Dedicated to Improving Adolescent Health
The research mission of the Division of Adolescent and Transition Medicine at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center is to be the leader in innovation and discovery in transforming the lives of youth and their families. Our team is achieving this mission by conducting collaborative, externally-funded research that transforms adolescent health and improves health equity, while also providing mentorship and research education to trainees at all levels (undergraduate and graduate students, residents, and fellows). Our faculty collaborate on research activities within the Division as well as across Cincinnati Children's, regionally, nationally, internationally, and in research networks. Two-thirds of our faculty currently hold research funding from a variety of sources, including NIH (KL2, R21, R01, R03, U54), Cincinnati Children's, foundations, and industry. Divisional faculty have authored 306 publications over the past 5 years, with mean h-index for research-focused faculty of 6 for Assistant Professors, 11.5 for Associate Professors, and 40 for Professors.
Our current areas of research include:
- Impact of environmental exposures on puberty and long-term health outcomes (Frank Biro, MD)
- Improvement of health outcomes in transgender and gender-diverse youth (Lee Ann Conard, RPh, DO, MPH; Tanya Mullins, MD, MS; Rachel Snedecor, MD)
- Prevention of human papillomavirus (HPV)-associated cancers and development and uptake of adolescent vaccines (Jessica Kahn, MD, MPH; Brittany Rosen, PhD, MEd, CHES; Emmanuel Chandler, MD; Corinne Lehmann, MD, MEd; Lea Widdice, MD; Tanya Mullins, MD, MS)
- Prevention of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection through rapid diagnostics and behavioral and biomedical interventions (Tanya Mullins, MD, MS; Lea Widdice, MD; Corinne Lehmann, MD, MEd)
- Eating disorder outcomes (Laurie Mitan, MD, CEDS; Jessica Lin, MD; Erik Su, MD)
- Improvement of care for youth with chronic conditions (Maria Britto, MD, MPH; Jason Woodward, MD, MS)
- Care of youth in juvenile justice settings (Emmanuel Chandler, MD)
- Career development, including medical education, pipeline programs, and faculty development (Corinne Lehmann, MD, MEd; Jamilah Hackworth, MEd, EdD; Lisa Johnson, MD; Jessica Kahn, MD, MPH)
As evidenced above, an overarching theme for our research programs is improvement in health equity, as we focus on: strategies to reduce health disparities (e.g., primary prevention through vaccination), youth who experience disparities (transgender youth, youth with HIV), and exposures/conditions with known health disparities (e.g., cervical cancer, STIs, environmental exposures, and HIV).
Numerous Divisional and institutional resources for research training and support are available for fellows and faculty, including resources available through a joint effort between Cincinnati Children's and University of Cincinnati Center for Clinical and Translational Science and Training (CCTST). Faculty are highly engaged in providing mentorship and research training to Adolescent Medicine fellows as they meet the requirements for scholarly work as part of fellowship training, including conducting research and producing products such as meeting abstracts and manuscripts.
