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Ranked #8 Nationally by U.S. News & World Report.
Under the leadership of Kristin Ray, MD, MS, researchers aim to understand and improve pediatric health care delivery systems. Considering the perspectives of patients, families, clinicians, and systems, the research group works to promote access to equitable, family-centered, and high-quality health care for all children.
The studies by Dr. Ray and her team have shed light on how technology, geography, and other factors impact pediatric patient health care. For example, a recent study compared differences in the quality of antibiotic prescribing among children in three different settings: doctor visit, urgent care center and remotely via telemedicine visit. Other studies have revealed differences in the amount of time some minority groups spend waiting to see clinicians.
By understanding barriers to pediatric primary, emergency, and subspecialty care and the impact of these barriers on children and their families, the Pediatric Health Systems Research Group can guide strategies to improve access to care, including optimizing the use of new health information technologies such as telemedicine and electronic consultations.
The work of the Ray Lab incorporates qualitative and quantitative methods, including geospatial analyses, user-centered design, clinical informatics, quality improvement methodologies, and stakeholder engagement.
Research efforts are focused on:
Principal Investigator kristin.ray@chp.edu Read More>>
Research Coordinator Sarah Burns, MSW, LSW
Research Analyst Sam Wittman, MS
Post-Doctoral Scholars James Bohnhoff, MD Jacquelin Rankine, MD, MS Kelsey Schweiberger, MD
Resident Researcher Nithin Ravi, MD, MPH
Medical Student Katherine Martin
Undergraduate Researchers Kaila Alston Rhea Verma
Research Group Alumni Katherine Gitz, MD Florence Kwok, MPH Gina Sequeira MD, MS Deepika Yeramosu Justin Yu, MD, MS
The Ray Pediatric Health Care Systems Research Group UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh Children’s Hospital Office Building 3414 Fifth Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15213 412-692-7497
View current achievements and presentations below featuring the research, staff and advancements of the Ray Pediatric Health Systems Research Group at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh’s Richard King Mellon Institute for Pediatric Research. Please check back often for continued updates.
Kristin Ray, MD, MS, and collaborators received R01 funding from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for a project titled “Understanding Use of Direct-to-consumer Telemedicine for Pediatric Acute Respiratory Infections”, also known as the CACTUS Study (Children and Colds Telemedicine Use Study).
Gina Sequeira, MD, MS, completed her adolescent fellowship training and will start a faculty position at Seattle Children’s Hospital, where she successfully competed for a K12 award to improve care for transgender youth.
Rhea Verma received a University of Pittsburgh Brackenridge Fellowship from Pitt Honors College.
Deepika Yeramosu was accepted to pursue graduate studies at Carnegie Mellon University.
Kristin Ray, MD, MS, became director of the General Academic Pediatrics research fellowship program.
James Bohnhoff, MD, Katherine Gitz, MD, and Jacqueline Rankine, MD, MS, completed their pediatric residencies.
Dr. Gitz was recognized for Best Resident Poster at the UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh Resident Research Day.
Spreading Access to Pediatric Care, a podcast by Kristin Ray, MD, MS, was added to the That’s Pediatrics series.
Kristin Ray, MD, MS, was appointed to a three-year term on the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Committee on Pediatric Workforce. Dr. Ray also received the Nemours Child Health Services Research Award during at the 2018 Child Health Services Research Interest Group meeting at the AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting in Seattle, Washington.
Katherine Gitz, MD, was awarded an American Academy of Pediatrics CATCH grant to fund research to examine parent perspectives on ways to improve access at the primary care medical home.
Jacquelin Rankine, MD, MS, received an American Pediatric Association Resident Investigator Award to fund qualitative work to understand how pediatricians and school nurses can improve partnerships.
Multiple presentations at the AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting, Washington, D.C. Topics covered: understanding how pediatric health systems can better serve transgender youth; research validating methods to identify telemedicine encounters in claims data; and our work leading a quality-improvement initiative to enhance dental care within primary care practices.
Justin Yu, MD, MS, delivered “Family Experiences of Care Coordination Prior to Treatment at a Complex Care Center,” a poster presentation, at the Pediatric Academic Societies Meeting, Baltimore.
Gina Sequeira, MD, MS, delivered “Transgender Youth’s Disclosure of Gender Identity to Providers Outside of Specialized Gender Centers,” at the poster symposium, Annual Meeting of the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine, Washington, D.C.
At the Pediatric Academic Societies Meeting in Toronto, Kristin Ray, MD, MS, presented “How do Pediatric Patients use Direct-to-consumer Telemedicine?” and “Trends in Visits to Primary Care Physicians by Children, 2008-2015,” both platform presentations. James Bohnhoff, MD, presented on “Unscheduled Referrals and Unattended Visits after Subspecialty Referral in a Large Pediatric Primary Care Network,” a poster presentation.
UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh Grand Rounds presentation by Dr. Ray, entitled, “Integrating Telemedicine into Pediatric Health Care Delivery Systems.”
Kristin Ray, MD, MS, presented “Electronic Referrals: Improving Patient Access and Pediatrician Satisfaction,” a platform presentation at the Child Health Services Interest Group Meeting, AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting, New Orleans.
View current news below featuring the research, staff and advancements of the Ray Pediatric Health Systems Research Group at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh’s Richard King Mellon Institute for Pediatric Research. Please check back often for continued updates.
