Biography
My clinical specialties are pediatric hospital medicine and inpatient complex care pediatrics. In particular, I care for children with tracheostomies and those with neurologic impairment.
I'm inspired by the children I see with medically complex conditions who have so much potential for growth and development. I envision great potential for positive outcomes that could be achieved using proactive, detailed, family-centered care by their parents, teachers and providers. I'm motivated to understand the different patient outcomes I see in my clinical practice and improve health trajectories, maximizing the quality of life in these inspiring children. These children deserve the best possible care and outcomes we can provide.
My research focuses on children with tracheostomies and other forms of chronic respiratory support. I want to understand how to interpret and respond to respiratory cultures in this population, including the implications of positive cultures on their lung health and how antibiotic treatment may influence health.
Using patient outcomes research and epidemiology methods, I seek to understand what infectious factors contribute to the long-term decline in lung health and differential outcomes among this population. I'm concerned about the frequency of drug-resistant organisms and drug-resistant infections that children face today. I have also seen a significant variation in how, when and why providers obtain respiratory culture testing, and how they treat these culture results in children. My research mission is to create evidence to support a standardized approach to respiratory culture acquisition, interpretation and treatment for children requiring respiratory support to optimize outcomes for lifelong lung health. Improved understanding of culture results will fuel antimicrobial stewardship efforts and allow us to limit unnecessary antibiotic use, when appropriate.
My research is funded internally by the Division of Hospital Medicine (fellows' research grant) at Cincinnati Children's. I have presented my research both locally and nationally and have had my work published in nationally-recognized journals.