Child & Adolescent Health
“Kids have so much potential. How can we optimize their health?”
Rita Mangione-Smith, MD, MPH
Vice President for Research and Health Care Innovation
Executive Director of Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute
Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute Senior Investigator
Research overview
Babies, children, and teens have specific health needs. Research and evaluation at Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute (KPWHRI) covers family health from pregnancy through childhood and early adulthood.
KPWHRI research and evaluation topics in child and adolescent health include:
- drug safety during pregnancy
- pediatric care quality in health systems
- quality of care for respiratory illnesses
- care and transitions for hospitalized children
- implementation of screening for adverse childhood experiences
- quality of youth mental health care
- programs to support trauma and resilience-informed care for youth
- impact of social determinants of health
- disease prevention through vaccines
“We’re working with families, helping them make healthy eating, exercise, and preventive care part of their busy daily lives,” says Paula Lozano, MD, MPH, Washington Permanente Medical Group associate medical director for research and translation, KPWHRI senior investigator, and Washington Permanente Medical Group pediatrician.
Recent publications on Child & Adolescent Health
Connell SK, Burkhart Q, Tolpadi A, Parast L, Gidengil CA, Yung S, Basco WT, Williams D, Britto MT, Brittan M, Wood KE, Bardach N, McGalliard J, Mangione-Smith R. Quality of care for youth hospitalized for suicidal ideation and self-harm: quality of inpatient care for suicidal ideation. Acad Pediatr. 2021 Sep-Oct;21(7):1179-1186. doi: 10.1016/j.acap.2021.05.019. Epub 2021 May 28. PubMed
Penfold RB, Hilt RJ, Schwartz N, Thompson EE, Robb AS, Correll CU, Newton D, Rogalski K, Earls MF, Kowatch RA, Beck A, Yarborough BJ, Crystal S, Kelleher KJ. Development of a symptom-focused model to guide the prescribing of antipsychotics in children and adolescents: results of the first phase of the Safer and Targeted Use of Antipsychotics (SUAY) clinical trial. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2021 May 4:S0890-8567(21)00276-8. doi: 10.1016/j.jaac.2021.04.010. Online ahead of print.
Foster CC, Fuentes MM, Wadlington LA, Jacob-Files E, Desai AD, Simon TD, Mangione-Smith R. Caregiver and provider experiences of physical, occupational, and speech therapy for children with medical complexity. J Pediatr Rehabil Med. 2021 Apr 29. doi: 10.3233/PRM-190647. [Epub ahead of print]. PubMed
Lion KC, Gritton J, Scannell J, Brown JC, Ebel BE, Klein EJ, Mangione-Smith R. Patterns and predictors of professional interpreter use in the pediatric emergency department. Pediatrics. 2021 Feb;147(2):e20193312. doi: 10.1542/peds.2019-3312. PubMed
Bowles EJA, Miglioretti DL, Kwan ML, Bartels U, Furst A, Cheng SY, Lau C, Greenlee RT, Weinmann S, Marlow EC, Rahm AK, Stout NK, Bolch WE, Theis MK, Smith-Bindman R, Pole JD. Long-term medical imaging use in children with central nervous system tumors. PLoS One. 2021 Apr 21;16(4):e0248643. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0248643. eCollection 2021. PubMed
Researchers in Child & Adolescent Health
 Paula Lozano, MD, MPHSenior Investigator, Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute; |
 Lisa A. Jackson, MD, MPHSenior Investigator |
 Sascha Dublin, MD, PhDSenior Investigator |
 Cara C. Lewis, PhD, HSPPAssociate Investigator |
 Rita Mangione-Smith, MD, MPHVice President for Research and Health Care Innovation, Kaiser Permanente Washington; Executive Director and Senior Investigator, Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute |
 Robert Penfold, PhDSenior Investigator |
adjunct and Affiliate researchers
John Dunn, MD, MPH
Pediatrician
Washington Permanente Medical Group
Medical Director of Preventive Care
Kaiser Permanente Washington
Gina Sucato, MD, MPH
Director of Adolescent Health Services
Washington Permanente Medical Group
Doug Opel, MD, MPH
Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics
University of Washington
Laura P. Richardson, MD, MPH
Adolescent Medicine
Seattle Children's Hospital
Professor, Department of Pediatrics
University of Washington
Behind the scenes
Meeting participants' needs: Our research interventionists
Deborah King and Jessie Waiamau-Ariota describe their pivotal role in research on youth mental health — and more.
news
Screening for adverse childhood experiences
KPWHRI’s Center for Community Health and Evaluation offers 5 recommendations to improve ACEs screens.
Improving Pediatric Care
For better pediatric care, back guidelines with more evidence
In the 2000s, Dr. Beth McGlynn showed that rates of getting recommended care are low. In a new JAMA editorial, Dr. David Grossman has ideas to improve them.
Read it in Healthy Findings.
research projects
Research projects overview for Dr. Rita Mangione-Smith
Dr. Rita Mangione-Smith develops innovative ways to pinpoint which medical treatments, procedures and practices improve patients’ health outcomes, and which ones need improvement.
Prevention
How to keep guns—and troubled teens—safe
Dr. Grossman’s team has studied safe gun storage. But they found parents of adolescents with mental illness were no more likely to store guns safely.
Read about it in Healthy Findings.
KPWHRI In the Media
When does your child need antibiotics?
How do I know if my kid needs antibiotics?
New York Times, Apr 17, 2020
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