Research In Practice Blog

As 2025 comes to a close, we are reflecting on a year that has been both challenging and rewarding for the Center. This extraordinary year presents an opportunity to highlight and share some of our achievements, showcasing the successes and important work of our faculty, other investigators, and research staff over the past year. 

About Clinical Futures:  

• As a Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) Research Institute Center of Emphasis, we celebrate 18 years of innovative pediatric clinical effectiveness research and collaboration. (Three of those years being ‘Clinical Futures.’)  
   
• We’ve expanded our Research In Practice Blog and have posted over 100 entries.  
   
• With 110 faculty members, over 120 researchers and staff members, we are one of the largest Centers of Emphasis within the CHOP Research Institute.  
   
• In 2025, we hired 8 clinical research staff members, and we added 7 new faculty members to the Center. Those new faculty members include Drs. Grace Chan, Sanjiv Mehta, Anna Costello, Elizabeth Diemer, Nikhil Pai, Michael Luke, and Pranita Tamma. They are a wonderfully talented group, and I am so pleased that they joined us.
   
• We hosted 28 seminars led by core faculty, fellows, or collaborators.  
   
• These included 8 speaker series sessions and 20 works-in-progress sessions, which allowed presenters to receive feedback from fellows and faculty at all levels for projects in all stages of development.  
   
• We also hosted 2 visiting speakers who presented topics aligned with our methodological pillars and overall mission.  
   
• In addition, we co-hosted 5 speaker series with the Clinical Trials Research Affinity Group.
   
• 5 fellows are currently participating in the Pediatric Hospital Epidemiology and Outcomes Research Training (PHEOT) Fellowship co-directed by Clinical Futures faculty.  
   
• 2 fellows are currently participating in the AGP Fellowship co-directed by Clinical Futures Core Faculty Member Kate Yun, MD, MHS.
   
• 5 fellows are currently participating in the Clinical Pharm T32 fellowship co-directed by Clinical Futures Core Faculty Member Kevin Downes, MD.

Awards and Funding:  

• Our Pilot Grants Program:
  • In February 2025, we announced our pilot grant recipients:

    • Charmaine Mutucumarana, MD, Dr. Rebecca Same, MD, and Kathleen Chiotos, MD, MSCE 
      Formative Evaluation of Clinician Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices on Utilization of Procalcitonin (PCT) in a Pediatric Health System

      Clinical Futures / PolicyLab Pilot Grant program, Clinical Effectiveness Track

  • This month, we announced our most recent round of pilot grant recipients, including:
     
    • Michael Luke, MD, MSPH; Chén Kenyon, MD, MSHP; Jordan Wood, MPH  
      Prevalence and Predictors of Guideline-Discordant Albuterol Co-Prescribing among Hospitalized Children with Asthma on SMART   
      Clinical Futures Implementation Science Track  
    • Brooke Luo, MD; Halley Ruppel, PhD, RN; James Won, PhD; Eric Shelo, MD; Kenrick Cato, PhD, RN  
      Clinician-Led Evaluation and Assessment of Responsible AI (CLEAR-AI): Developing an evaluation framework for the use of generative AI in pediatrics  
      Clinical Futures / PolicyLab Pilot Grant program, Clinical Effectiveness Track  
    • Tracy Waasdorp, PhD; Brooke Paskewich, PsyD  
      Advancing Early Childhood Socioemotional Skills and Aggression Prevention: Partnering to Refine the Novel Friendship Explorers Program  
      Clinical Futures / PolicyLab Pilot Grant program, Clinical Effectiveness Track
       
  • You can learn more about our pilot grant programs and previous awardees by visiting the pilot grant pages on PolicyLab’s website and by visiting the pilot grant program section of Clinical Futures' website.
     
• Clinical Futures faculty members were awarded over $66M in new grant funding in the past year.  
   
• This brings total grant funding obtained by Clinical Futures faculty members since inception to approximately $439M. We share this figure to show our gratitude and appreciation to our funding partners and highlight what these awards allow us to do as a Center. These funds support the vital work and research of our faculty, principal investigators, and staff as we continue to discover best practices and improve the standard of care delivered to our patients.  
   
