Our team includes scientists and physicians from eight different divisions and six disciplines. Every team member is devoted to improving the lives of patients living with chronic diseases, and the Center team currently has many collaborative and independent research projects underway to meet this objective.
Bill Brinkman, MD, MEd, FAAP
Dr. Brinkman attended St. Louis University School of Medicine and completed his residency in pediatrics and a chief resident year at the Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago. He completed a NRSA Primary Care Research Fellowship at Cincinnati Children's and completed a Masters in Education at the University of Cincinnati. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of General and Community Pediatrics.
Dr. Brinkman's work has focused on healthcare communication. His recent research has explored how physicians and families interact to make treatment decisions for children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). In work funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, Dr. Brinkman is the Principal Investigator on a subcontract to develop a web-based decision aid tool to help support families facing ADHD treatment decisions.
Maria Britto, MD, MPH
Dr. Britto received her MD from University of Virginia and her MPH in Epidemiology from the University of North Carolina. She completed her residency in medicine and pediatrics at University of North Carolina Hospitals and was Chief Resident of Pediatrics at UNC Hospitals. She was honored as a Clinical Scholar as part of the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar Program. Dr. Britto has been awarded "2004 Best Doctors" and "2005 Best Doctors". She is currently an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Internal Medicine in the Adolescent Medicine division.
Dr. Britto's special interests include chronic illnesses in adolescents, health care quality, quality of life of adolescents with chronic diseases, and health care preferences of adolescents with chronic diseases.
She is the backbone of the Center for Innovation in Chronic Disease Care and leads the Asthma Innovation Team. She is a critical source of knowledge, experience, insight and guidance for the Center and the Asthma Innovation Lab.
Terri Byczkowski, PhD
Dr. Byczkowski earned her PhD in Quantitative Analysis from the University of Cincinnati and her MBA from SUNY at Buffalo. Her expertise includes statistical process control, survey methods, experimental design and measurement for quality improvement. She is particularly interested in the use of control charts and experimental design in healthcare quality improvement work, and the measurement of patient experiences in order to improve family satisfaction with care. In her current role as the Assistant VP of Data Systems for Quality Improvement, manages a group of analysts, data managers and data collectors who support the hospital's performance improvement initiatives. She is able to provide consultation and guidance in tracking and monitoring outcome measures. Terri encourages the Asthma Innovation Lab Team members to analytically look at innovations in order to track improvements and progress.
Sian Cotton, PhD
Dr. Cotton earned a BA from Smith College in Music and Psychology and a MA and PhD in Clinical Health Psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology. She completed her clinical internship at Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center and was a postdoctoral fellow at CCHMC in the divisions of Pediatric Psychology and Adolescent Medicine. Dr. Cotton is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and the Department of Pediatrics and a Research Scientist with the Institute for the Study of Health.
Dr. Cotton's research interests include coping with chronic illness, health-related quality of life (HRQOL), pediatric and adolescent health outcomes, religion/spirituality and health, and complementary/integrative medicine. In 2002 and 2004, Dr. Cotton was a finalist for two new investigator awards at national meetings. Most recently, Dr. Cotton was awarded a K23 career development grant from NICHD to examine the role of spiritual coping in adolescents with a chronic disease.
Lori Crosby, PsyD
Dr. Crosby earned her Doctorate in Psychology from Wright State University. She completed her internship at Cincinnati Children's and her fellowship in Clinical Psychology at INTERACT Behavioral Healthcare Services Inc in Columbus. Dr. Crosby is an Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics in the Division of Behavioral Medicine and Clinical Psychology.
Dr. Crosby's broad research interests include understanding the impact of chronic illnesses on adolescents and family quality of life, particularly health conditions which disproportionately affect ethnically diverse youth. She is also interested in determining factors which facilitate adolescent adherence/compliance with complex medical regimens. Dr. Crosby is committed to training the next generation of evidenced-based clinical researchers and is the training director for 2 programs, the O'Grady Residency in Psychology and Innovations in Community Research and Program Evaluation.
Marsha Cunningham
Marsha Cunningham attended the University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati State College. Marsha's primary role is to provide administrative support to Dr. Britto and the Team.
She is the parent of a child who, as a result of injury, has a chronic condition. As a result of that experience, as well as varied career and volunteer child-centered experiences, she is able to provide her perspective and share her knowledge with the Team, in an effort toward continued improvement in quality of care.
Daniel Grossoehme
Daniel Grossoehme completed his Doctor of Ministry in Pastoral Counseling at the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, an M.Div. from the Virginia Theological Seminary and a B.S. in Astrophysics from Indiana University. He completed a residency in Clinical Pastoral Education at the Cleveland Clinic and became the first Director of Chaplaincy Services at Children’s Hospital Medical Center of Akron, where he served for 10 years. He holds a dual appointment at Cincinnati Children’s as Assistant Professor in the Division of Pulmonary Medicine and as Staff Chaplain II in the Department of Pastoral Care.
His research interests include religious/spiritual coping of children and adolescents with chronic diseases; developing a model of family coping styles; development of religious/spiritual interventions; and the relationship between religious coping and self-management.
Michael Seid, PhD
Dr. Seid earned his PhD in Psychology from the University of Illinois. He is currently a Professor of Pediatrics and the Director of Health Outcomes and Quality of Care Research in the Division of Pulmonary Medicine. He is Core Faculty in the Center for Health Care Quality in the Division of Clinical Effectiveness. Prior to CCHMC, he spent three years as a behavioral/research scientist at the RAND Corporation and eight years at the Center for Child Health Outcomes at Children's Hospital, San Diego.
Dr. Seid's research focuses on measuring and improving pediatric health care quality and health-related quality of life for chronically ill children. He also strives to understand the interactions between vulnerable chronically ill children and the health care system, and the barriers to care faced by these populations, as well as policies and programs to overcome these barriers to care.
Thomas Webb, MD
Dr. Webb attended the University of Rochester where he earned both his BA in Biology and his MD. He completed a combined internal medicine and pediatrics residency at University Hospital and CCHMC. He gained additional training in developmental disabilities at the Cincinnati Center for Developmental Disorders and Outcomes Research Fellowship from the UC Institute for the Study of Health. He is board certified in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities and completed his Masters of Science in Clinical Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health. He has appointments with the Division of General Internal Medicine and the Division of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, and he is also a Research Scientist with the Institute for the Study of Health.
Dr. Webb's research interests focus on the health care services of adolescents and adults with developmental disabilities, particularly adolescent healthcare transition, prevention of secondary conditions, health-related quality of life, and healthcare utilization. He is actively studying the health-related quality of life of adolescents and adults with chronic illnesses, specifically spina bifida, Down syndrome, and sickle cell disease.
Michael Yi, MD, MSc
Dr. Yi earned his BA from University of Virginia. After graduating from the Medical College of Virginia he received training in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. He subsequently completed an Outcomes Research Fellowship in Cincinnati and attained a Masters in Epidemiology from the Harvard School for Public Health. He is currently an Associate Professor.
Dr. Yi's clinical and research interests include quality of life assessment, transitional care from pediatric to adult medical systems, and the study of relationships between mental health, social factors, spirituality/religion, and health outcomes in patients with chronic illnesses. Those interests enable him to have a broad insight into factors that influence patients' outcomes, and his goal is to help the individual use intrinsic and external resources to be able to actively manage their chronic illness.
