Researching Ways to Improve Child Health

Tiffany Rybak, PhD is a pediatric psychologist and researcher within the Division of Behavioral Medicine and Clinical Psychology at Cincinnati Children’s. The Rybak Lab is committed to improving child health and wellbeing, especially among individuals of various marginalized backgrounds, and through their efforts in research and training, the lab maintains a focus on implementing integrated behavioral health services within primary care settings. The lab’s research efforts include multidisciplinary teams of pediatric psychologists, primary care physicians, research coordinators, fellows and graduate and undergraduate psychology students.

A key focus of the lab is early obesity prevention and intervention in primary care settings, especially among individuals of marginalized backgrounds who may be facing greater health disparities and increased risk of health problems. In response to rapidly increasing rates of obesity, Dr. Rybak and colleagues developed THRIVE – an intervention aimed at preventing obesity in infants. With NIDDK funding, the lab is currently conducting a small R01 randomized controlled trial exploring the THRIVE intervention in a pediatric primary care setting among infants and caregivers of marginalized backgrounds.

Other research efforts in the lab focus on the implementation of integrated behavioral health services and training in pediatric primary care settings to allow for early identification and treatment of emotional and behavioral concerns. We believe in the importance of multidisciplinary collaboration in research and clinical care and encourage anyone interested in our work to contact us.