Janice Dixon Key, MD

Dr. Janice Key is a professor of pediatrics at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC),Dr. Key has long been interested in wellness promotion and obesity prevention. While continuing to be an active clinician, Dr. Key has also conducted community and clinical research projects including school-based health care, adolescent smoking cessation, teen pregnancy prevention, interventions for at-risk middle school students, as well as obesity treatment and prevention. She is the director of school and community-based programs at the Boeing Center for Children’s Wellness. For the past 20 years she has worked to decrease childhood obesity through improved physician practice and as well as through school-based programs. Her innovative program that pairs physicians with school wellness committees, the Docs Adopt School Health Initiative©, has led to improved nutrition and increased physical activity in over 150 schools. In the 2014-2015 school year the Docs-Adopt School Health Initiative expanded into nine school districts across South Carolina as well as schools in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. The Docs-Adopt School Health Initiative is a recommended strategy in the SC Obesity Action Plan 2014-2019. Dr. Key has served on local and national committees including the executive committee for the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) section on adolescent health, the SC AAP executive committee, and the Charleston County Medical Society school health committee. Dr. Key leads the South Carolina Medical Association childhood obesity taskforce and is a member of the SC DHEC obesity advisory committee. She has received the MUSC Distinguished Service Faculty Award, the Charleston County Medical Society Wannamaker Community Service Award, the SC Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy Vincent Outstanding Professional Award, the AAP Special Achievement Award, and several MUSC teaching awards.