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Center for Child Health Equity and Outcomes Research

New National “Vital Signs” to Measure Population-wide Pediatric Health
 New National “Vital Signs” to Measure Population-wide Pediatric Health 1024 683 Jeb Phillips
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In 2017, an opinion piece in JAMA Pediatrics started this way: “We call for a national effort to develop a parsimonious set of quality and outcome measures for (all) children.” And now, for perhaps the first time in American pediatrics, that “parsimonious set: has been laid out to guide communities and health systems across the United…

Featured Researcher – Amrik Khalsa, MD
 Featured Researcher – Amrik Khalsa, MD 150 150 Alaina Doklovic
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Amrik Khalsa, MD, is a physician and principal investigator in the Center for Child Health Equity and Outcomes Research (CCHEOR) in the Abigail Wexner Research Institute (AWRI) at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. He is dual medically trained and board certified in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics and has research expertise in observational research design, community-engaged research, and…

Rural-Urban Differences in Social and Emotional Protective Factors
 Rural-Urban Differences in Social and Emotional Protective Factors 1024 683 Mary Bates, PhD
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Efforts to improve child health and flourishing should consider communities’ unique sources of support. Children living in rural areas experience well-documented health and health care disparities compared to those living in urban areas. Protective factors, such as social connectedness and social engagement, also vary by geography, yet their contribution to differences in child health is…

Growing Clinical Research at Nationwide Children’s With Cynthia Gerhardt, PhD
 Growing Clinical Research at Nationwide Children’s With Cynthia Gerhardt, PhD 1024 683 Cynthia Gerhardt, PhD and Natalie Wilson
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Dr. Gerhardt was appointed Chief Clinical Research Officer at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in April 2023. With integrating clinical care and research at the heart of the hospital’s strategic plan, she has big plans for ensuring our clinical research infrastructure continues to grow and evolve to support the best bench-to-bedside-and-back science for best outcomes. Learn more…

Increasing Use of Pharmacologic Clot Prevention Among Adolescents with Sickle Cell Disease
 Increasing Use of Pharmacologic Clot Prevention Among Adolescents with Sickle Cell Disease 1024 580 Mary Bates, PhD
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Growing interest in preventing thrombosis and approval of direct oral anticoagulants may be driving a shift to pharmacologic thromboprophylaxis. In a new study, researchers from Nationwide Children’s Hospital assessed the use of thromboprophylaxis in adolescent patients with sickle cell disease over the last decade. Sickle cell disease (SCD) increases the risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE).…

Racial Disparities in Healthcare Use Among Medicaid-Covered Children With Congenital Heart Disease
 Racial Disparities in Healthcare Use Among Medicaid-Covered Children With Congenital Heart Disease 1024 683 Lauren Dembeck
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In the United States, congenital heart disease is the most common birth anomaly, with almost 40,000 newborns diagnosed each year. As these children grow, they are at increased risk of developing cardiovascular complications. Thus, ensuring they receive recommended cardiology care is essential to their long-term health and well-being. Racial disparities in health outcomes have been…

Fertility Concerns in Boys and Men With Sickle Cell Disease
 Fertility Concerns in Boys and Men With Sickle Cell Disease 1024 575 Mary Bates, PhD
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Color photo of Black father holding infant on shoulder in front of nursery background with clouds on the wall

Sickle cell disease and its treatments may impact fertility, but more research is needed to help counsel this population. Sickle cell disease (SCD) affects approximately 100,000 Americans, most of whom belong to underserved, minority populations. Advances in disease-modifying therapies, such as hydroxyurea, have led to better clinical outcomes. However, as more individuals with SCD survive…

Featured Researcher — Sarah O’Brien, MD
 Featured Researcher — Sarah O’Brien, MD 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
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The lab of Sarah O’Brien, MD, principal investigator in the Center for Child Health Equity and Outcomes Research at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, operates at the intersection of hematology and women’s health. Dr. O’Brien, who also leads the Young Women’s Hematology Clinic at Nationwide Children’s, applies her interests in big data and epidemiology to increase recognition…

Improving Racial Diversity and Equity in Clinical Trials
 Improving Racial Diversity and Equity in Clinical Trials 1024 511 Jeb Phillips
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There is now broad consensus across medicine that clinical trials must be more representative of minority populations. How can that be achieved? Last year, a group of Nationwide Children’s Hospital neonatologists published an unusually pointed critique of racial and ethnic representation in neonatal clinical trials in the Journal of Perinatology. They wrote that the lack…

The Success of an EMR-Based Health-Related Social Needs Screen in Pediatrics
 The Success of an EMR-Based Health-Related Social Needs Screen in Pediatrics 1024 683 Deborah L. Ungerleider, MD, FAAP
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Standardized universal HRSN screening with an EMR system and follow-up by social work consults can be successful and contribute to reducing health disparities.   Health-related social needs (HRSNs), sometimes referred to as social determinants of health (SODH), are the risk factors of food insecurity, lack of stable housing and poverty, all of which can play…

