Jessica Kahn, MD, Earns Schmidlapp Scholar Award For Research at Cincinnati Children's

$100,000 grant will support research on prevention of cervical cancer causing HPV infection in adolescents

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

CINCINNATI – Jessica Kahn, MD, MPH, an adolescent medicine specialist at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, has been selected to receive a two-year, $100,000 Schmidlapp Scholar Award from the Fifth Third Bank / Charlotte R. Schmidlapp Women Scholars Program.

With the award, Dr. Kahn plans to expand her research into the impact of the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine on adolescent girls and young adult women. "This funding will help me focus on improving the health of adolescents through prevention of HPV infection and HPV-related disease," says Dr. Kahn. HPV is a sexually transmitted virus and the major cause of cervical cancer in women.

Another of Dr. Kahn's goals is to play a larger role in promoting fellow and faculty career development. As director of research training in adolescent medicine, she has mentored medical students, fellows and young faculty and recently conducted a study of educators in U.S. and Canadian medical schools to assess their success in establishing women's health electives.

Dr. Kahn is the 11th scholar to receive the award, which is given annually to a female faculty member at Cincinnati Children's. The goal of the award is to identify junior female faculty members who show promise and leadership skills, to provide them with financial support and dedicated time for research, and to help them through the tenure and promotion process.

Cincinnati Children's established the Fifth Third Bank / Charlotte R. Schmidlapp Women Scholars Program in 1997, with a $500,000 grant from the Charlotte R. Schmidlapp Fund, Fifth Third Bank, Trustee. The program is believed to be the first of its kind in the United States

Dr. Kahn earned her MD at Harvard Medical School in 1992 and her master's of public health at the Harvard School of Public Health in 1999. She was a pediatric resident and chief resident at Children's Hospital, Boston, where she also completed fellowship training in adolescent medicine. She joined the Cincinnati Children's faculty in 1999. In 2005 she was nominated for the Dorine Seaquist Award recognizing outstanding women of Cincinnati Children's.

Dr. Kahn has an excellent track record as a clinician, mentor, educator and clinical investigator, according to Lorah Dorn, PhD, chair of the Schmidlapp Scholars Award committee and director of research in the division of adolescent medicine. "She is conducting innovative research that is timely in that the HPV vaccine has just been approved and recommended for youth," says Dr. Dorn. "Studying the impact of this vaccine on virology has significant importance for public health."

The Charlotte R. Schmidlapp Fund was created in 1907 by a gift from former Fifth Third president Jacob G. Schmidlapp in memory of his daughter, Charlotte, who died at the age of 19. Mr. Schmidlapp directed that grants be restricted to helping women establish themselves in life. The tradition and history of the fund has been to assist women by helping them gain an education and access to services.

Cincinnati Children's, one of the top five children's hospitals in the nation according to Child magazine, is a 475-bed institution devoted to bringing the world the joy of healthier kids. Cincinnati Children's is dedicated to providing care that is timely, efficient, effective, family-centered, equitable and safe. For its efforts to transform the way health care is provided, Cincinnati Children's received the 2006 American Hospital Association-McKesson Quest for Quality Prize". Cincinnati Children's ranks second nationally among all pediatric centers in research grants from the National Institutes of Health and is a teaching affiliate of the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. The Cincinnati Children's vision is to be the leader in improving child health.