The transition from pediatric to adult health care systems can be daunting for anyone, but is especially challenging for young people with intellectual disabilities or other special health care needs. These youth and young adults face numerous challenges while…

For the 15 percent of adolescents who have intellectual/developmental disabilities (IDD), transitioning to adulthood can present unique challenges to accessing necessary health care. PolicyLab researchers have identified specific barriers facing this population…

More than 95 percent of children in the U.S. currently have health insurance. We can attribute much of the success in achieving this nearly universal rate of children's coverage to the introduction of the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in 1997 and the 1965 passage of…

BACKGROUND: Psychiatric comorbidity is common in pediatric medical and surgical hospitalizations and is associated with worse hospital outcomes. Integrating medical or surgical and psychiatric hospital care depends on accurate estimates of which hospitalized children have psychiatric…

Each year, hundreds of millions of prescription medications are dispensed to pediatric patients. A significant proportion of prescriptions are used in an off-label manner, outside the specifications approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), rendering off-label…

Implicit bias refers to unconscious attitudes that lie below the surface, but may influence our behaviors. In the clinical setting, implicit racial bias may impact patient–provider communication, disparities in treatment, patient–family satisfaction with medical encounter …

ABSTRACT: As another busy night unfolded in the pediatric emergency department, I opened the next patient’s chart: Male. Early 20s. Sickle cell disease. I felt a faint tug of familiarity while skimming through his medical record, but it was not until I walked into the room that I…

OBJECTIVE: Despite known benefits of diversity, certain racial/ethnic groups remain underrepresented in academic pediatrics. Little research exists regarding unconscious racial attitudes among pediatric faculty responsible for decisions on workforce recruitment and retention in…

ABSTRACT: Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, and exposure to tobacco smoke harms children from conception forward. There is no safe level of tobacco exposure. While overall smoking rates have declined, the advent of new products, such as…

BACKGROUND: Children and adolescents necessitating hospitalization for physical health conditions are at high risk for mental health conditions; however, the prevalence of mental health conditions and symptoms among hospitalized children and adolescents is uncertain. The objective of…