Shedding timely light on a year-round research focus: diabetes
Division of Child Health Research and Policy (CHeRP)
Conducting research that enhances health care decision-making by patients and their families, clinicians, and policymakers, and improves the quality of pediatric care in health care delivery systems.
About the Division
We are a multidisciplinary research group. Our association with Point32Health offers special opportunities to conduct population-based studies of health care practices and health outcomes in large groups of patients and clinicians. Our investigators are Harvard Medical School faculty appointed in the Department of Population Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, or both.
Our research addresses conditions that impact child health such as obesity, diabetes, eye disease, arthritis, and rare diseases. We use several approaches in our research including machine learning, epidemiology, health economics, decision sciences, qualitative research, and health services research methods.
Research
Our active research portfolio addresses four major areas that affect pediatric health.
Research Areas
Genomics involves the study of the human genome, and how genes contribute to the development of health conditions. Our team is conducting patient- and population-level studies regarding:
- Clinical and economic evaluations of genomic screening interventions
- Decision-maker preferences for genomic sequencing outcomes
- Frameworks for implementing genomic sequencing into clinical care
- Ethical, legal, and social considerations when integrating precision medicine into clinical care
- Care coordination and management for children with rare, genetic diseases
- Measuring health outcomes and resource utilization for children who have been evaluated for genetic conditions
Health policy is defined as the regulations, decisions, and actions that are undertaken to achieve specific healthcare goals within society. Our research studies:
- Health insurance offerings and choice
- The relationship between health insurance and health outcomes
- The impact of state- and national-level health policies on population health
- Ethical considerations for policymaking
Medical Decision Making involves studying how patients, clinicians, payers, and/or policymakers make decisions about the use and allocation of health care resources in complex scenarios. We conduct studies about:
- The cost and cost-effectiveness of screening, prevention, and treatment interventions
- The natural history and future trajectory of health conditions under different policy or treatment scenarios
- How decision makers value different policies, services, or outcomes
- Health-related quality of life for children and their caregivers
- Health communication
Quality of care research studies the degree to which health services increase the likelihood of desired health outcomes. Our research addresses the following elements of quality for a range of chronic health conditions:
- Effectiveness, providing evidence-based services to all who could benefit while minimizing misuse of services
- Safety, avoiding harm to patients
- Timeliness, reducing wait times to avoid potentially harmful delays
- Efficiency, avoiding waste in the health care system
- Patient-centeredness, providing care that is respectful of and responsive to patient preferences, needs, and values
Research Projects
Our research is driven by our commitment to improving the health of all pediatric populations.
Who We Are
We are a team of general pediatricians, pediatric specialists, epidemiologists, social scientists, and research/administrative staff.
Join our team!
We embody a wide collection of talents, expertise, and backgrounds, cultivating a dynamic and collaborative environment.
Division of Child Health Research and Policy (CHeRP) News
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CHeRP Updates
Mei-Sing Ong has been promoted to Associate Professor of Population Medicine!
We welcomed Seungwon Lee, a postdoc research fellow, working on research projects with Mei-Sing Ong. His research focuses on understanding clinical data with statistical and machine learning approaches.
Jessica LeBlanc received the 2024 Gordon Moore Excellence in Mentoring Award!
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