• Our grant funding effort was greatly aided by the Clinical Futures/PolicyLab Grant Writing unit, which was involved in the submission of a truly remarkable 74 grant proposals in the past calendar year.  
   
• CHOP Research Institute awarded five CHOP researchers with Clinical Fellow/Instructor K-Readiness Pilot Grants. Recipients from Clinical Futures include:
  • Hilary Whitworth, MD, MSCE received funding for her pilot project titled 'Predicting Recurrent Central Venous Catheter Associated Venous Thromboembolism' which aims to develop risk-adapted thromboprophylaxis strategies to decrease recurrent thrombosis in children.
  • Daniel Zheng, MD, MHS, MSHP was awarded for the pilot project ‘Characterizing Financial Toxicity and Caregiver Work Disruption During Pediatric AML Treatment.’ This prospective, mixed methods study aims to utilize surveys and interviews to better understand the longitudinal experience of how treatment for pediatric AML, a rare blood cancer, affects caregivers' experience with work and finances. Dr. Zheng's mentors include Clinical Futures' Core Faculty Member Richard Aplenc, MD, PhD, MSCE, and Clinical Futures Affiliate Faculty Member Kelly Getz, PhD, MPH. You can learn more about these grants and other recipients on the Research Institute’s Cornerstone Blog here.

Publications and Press:  

• Clinical Futures had over 20 print media features and dozens of interviews with major media outlets like AAP News, CBS News, CNN, Health Day, MedPage Today, Medscape, NBC News, Consumer Reports, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Associated Press, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Today, and WHYY. Visit our Press Room here.
   
• The CHOP Newsroom also featured Clinical Futures in many press releases and news alerts this year, including these important stories and topics:
  • Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Researchers Observe Significant Reduction in Diagnosis of Food Allergies Following Expert Guidelines Encouraging Early Peanut Exposure
    The study received national awareness, even being mentioned in a joke on Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update.
  • Automated Smoking Interventions Offered to Parents through Pediatric Primary Care May Curb Their Tobacco Habits
  • CHOP Leads Quality Improvement Effort to Increase Dental Varnish Rates
     
• Faculty and staff members from Clinical Futures published over 600 peer-reviewed publications in a wide variety of journals. See our ‘Recent Publications’ archive here.  
   
• Clinical Futures and researchers from our Center were featured on the CHOP Research Institute’s Cornerstone blog over 30 times in 2025.  
  • Including these blog posts:
    • Advancing Early Careers and Surgical Outcomes Research in Kidney Stone Disease
    • CHOP Researchers Receive Smoking Treatment Accreditation Recognition
    • CHOP Helps Lead Newly Established Palliative Care Research Consortium
    • Which Factors Drive Disparities in Nirsevimab Uptake to Prevent RSV in Infants?
    • Research Team Studies Antimicrobial Stewardship Strategy for Mild Pneumonia
  • Other notable posts include:
    • CHOP Women in STEM Talk Research, Resilience, and Reframing Challenges featuring Danielle L. Cullen, MD, MPH, MSHP and Holly Burnside
    • Researchers Take Family-centered Care Approach in Study of Follow-up Visits featuring Christopher Bonafide, MD, MSCE

• In March, a team of CHOP and Clinical Futures researchers were awarded the Smoking Treatment Accreditation Recognition (STAR) from the Health Promotion Council for their work to expand access to tobacco-dependence treatments for patients and their families. The award stems from the successful integration of an electronic health record-integrated tobacco cessation platform called eCEASE, which connects families to tobacco cessation services within CHOP’s Primary Care Network. Evidence shows this innovative tool can significantly improve health outcomes and help participants end smoking habits.  

