Jessica Kahn, MD, MPH

Kahn’s research program focuses on prevention of human papillomavirus (HPV)-related diseases through Pap testing, HPV DNA testing, and HPV vaccines. Recent studies characterize clinician recommendations and adolescent uptake of HPV vaccines; epidemiology and risk factors for HPV in adolescents; immunogenicity and safety of HPV vaccines in HIV-infected young women and men; risk perceptions and behaviors after HPV vaccination; and the epidemiologic impact of HPV vaccine introduction in communities. Kahn authored several studies during the past year characterizing the real-world impact of HPV vaccine introduction, including a study in The Lancet demonstrating population-level impact and herd effects following vaccine introduction, an article in Vaccine demonstrating a decline in vaccine-type HPV in young men, and an article in Human Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics which demonstrated evidence for cross-protection, but not type-replacement, in young women. She published a manuscript in Human Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics demonstrating that risk perceptions after HPV vaccination are not associated with subsequent behaviors and diagnosis of sexually transmitted infections in HIV-infected young women. Kahn’s research program receives funding from the NIH, foundations, and the World Health Organization since 2002 with more than 180 published articles.

Frank Biro, MD

Biro’s primary research activity is as the principal investigator of the Breast Cancer and the Environment Research Programs over the past 17 years. This project exams factors that impact onset of puberty and overall health in a longitudinal cohort of young women followed since ages 6 and 7. He and his colleagues published the factors driving this change of earlier onset of pubertal maturation in girls. In the past year, additional papers discussing these factors, including exposure to several endocrine disrupting chemicals, that impact timing of pubertal onset and on general health. The most recent work explores the underlying biochemical and hormonal bases regarding the association of pubertal timing with risk of breast cancer.

Emmanuel L. Chandler, MD

Chandler is a board-certified pediatrician and adolescent medicine specialist who is the medical director for the Division of Adolescent and Transition Medicine and the Hamilton County Juvenile Court Youth Center. Additionally, he is the residency rotation coordinator for adolescent medicine. His clinical and research interest is in young men's health, reproductive and sexual health, juvenile justice health, decreasing health care disparities among adolescents, and health equity. He collaborates with his adolescent medicine colleagues on research in the epidemiology of human papillomavirus in young men, and also improving the use and understanding of the healthcare system by juvenile justice involved youth. In this past year, he collaborated with his colleagues to understand sexual network patterns and their association with HPV infection in young men. This study is currently in press and will be published in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

Lee Ann E. Conard, RPh, DO, MPH

Conard conducts clinical research to improve health outcomes for transgender and gender expansive youth. She and her colleagues host the Midwest Multisite Transgender Research Collaborative in order to increase the scope of research within this population and health disparities. Conard works closely with the Living With Change Foundation to educate the community around transgender issues.

Corinne Lehmann, MD, MEd

Lehmann is an adolescent medicine specialist and medical director of the Family Care Center for Pediatric and Adolescent Patients with HIV infection. She also is the director of Medical Student Education in the Department of Pediatrics within the University of Cincinnati, with her main focus being the direction of the University of Cincinnati third-year medical student clerkship in pediatrics. She relinquished the directorship of the Medical Student Scholar Program after 13 years of service and currently works as an advisor in that role. Her clinical research interests include adolescent vaccination, sexually transmitted infections, and use of pre-exposure prophylaxis to prevent HIV infection. Over the past fiscal year, Lehmann was the co-chairperson of the annual conference of the Council on Medical Student Education in Pediatrics (COMSEP), a testament to her ongoing commitment to the education of medical learners throughout her career. Lehmann continues her work on a Place Outcomes Research Award as a co-investigator on integrating HIV prevention into HIV care and on a COMSEP research award in creating a virtual reality training curriculum for medical students.

Laurie Mitan, MD, FAAP, CEDS

Mitan is a clinical track physician and the director of the Eating Disorder Program. She engages in clinical research with colleagues from the Department of Behavioral Medicine and Clinical Psychology. Publications from the past year include a study on the correlation of functional MRI to visual food stimuli , an evaluation of an intensive family –based treatment for medically hospitalized youth with anorexia nervosa, and a case report series on adolescent males with atypical anorexia nervosa and a premorbid history of obesity.

Tanya K. Mullins, MD, MS

Mullins is an adolescent medicine physician and director of research for the Division of Adolescent and Transition Medicine. Her primary research interest is prevention of sexually transmitted infections and HIV. Her current work focuses on understanding ways to improve the delivery and uptake of oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV prevention by adolescents and young adults, through studies conducted with primary care physicians and HIV-infected youth. Collaborations with the University of Cincinnati Addiction Sciences Division are ongoing to explore attitudes toward PrEP among people in care for opioid use disorder. In addition, she co-leads research conducted in collaboration with the Cincinnati Children's Transgender Health Clinic team.

Brittany L. Rosen, PhD, MEd, CHES

Rosen’s research program focuses on implementing and evaluating behavior change techniques to increase healthcare providers’ use of evidence-based practices to increase positive patient health outcomes. Specifically, she focuses on increasing positive sexual health outcomes in adolescents by focusing on HPV prevention and HPV vaccination uptake. Recent studies document the usability of smartphone apps to increase provider confidence in providing strong and consistent HPV vaccine recommendations as well as evaluating the quality of web-based HPV vaccine continuing education. Rosen published three studies during the past year examining adults’ social media engagement association with HPV vaccine awareness, and sexual network patterns association with HPV infection in young men. Rosen recently received funding from the NIH to assess the efficacy of VICTORI, a virtual immersive communication training for clinicians on recommending immunizations, to increase HPV vaccination rates in adolescents.

Lea Widdice, MD

Widdice's research program focuses on the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of sexually transmitted infections. She is the director of the Clinical Translation and Validation Core of the Centers for Point of Care Technologies Research for Sexually Transmitted Diseases and has been the clinical site principal investigator for FDA clinical trials for STI diagnostics and NIH and industry funded vaccine and treatment trials through her collaboration with the Division of Infectious Diseases. Her work focuses on quality assurance and manufacturing for point of care diagnostic tests with expertise in impactful use, diagnostic performance, and implementation of point of care tests in primary care and outpatient settings.

Jason F. Woodward, MD, MS

Woodward directs the Transition Medicine program in the Division of Adolescent and Transition Medicine and his research interests focus on developing interventions to improve health outcomes for adolescents and young adults with chronic childhood conditions as they transition from pediatric to adult health care. He also directs the multidisciplinary Center for Spina Bifida clinic in the Division of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics and is principal investigator for the clinic’s CDC funded participation in the National Spina Bifida Patient Registry. He recently collaborated with the Spina Bifida Coalition of Cincinnati on a community based participatory research study to engage a diverse group of stakeholders and identify and prioritize areas for interventions to improve transition to adulthood for youth with spina bifida in the Cincinnati region. This year, in collaboration with Northwell Health, his research team completed a community-based survey and focus groups with caregivers and siblings of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) to identify strategies to promote long-term care (LTC) planning for adults with IDD and preferences for a web based LTC planning tool. He is also currently a site co-PI for Down Syndrome Clinical Trials Network (DS-CTN) and The Longitudinal Investigation for Enhancing Down Syndrome Research Study (LIFE-DSR). He is co-chair of the Health Care Transition and Disease Self-Management Special Interest Group of the Academic Pediatric Association.