The Division of Health Services Research (HSR), formerly known as the Division of General Academic Pediatrics (GAP), is a research division in the Department of Pediatrics at Boston Medical Center (BMC) and the Boston University (BU) Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine. The Division consists of researchers across the spectrum of pediatric health care, from general pediatrics to specialty care. Faculty, fellows, students, staff, and affiliated clinicians in the Division strive to use collaborative research to have impact on issues facing the health, development, and general wellbeing of children and families, especially those from historically marginalized populations.
The Division’s research portfolio includes pressing issues in pediatric health care including: social determinants of health (notably, economic mobility, food insecurity, and housing), health insurance policy, innovative care delivery and payment models, obesity and food insecurity, substance use disorder, health information technology, health effects of the criminal legal system, quality of care for asthma and sickle cell disease, maternal depression and dyadic car, behavioral health, breastfeeding, and community and interpersonal violence. Underlying this range of topics is a focus on equity, patient-centeredness, and community involvement. Division researchers collaborate within the Division and with colleagues in other BMC/BU Departments, the BU School of Public Health (BUSPH), and beyond, with funding from NIMH, PCORI, AHRQ, NIMHD, NHLBI, NIDA, MCHB, and foundations such as Noonan, Doris Duke, and Robert Wood Johnson. Additional information about specific research teams within the Division can be found below.
The Division participates in weekly Research Seminars which serve as Work-in-Progress sessions and as a forum for faculty, fellows, and affiliated students to present their work. These meetings are attended by researchers in the Pediatrics Department and the BMC/BU research community.
Contact us
Alison Galbraith, MD, MPH
Director, Division of Health Services Research
Director, General Academic Pediatrics Fellowship
Professor
Alison.Galbraith@bmc.org
Faculty members
William G Adams, MD – Bill.Adams@bmc.org
Director of Child Health Informatics
Professor
Dr. Adams research focuses on developing and evaluating translational informatics tools designed to improve the health and health equity of special populations like the ones served by Boston Medical Center and our affiliated Community Health Centers.
Sarah Bagley, MD, MSc – Sarah.Bagley@bmc.org
Medical Director, CATALYST
Associate Professor
Dr. Bagley’s research focuses on addressing youth opioid use.
Tehnaz Boyle, MD, PhD – Tehnaz.Boyle@bmc.org
Assistant Professor
Dr. Boyle’s research focuses on developing and testing technological interventions to improve patient outcomes in emergency settings.
Renee Boynton-Jarrett, MD, ScD – Renee.Boynton-Jarrett@bmc.org
Founding Director, Vital Village Community Engagement Network
Associate Professor
Dr. Boynton-Jarrett’s research focuses on the role of early-life adversities as life course social determinants of health.
Jeff Campbell, MD, MPH – Jeffrey.Campbell@bmc.org
Assistant Professor
Dr. Campbell’s research focuses on health services delivery and access to care for children with tuberculosis infection.
Robyn Cohen, MD, MPH – Robyn.Cohen@bmc.org
Associate Professor
Dr. Cohen’s research focuses on pulmonary complications of sickle cell anemia; asthma health disparities, pediatric asthma clinical research; asthma in Latino communities; social determinants of health.
Gaby Cordova Ramos, MD – Gabriela.CordovaRamos@bmc.org
Assistant Professor
Dr. Ramos’s research focus is on adapting evidence-based interventions to be more culturally and linguistically appropriate for diverse populations.
Kelsey Egan, MD, MSc – Kelsey.Egan@bmc.org
Assistant Professor
Dr. Egan's research interests focus on improving clinical-community integration in order to decrease inequities in health outcomes for children and families. She is particularly interested in developing and implementing interventions to prevent food insecurity in early childhood, a critical time period of rapid growth and development that forms the foundation for future health and well-being. She is interested in the use of health information technology to improve clinical-community integration.
Mei Elansary, MD, MPhil – Mei.Elansary@bmc.org
Assistant Professor
Dr. Elansary’s research focuses on maternal mental health and child development.
Stephanie Ettinger de Cuba, PhD, MPH - sedc@bu.edu
Executive Director, Children’s HealthWatch
Research Associate Professor
Dr. Ettinger de Cuba’s research focuses on children and families, health, the intersections of race/ethnicity and nativity, and the structural and policy factors underpinning these relationships. In particular, her expertise is in health inequities experienced by families with very young children and immigrant families and their children.
Emily Feinberg, ScD, MSc – Emily.Feinberb@bmc.org
Adjunct Professor
Dr. Feinberg’s research focuses on addressing disparities in behavioral health outcomes experienced by low income children.
Alison Galbraith, MD, MPH – Alison.Galbraith@bmc.org
Director, Division of Health Services Research
Director, General Academic Pediatrics Fellowship
Professor
Dr. Galbraith conducts health services research focused on how health insurance policy affects health care access and affordability for families with children.
Heather Hsu, MD, MPH – Heather.Hsu@bmc.org
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Dr. Hsu conducts health services research focused on examining the impact of value-based care implementation on quality of care, health equity, and the financial well-being of the healthcare safety-net.