  The interdisciplinary research team responsible for developing this tool includes Clinical Futures’ experts Brian Jenssen, MD, MSHP, Alex Fiks, MD, MSCE, Jeritt Thayer, PhD, and Robert Grundmeier, MD, as well as  Jan Ramachandran, MS, MPH, and Maura Powell, MPH. Read more in this Research in Practice Blog post.

• This year The Possibilities Project collaborated with specialty care departments and CHOP Digital Health to develop shared care models that increase utilization of eConsults and improve headache care in the primary care setting. The virtual driving assessment (VDA) in primary care crossed a milestone of over 10,000 CHOP primary care teens completing a virtual driving assessment, and we continued integration of work into the clinical workflow. In collaboration with Dr. Dorothy Novick and colleagues at CIRP, we piloted and scaled a gun safety screener across the Care Network, offering gun locks to over 8,000 CHOP patients and families.  In November, primary care questionnaires were made available in 4 additional languages with a new process that allows a family to choose their preferred language in the workflow, improving language equity for over 18,000 non-English speaking families in the Care Network.    
   
• Sabrina Gmuca, MD. MSCE, received the 2025 Childhood Arthritis and Rheumatology Research Alliance (CARRA) Outstanding Early Investigator Award for her work to prevent, treat, and cure pediatric rheumatic diseases. The CARRA awards honor people who have made outstanding achievements in advancing pediatric rheumatology research and have worked tirelessly to improve the lives of children living with rheumatic and related autoimmune diseases. The awards were presented at the CARRA’s annual scientific dinner in April. Read more about the awards here.
   
• Clinical Futures expert Allison Barz Leahy, MD, MSCE is part of a team receiving a $25,000 award from the National Marrow Donor Program. She will be a co-investigator in a study led by Clifton Thornton, PhD, MSN, RN, CPNP, a pediatric nurse practitioner and scientist with CHOP’s Center for Pediatric Nursing Research and Evidence-Based Practice. The grant will help fund a study that uses natural language processing to search the electronic health records of children who've had stem cell transplants and extract information about their common chemotherapy side effects, especially mucositis. Learn more about the program and grant information here.
   
• The Abramson Cancer Center announced the appointment of Theodore W. Laetsch, MD and Sogol Mostoufi-Moab, MD, MSCE as Co-Leaders of the Pediatric Oncology Research Program. Dr. Mostoufi-Moab is Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine, an attending physician at CHOP and a Core Faculty Member in Clinical Futures. Her research program focuses on discovery and translation of new knowledge into novel treatment for endocrine outcomes, particularly for children, adolescents, and young adult survivors of childhood cancer. Dr. Mostoufi-Moab has been an active member of the ACC’s Pediatric Oncology Research Program since 2016. Read more about the appointment here.
   
• Elizabeth E. Foglia, MD, MSCE, an attending physician in the Division of Neonatology and principal investigator of the Delivery Room of the Future Frontier Program at CHOP, and Christopher Bonafide, MD, MSCE, Associate Chief of the Division of General Pediatrics and Co-Associate Director for Implementation Science of Clinical Futures at CHOP, will co-lead the Supraglottic Airway for Resuscitation (SUGAR) Trial. They will be exploring new ways to promote widespread implementation of neonatal resuscitation practices after being awarded $7.1 million in funding from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). Read more.
   
• Researchers from CHOP, including Clinical Futures experts, Emily F. Gregory, MD, MHS, and Scott A. Lorch, MD, MSCE were awarded a $4.3 million R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to address knowledge gaps regarding Medicaid enrollment in early adulthood. They will investigate the links between Medicaid enrollment and birth outcomes. Read more.
   
• Clinical Futures expert Katherine Yun, MD, MHS, was a co-recipient of 2025 Carole Marcus Mid-Career Award to promote career development and mentoring in pediatric research. Dr. Yun aims to improve the quality of care for children in the United States by identifying and addressing disparities in access and quality of care for immigrant children and children whose families speak languages other than English. This award will support her plans to initiate Advancing Techniques for Health research Engagement through Non-English Adaptation (ATHENA). This novel program will offer immediate and long-term mentorship for trainees and faculty seeking expertise in multilingual child health research methods. The Department of Pediatrics and CHOP Research Institute sponsors the Carole Marcus Mid-Career Award in memory of pioneering sleep researcher Carole Marcus, MBBCh, who was an outstanding and generous mentor for many fellows and faculty. The award aims to foster a culture of research mentoring to facilitate the successful research careers of junior investigators.
   