Pediatric Primary Care Visits Drop & Fluctuate During COVID UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh News Release (5/10/21)
What do the Families of Sick Kids Need Right Now WESA-FM, Pittsburgh (4/28/20)
Visits to Pediatricians on the Decline UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh News Release (1/21/20)
Antibiotics Prescribed More Often During Telemedicine Visits NIH Research Matters (4/23/19)
Telemedicine Not Ideal for Kids With Respiratory Infections Reuters (4/9/19)
Telemedicine Tied to More Antibiotics for Kids, Study Finds U.S. News & World Report (AP) (4/8/19)
Telemedicine Tied to More Antibiotics for Kids, Study Finds Washington Post (AP) (4/8/19)
Telemedicine May Be Giving Kids Too Many Antibiotics Forbes.com (4/8/19)
Study: Telehealth use Uncommon, Particularly in Rural America Forbes (11/27/18)
Telemedicine Surging in US but use Still Uncommon Reuters (11/27/2018)
When There’s a Hurricane Between you and the Hospital, Telemedicine Could Save the Day Popular Science (5/14/2018)
You Mean I Don’t Have to Show Up? The Promise of Telemedicine New York Times (5/16/2016)
Average American Loses $43 During Each Doctor Visit NBC News (10/7/2015)
Study: How Long You Wait to See a Doctor is Linked to Race, Employment Huffington Post (10/6/2015)
Race and Employment Tied to US Clinic Wait Times Reuters (10/5/2015)
Racial Inequality Even Affects how Long we Wait for the Doctor Washington Post Blog (10/5/2015)
It Costs you $43 Every Time you Wait for the Doctor Boston Globe (10/5/2015)
Disparities in Time Spent Seeking Medical Care in the United States Medical Xpress (10/5/2015)
Paying for Health Care With Time Harvard Gazette (10/5/2015)
Parent Perspectives on Family-Centered Pediatric Electronic Consultations: Qualitative Study Verma R, Krishnamurti T, Ray KN Journal of Medical Internet Research 2020 Apr 9
Trends in Pediatric Primary Care Visits Among Commercially Insured US Children, 2008-2016 Ray KN, Shi Z, Ganguli I, Rao A, Orav EJ, Mehrotra A JAMA Pediatrics 2020 Jan 21
Quality of Antibiotic Prescribing for Acute Respiratory Infections During Pediatric Direct-to-consumer Telemedicine Visits (includes Video Abstract) Ray KN, Shi Z, Gidengil C, Poon S, Usher-Pines L, Mehrotra A Pediatrics Apr 2019
Referring Hospital Characteristics Associated With Potentially Avoidable Emergency Department Transfers Ray KN, Marin JR, Li J, Davis BS, Kahn JM Academic Emergency Medicine 2019 Feb
Use of Commercial Direct-to-consumer Telemedicine by Children Ray KN, Shi Z, Poon S, Uscher-Pines L, Mehrotra A Academic Pediatrics 2019 Jan 10
Quality of Care for Acute Respiratory Infections During Direct-to-Consumer Telemedicine Visits for Adults Shi Z, Mehrotra A, Gidengil C, Poon S, Usher-Pines L, Ray KN Health Aff (Millwood) 2018 Dec
Trends in Telemedicine use in a Large Commercially Insured Population Barnett ML, Ray KN, Souza J, Mehrotra A JAMA 2018 Nov 27
Virtual First Responders: The Role of Direct-to-consumer Telemedicine in Caring for People Impacted by Natural Disasters Uscher-Pines L, Fischer S, Tong I, Mehrotra A, Malsberger R, Ray KN Journal for General Internal Medicine 2018 Aug
Implementation of Electronically-transmitted Referrals and Pediatric Subspecialty Visit Attendance Ray KN, Drnach M, Mehrotra A, Suresh S, Docimo S Academic Pediatrics 2018 May-June
Access to High Pediatric-Readiness Emergency Care in the U.S. Ray KN, Olson LM, Edgerton EA, Ely M, Gausche-Hill M, Schmuhl P, Wallace DJ, Kahn JM Journal of Pediatrics 2018 Mar
Trends in Visits to Specialist Physicians Involving Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants, 2001-2013 Ray KN, Martsolf GR, Mehrotra A, Barnett ML JAMA Internal Medicine 2017 Aug 1
Clinician Attitudes Toward Adoption of Pediatric Emergency Telemedicine in Rural Hospitals Ray KN, Felmet KA, Hamilton MF, Kuza CC, Saladino RA, Schultz BR, Watson RS, Kahn JM Pediatric Emergency Care 2017 Apr
Family Perspectives on High-quality Pediatric Subspecialty Referrals Ray KN, Ashcraft LE, Kahn JM, Mehrotra A, Miller E Academic Pediatrics 2016 Aug
Disparities in Time Spent Seeking Medical Care in the U.S. Ray KN, Chari AV, Engberg J, Bertolet M, Mehrotra A JAMA Internal Medicine 2015 Dec 1
The Ray Pediatric Health System Research Group is looking for talented post-doctoral fellows and graduate students interested in understanding and improving health care system access, equity, and outcomes. See our research group statement on inclusion and equity (PDF).
Please contact Dr. Ray via email if you are interested.
You can also follow Dr. Ray on twitter at @KRayHSR.
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