No parent wants their child to develop an illness or injury that requires emergency care. But when these situations arise, our pediatric patients and their caregivers deserve a meaningful, beneficial experience. That’s part of the reason I became a pediatric emergency medicine physician. I want to offer care, expertise, compassion and understanding to families during an experience that often feels stressful and uncertain.

I believe the emergency room (ER) can be a place where children with a variety of medical problems are cared for in a comprehensive and effective way. Throughout my career, I’ve found that families choose to bring their children to the ER for many different reasons. These include nonmedical aspects of disease that influence health-seeking behavior, quality of life, cost of care and family-centered outcomes.

Through my research, I aim to learn how certain aspects of illness affect families in ways that are important to them, how we can improve care in the ER to meet comprehensive needs, whether we can utilize technology to improve care for the whole family, and how to evaluate the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of novel interventions.

Ideally, by treating (and facilitating care for) the multifaceted aspects of childhood disease, we can transform the pediatric ER into a locus of integrated, effective and cost-efficient care for patients and families. I'm passionate about working to make this vision a reality.