• George Dalembert, MD, MSHP, received the Duncan Van Dusen Professionalism Award for Faculty. The Van Dusen Award recognizes a faculty member whose respectful approach, integrity, self-awareness, and personal accountability are exemplary of the ongoing elevation of the culture at Penn and of the promotion of exceptional patient care experiences. Read more.
   
• CHOP and Clinical Futures experts Christina Master, MD, FAAP, CAQSM, FACSM, Michael O'Byrne, MD, MSCE, and Joanne Wood, MD, MSHP, are among seven physicians and researchers selected to join the American Pediatric Society. Learn more here.
   
• Clinical Futures Core Faculty member, Michael O'Byrne, MD, MSCE, was appointed as the inaugural Director of Clinical Research at CHOP's Cardiovascular Institute. Dr. O’Byrne will lead the development of a comprehensive clinical research strategy that integrates clinical science with basic and translational research. He will also foster interactions with the clinicians and researchers in the CHOP Cardiac Center, a renowned center for the care of children with cardiovascular disease. Learn more in this CHOP press release.
   
• Pamela F. Weiss, MD, MSCE, Professor of Pediatrics and Epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania and the Associate Director of Clinical Trials at Clinical Futures, received the American College of Rheumatology Excellence in Investigative Mentoring Award! The Excellence in Investigative Mentoring Award recognizes the importance of the mentor/mentee relationship. Dr. Weis’ research centers on early diagnosis, precise phenotyping and targeted treatment of pediatric spondyloarthritis (SpA). Learn more.
   
• In a CSO Connection, Dr. Susan Furth highlighted research-focused faculty who have assumed notable new roles within Penn. This includes Clinical Futures’ Core Faculty member Sogol Mostoufi-Moab, MD, MSCE. Dr. Mostoufi-Moad was appointed as Penn Faculty Senate Executive Committee Pediatrics Faculty Representative.  Learn more here.
   
• Clinical Futures experts Robert Grundmeier, MD, Interim Chief Research Informatics Officer, and Hojjat Salmasian, MD, MPH, PhD, Vice President and Chief Data and Analytics Officer, were selected to the 2025 Class of Fellows of the American College of Medical Informatics (ACMI). This acknowledgement is a prestigious honor bestowed on 24 individuals in the field of informatics who demonstrate thought leadership, deep expertise, and scholarly achievement. Their contributions to biomedicine and healthcare inform, educate, and inspire the informatics community to advance human health. The new Fellows were inducted on Nov. 16 at a ceremonial dinner during the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) Annual Symposium. To learn more, see the AMIA press release.
   
• Caitlin Elgarten, MD, MSCE, a Clinical Futures expert, was selected as one of 79 physician-researchers nationwide to join Cohort 5 of the Winn Career Development Award (Winn CDA) Program. This prestigious two-year program empowers physician-scientists to advance community-focused clinical research and improve access to innovative treatments for all patients. Dr. Elgarten is a core faculty member at Clinical Futures and serves as an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Oncology at CHOP. She leads a clinical research program dedicated to optimizing supportive care for children with cancer and those undergoing stem cell transplants. Read more about this announcement here.
   
• Chris Feudtner, MD, PhD, MPH, Chief of the Division of General Pediatrics, and an expert at Clinical Futures at CHOP, is one of the multiple principal investigators (MPI) of a new consortium focused on palliative care research. Dr. Feudtner will oversee the consortium's commitment to research across the lifespan, as well as addressing ethical issues that arise in the consortium's activities. Established with a five-year, $64 million National Institutes of Health grant, the Advancing the Science of Palliative Care Research Across the Lifespan (ASCENT) Consortium will provide resources, expertise, and coordination to advance innovative, high-quality research for those living with serious illness and their caregivers. Learn more about the ASCENT Consortium in this press release.
   
