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Cynthia Mollen MD, MSCE

Faculty Member

Cynthia J. Mollen is a founding member of PolicyLab at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and serves as a senior faculty member on PolicyLab’s Strategy Team. She is a professor of pediatrics at the Perelman School Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Chief of the Division of Emergency Medicine and a practicing pediatric emergency medicine physician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). Dr. Mollen completed both her pediatrics residency and pediatric emergency medicine fellowship at CHOP, and became a faculty member upon completing her training in 2001. She also completed the Master of Science in Clinical Epidemiology during her fellowship.

  • PolicyLab’s approach to research is based on real-life experiences. We are innovative, comprehensive, and multi-disciplinary.

  • Sexually transmitted infections among adolescents are at epidemic proportions. We need to support providers so they can deliver evidence-based, confidential care for adolescent patients in order to address these high rates of STIs.

Since joining the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania and CHOP, Dr. Mollen has developed and refined a research and clinical interest in adolescent health, with a particular focus on utilizing the emergency department and non-primary care settings as sites for interventions related to major public health issues affecting adolescents, such as unintended teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. She has also pursued training in qualitative research methods, and has utilized those methods in a variety of research projects. Dr. Mollen’s projects have included interviewing adolescents to learn about their attitudes about developing an intervention aimed to improve the use of emergency contraception; exploring minority adolescents’ perception about bias when seeking family planning care; assessing the decision-making processes of parents with terminally ill children; and improving access to expedited partner therapy for adolescents.