitioners. He tried (unsuccessfully) to implement a curriculum change at his medical school. After training in pediatric clinical hypnosis, he founded the Mind-Body clinic at the Medical College of Georgia, seeing children and teens with chronic pain and other complex medical issues that were rooted in mind-body interactions.
In 2004 -2005 he completed the Fellowship in Integrative Medicine at the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine, University of Arizona. This provided extensive training and experience in botanical medicine and nutritional medicine and was another step in transforming his life and medical practice. During and after the Fellowship, he continued to urge his academic health center toward an integrative model but met enough resistance to lead him to set up a private practice instead, embarking on a balancing of two worlds: academic medicine and an integrative medicine private practice. This continued more than full-time until his partial retirement from academia in 2020, and still works at both locations to this date, but with hours that are more limited than in the past.
At GW Center for Integrative Medicine:
Since 2023, Dr. Pendergrast has provided telemedicine consultations for children and teens through GW Center for Integrative Medicine. He is an excellent diagnostician, listens carefully to kids and parents, is not in a hurry, and is happy to see kids for whom conventional medical approaches have not been working. Patients (and their parents) have often thanked him for “connecting the dots,” and helping them to understand the underlying causes of illness, clarifying a confusing medical history, and helping them to begin on the path to recovery.
Pediatric and Adolescent Clinical situations for which he has experience and is prepared to see include:
- irritable bowel syndrome and other chronic gastrointestinal issues
- unexplained chronic pain
- headache disorders
- food sensitivity and the interaction between gut health and the immune system
- the complex ways that long-COVID affects kids
Dr. Pendergrast’s recommendations typically include
- some conventional medical care
- dietary recommendations
- mind-body approaches such as clinical hypnosis
- a cautious approach to botanical medicine and supplements (leaning toward safety first and avoiding adverse effects of either pharmaceuticals or misguided use of natural medicines)
- and physical medicine and approaches such as osteopathic manipulative medicine
Even after over 40 years of medical practice, Dr. Pendergrast knows he still needs to learn more, and is excited to be on the journey of discovering what’s new and good in healthcare, alongside the kids and families that he sees.
Schedule an appointmentEducation and training:
- Doctor of Medicine: Medical College of Georgia, 1983
- Residency in Pediatrics, University of Mississippi Medical Center, 1986
- Fellowship, Adolescent Medicine, University of Mississippi Medical Center, 1987
- Master of Public Health, Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, 1988
- Pediatric Clinical Hypnosis, training through the Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics and the National Pediatric Hypnosis Training Institute, 2002 – 2011.
- Fellowship in Integrative Medicine, Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine, University of Arizona, 2004 – 2005
- Certified in biofeedback, Stens Biofeedback, 2019
Professional Organizations and Leadership:
- Fellow, American Academy of Pediatrics
- Diplomate in Adolescent Medicine, American Board of Pediatrics
- Founding Member, Section on Integrative Health, American Academy of Pediatrics
- Member, Section on Adolescent Health, American Academy of Pediatrics
- Faculty, National Pediatric Hypnosis Training Institute, since 2012
- Board of Directors, National Pediatric Hypnosis Training Institute, 2021 – present.
Academic Awards:
- 2004: Educator of the Year Award, Medical College of Georgia School of Medicine, elected by the class of 2004.
- Multiple years, 2010 – 2020, Exemplary Teacher Award, Medical College of Georgia, Department of Pediatrics (for undergraduate medical education)
- 2020 Teacher of the Year. Department of Pediatrics, Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University.
Testimonials:
“Dr. Pendergrast, you were such a Godsend for us – I feel our daughter is ever so much better off… and she’s much happier taking things she feels her body really needs. It’s allowed her to be much more involved in what goes into her body.” – parent of a teen patient, 2015
“it has officially been 6 weeks today since food sensitivity testing … showed he had a severe sensitivity to beef, dairy, eggs, a few different beans/peas, and needed to be on a rotation diet for a handful of other foods/spices. He has been remarkably better since his diet change and his environmental allergies are so far being kept under control with just a little Zyrtec. He was so sick 6 weeks ago he was throwing up daily, had fluid coming out of his ears after weeks of antibiotics… A huge thank you for helping navigate us thru this and finally getting us some answers.” – mother of a 3 year old, 2022
“Dr. P ACTUALLY listens and CARES! He does not dismiss you, he makes you feel HEARD. He is a knowledgeable doctor who takes a whole person approach to your care. I suffer from several autoimmune issues and Dr. P is working closely with me to find a way to make me feel normal again and he will work tirelessly to make sure that you are on the right path! I love that he looks at your nutrition, mental health, spiritual health, and also uses aspects of traditional western medicine combined with his holistic approach.’ I had gotten to a point of feeling hopeless before seeing Dr. P and now, I feel like I have hope again.” – Kelli Ann, 2018
Beyond Clinical Work:
Dr. Pendergrast was first from Atlanta, studied music as an undergraduate at Furman University, and has sung in church and community choirs since he was a teen. When Dr. Pendergrast is not at work, he enjoys life with his wife Gail, organic gardening, cooking, early morning walks, playing pickleball, traveling, watching birds, nature photography, and music. They have four adult children.
Meet with Dr. Robert Pendergrast on Dr. Misha Kogan’s YouTube channel:
From YouTube interview with Dr. Pendergrast: “At present time he will be offering telemedicine consultations for children, adolescents, and young adults struggling with variety of different chronic issues including but not limited to chronic inflammatory and autoimmune conditions such as asthma, eczema, bowel disorders, but also chronic fatigue syndromes, POTS, sleep disorders, and many others!!!”