Iron Deficiency and Fatigue Among Adolescents With Heavy Menstrual Bleeding
 Iron Deficiency and Fatigue Among Adolescents With Heavy Menstrual Bleeding 1024 673 Mary Bates, PhD
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Both iron deficiency and fatigue are common in adolescents with heavy menstrual bleeding and may not indicate presence of a bleeding disorder. In a new multicenter study of nearly 200 adolescents with heavy menstrual bleeding, researchers found a high prevalence of iron deficiency without concomitant anemia as well as a high prevalence of fatigue. The…

Reconsidering Screening in Primary Care
 Reconsidering Screening in Primary Care 1024 683 Jeb Phillips
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2021 Bright Futures/AAP Recommendations for Preventive Pediatric Health Care (Periodicity Schedule) in color showing all of the screenings recommended across 34 patient visits through a patient's twenty-second birthday

Screenings are an important part of preventive care, but the growing list of recommendations is daunting. How do we prioritize the limited time we have with patients and families? There are 32 well-child primary care visits recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics in its Bright Futures “Periodicity Schedule.” The first is prenatal, the last…

Alarming Upward Trend in Black Youth Suicide From 2003 to 2017
 Alarming Upward Trend in Black Youth Suicide From 2003 to 2017 1024 683 Lauren Dembeck
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Sad black teenage girl

Prioritization of research aimed at identifying specific risk and protective factors associated with Black youth suicidal behavior is needed. In the United States, the rates of suicide and suicidal behavior among youth, children and adolescents 5-17 years of age, have been steadily increasing over the last decade, and Black youth, 5-12 years, are approximately two…

An Alarming Connection Between Justice System Involvement and Child Health
 An Alarming Connection Between Justice System Involvement and Child Health 1024 575 Jeb Phillips
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A first-of-its kind study finds that while only 2% of patients at a large children’s hospital are identified with likely personal or family involvement in the justice system, they account for large proportions of some troubling diagnoses. Research over the last decade has shown that young people who have been incarcerated can have poorer physical…

Dehumanizing Language in the Health Care System Harms Children With Incarcerated Family Members
 Dehumanizing Language in the Health Care System Harms Children With Incarcerated Family Members 1024 683 Rosemary Martoma, MD and Kelly Kelleher, MD, MPH
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Dehumanizing Language Causes Harm Labels and language matter. Language has the power to condemn or redeem, and words reflect our values and beliefs as clinicians, scholars, and members of the community.” – Bedell et al., Humanity: Person-First Language in Correctional Health Epidemiology, American Journal of Epidemiology Children with incarcerated family members frequently face stigma and…

Featured Researcher — Susan Creary, MD, MSc
 Featured Researcher — Susan Creary, MD, MSc 150 150 Natalie Wilson
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Susan Creary, MD, MSc, is a principal investigator in the Center for Child Health Equity and Outcomes Research at the Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, a physician in the Hematology, Oncology and Blood and Marrow Transplant (BMT) Clinic at Nationwide Children’s, and an associate professor of Pediatrics at The Ohio State University.…

How Can We Make Child Health Equitable?
 How Can We Make Child Health Equitable? 550 350 Jeb Phillips, Abbie Miller and Natalie Wilson
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Researchers in the Center for Child Health Equity and Outcomes Research at Nationwide Children’s Hospital are tackling this question by identifying health disparities and uncovering exactly how social drivers of health impact outcomes. “Health equity means that everyone has a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible.” That’s how the Robert Wood…

Finding the Reasons Why: Looking for Answers in Trends of Child and Youth Suicides
 Finding the Reasons Why: Looking for Answers in Trends of Child and Youth Suicides 1024 575 Kevin Mayhood
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Epidemiological studies are the first step to learn how to prevent suicide attempts and deaths. Suicide is the second-leading cause of death among 10- to 24-year-olds. And even as awareness grows, the suicide rate continues to climb, according to national statistics. But those national statistics don’t tell the whole story. For decades, researchers around the…

Why Advocate?
 Why Advocate? 1024 575 Ray Bignall
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Several months ago, I had the privilege of attending a panel discussion on health in the African American community hosted by my local church. It was an opportunity for our largely African American congregation to hear from Black health professionals promoting health-seeking behavior in communities of color. Sitting in the audience, I listened as each…

Moving From Child Health Care to Child Health
 Moving From Child Health Care to Child Health 1024 575 Kelly Kelleher, MD, MPH
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As pediatricians, we want children to be healthier, even the ones who never come through our doors. At Nationwide Children’s Hospital, the board and leadership have aimed to do just that by setting the highest bar yet for our organization – we want central Ohio children to be the healthiest in the United States. But…

The Equity Equation
 The Equity Equation 1024 575 Deena Chisolm, PhD
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Deena J. Chisolm, PhD, director of the Center for Population Health and Equity Research at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, applies a health equity approach to improving infant mortality outcomes. Health care quality and outcomes differ by race, ethnicity, wealth and place of residence. In fact, we know that health outcomes such as life expectancy, health-related quality…