Patricia Kavanagh, MD – Patricia.Kavanagh@bmc.org
Associate Professor
Dr. Kavanagh’s research focuses on the impact of screening and referring families with unmet basic needs on health on outcomes for children with sickle cell disease, and serving as a subject matter expert in a multisite randomized trial comparing individualized pain plans with weight-based protocols.
Lucy Marcil, MD, MPH – Lucy.Marcil@bmc.org
Executive Director, StreetCred
Associate Director, Economic Mobility, Center for the Urban Child and Healthy Family
Interim Director, Urban Health and Advocacy Track (UHAT), Boston Combined Residency program
Assistant Professor
Dr. Marcil’s work focuses on redesigning pediatric care to include economic justice and to create a culture of anti-poverty medicine.
Neena McConnico, PhD – Neena.McConnico@bmc.org
Executive Director, Child Witness to Violence Project
Director, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Assistant Professor
Dr. McConnico’s work focuses on how the impacts of trauma interface with children’s academic and social development.
Anne Merewood, PhD, MPH – Anne.Merewood@bmc.org
Director, CHEER (Center for Health Equity, Education and Research)
Associate Professor
Dr. Merewood’s research focuses on Implementation science, QI, maternal child health, humanitarian, public health and equity work.
Ana Poblacion, PhD, MSC – Ana.Poblacion@bmc.org
Assistant Professor
Dr. Poblacion's research focuses on pediatric nutrition and ending food insecurity in households with children through the increase in access to healthy foods.
Megan Sandel, MD, MPH – Megan.Sandel@bmc.org
Professor
Dr. Sandel’s research focuses on housing and child health.
Richard Sheward, MPP - Richard.Sheward@bmc.org
Director of System Implementation Strategies, Children's HealthWatch
Assistant Professor
Dr. Sheward’s research focuses on the association between health-related social needs (i.e., unstable housing and food insecurity) and young children and caregivers’ health. His research has since expanded to understand which health-related social needs measures are most effective and for whom.
Colin Sox, MD – Colin.Sox@bmc.org
Clinical Associate Professor
Dr. Sox conducts medical education research, including multi-center randomized controlled trials.
Michelle Stransky, PhD – Michelle.Stransky@bmc.org
Assistant Professor
Dr. Stransky’s research focuses on recommending improvements to policy and clinical practice that will reduce disparities.
Destiny Tolliver, MD - Destiny.Tolliver@bmc.org
Assistant Professor
Dr. Tolliver’s research focuses on how criminal legal system involvement impacts children and families, and what policies and practices work to improve health outcomes for these children.
Research groups
BOS Collaborative/PLUS Pediatric Housing Assistance
A $5 million philanthropic investment to establish neighborhood-based training strategies for 1,100 residents of color, and fund 250 new and preserved affordable housing units in historically underinvested Boston neighborhoods, including Black and Latinx communities.
Boston Birth Cohort
Initiated in 1998 is a large-scale molecular epidemiological study funded by the National Institute of Health, with a particular focus on environment factors, genetic variants, epigenomic alterations, and their interactions in adverse reproductive outcomes, food allergy and related conditions, and obesity and metabolic syndrome in children.
CATALYST
A program helps teens and young adults who use alcohol or drugs.
CHEER
A world class center for maternal child health advocacy, training, and research.
Children's Health Watch
Formerly known as the Children’s Sentinel Nutrition Assessment Program, monitors the impact of economic conditions and public policies on the health and well-being of very young children.
Innovation in Autism Inclusion Outreach and Transition Service
Assists and empowers autistic individuals and their families through direct patient support, provider education, and community-based outreach.
Project SOLVE
Aims to mitigate the impact of mental illness on vulnerable families by developing, testing, and disseminating strategies through novel care delivery systems.
R1/RDHRS Telehealth Team
Develop and implement a model for disaster telehealth services that provide rapid, temporary, on-demand access to clinical specialists across jurisdictions to support regional disaster health response in the United States.
StreetCred
An innovation hub that envisions nurturing healthy, thriving children and families by leveraging trust in and access to health care to increase economic inclusion and rectify structural racism.
TEAM UP
Our Vision: All children and families will live within a community that fosters and promotes physical and behavioral health, wellness and resilience.
Vital Village
A network of residents and organizations committed to maximizing child, family and community well-being.
General Academic Pediatric Fellowship
The Health Service Research Division is home to the General Academic Pediatrics Fellowship. This fellowship part of the larger Academic Primary Care Fellowship at BMC/BU in collaboration with the Division of General Internal Medicine (including Addiction Medicine), Department of Family Medicine, Department of Surgery, the Preventive Medicine Training program, and the BU School of Public Health. Our trainees have gone on to hold leadership positions in academia and government.
The mission of the fellowship is to train highly motivated investigators with a focus on topics relevant to medically under-served communities. We have an exciting mix of educational curricular choices in epidemiology and health services research, and experiential learning opportunities in public health. More information can be found here and here.