• Clinical Futures announced that Jennifer A. Mautone, PhD, ABPP, has been appointed as the new Director of the Pediatric Research Consortium (PeRC), CHOP’s primary care research network, effective July 1, 2025. Previously, Dr. Mautone served as the Associate Director of PeRC since July 2024. 
   
• Congratulations to Gregory Tasian, MD, MSc, MSCE, for his promotion to Professor of Surgery in the Tenure Track. Dr. Tasian and his research team use an epidemiologic framework, including randomized trials and multi-institutional observational studies, to examine the etiology of kidney stone disease and the comparative effectiveness of surgical interventions. He also employs machine learning of complex data to improve diagnosis, risk stratification, and prediction of treatment response for children and adults with benign urologic disease.
   
• CHOP’s Department of Pediatrics has promoted the following Clinical Futures Core Faculty members to new appointments:
  • Lisa Schwartz, PhD, promoted to the Rank of Professor
  • Catherine Avitabile, MD, promoted to the Rank of Associate Professor
     
• Chris Feudtner, MD, PhD, MPH, Jim Guevara, MD, MPH, Ron Keren, MD, MPH, and Jennifer Walter, MD, PhD, MS, were elected to the College of Physicians of Philadelphia.
   
• George Dalembert, MD, MSHP, and Emma Edmondson, MD, MSHP, were elected to the Early Faculty Honor Roll for 2025.
   
• The 2025 Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) Conference was held on April 24-28, 2025 in Honolulu, Hawaii. The PAS Meeting attracted over 7,500 scientific attendees, hosted over 600 scientific sessions, and featured more than 3,300 posters on groundbreaking topics across more than 70 pediatric specialties. Clinical Futures and PolicyLab were represented by more than 30 members who represented a variety of disciplines and research areas. Here is a schedule of Clinical Futures and PolicyLab researchers who presented. For more information, visit the PAS 2025 website.
   
• Experts from Clinical Futures joined Penn LDI for a one-day conference exploring Penn Medicine’s contributions to population health. The event, titled,  “The Future of Health and Healthcare Conference| Exploring Penn Medicine’s Impact on Population Health Over the Past 30 years—and How Their Work is Shaping the Future of Health Care,” featured keynote speakers, including Clinical Futures leaders, and sessions on translating research into population health impact, identifying and alleviating health inequities, and Penn’s public health impact at local, national, and global levels. The conference included panel discussions, networking opportunities, and a happy hour. View the full agenda here. 
   
  Clinical Futures experts contributed to the following sessions:  
  • “Improving Asthma Outcome through Community-Based Work”- Tyra Bryant-Stephens, MD
  • “Improving Access to Benefit Programs to Promote Health Equity” – Aditi Vasan, MD, MSHP
  • “Pediatric Primary Care: Local and National Impact” – Alexander Fiks, MD, MSCE
  • “The Future of Health and Healthcare” Panel Discussion – Meredith Matone, DrPH, MHS
     
• Over 180 CHOP physicians made the Philadelphia Magazine's Top Doctor list, including five Clinical Futures Core Faculty members: Sandra Amaral, MD, MHS, Richard Aplenc, MD, PhD, MSCE, Jeffrey Gerber, MD, PhD, Robert Grundmeier, MD, and Gregory Tasian, MD, MSc, MSCE. Read more here.
   
• 10 CHOP physicians made Main Line Today’s Top Doctor list, including Clinical Futures Core Faculty Members: Gregory Tasian, MD, MSc, MSCE. Read more here.  

Now that you have learned more about Clinical Futures, we encourage you to stay engaged with us. Subscribe to the Research in Practice blog and follow us on our LinkedIn, X, and YouTube, for the latest news and research from the Center. We look forward to what 2026 will bring as we continue to advance clinical effectiveness research and improve outcomes for our patients and their families.