I pursued a career in general pediatrics to allow me to treat the whole child. I enjoy collaborating with families to support their children living healthy lives and reaching their full potential.
I am interested in understanding and improving the ways parents and patients with chronic conditions collaborate with healthcare providers to make treatment decisions. By better understanding how parents and patients experience the decision process, we can develop ways to improve that process, and in turn, improve children’s health outcomes. Specifically, my research is focused on shared decision making and how it can be used to engage parents, children and adolescents with chronic conditions in their care.
My current program of research uses both qualitative and quantitative methods to answer questions about how decisions are made, what help families need in making decisions and how healthcare providers can better support families’ decision making. Additionally, our team is involved in the development and testing of interventions aimed at addressing the decision-making challenges revealed by our research.
My ultimate goal is to improve outcomes for children with chronic conditions through ensuring decision-making processes that align the medical evidence with families’ goals and preferences related to their child’s health.