The Stead Family Department of Pediatrics has a long, distinguished history of excellence in scientific discovery and a strong tradition of pediatric research. Furthermore, we have a long-standing commitment to train future leaders in areas of clinical, basic and translational research. The research enterprise of the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine garnered $232.2 million in external funding in 2019, ranking 34^th by U.S. News & World Reports. Over the past 15 years, the Stead Family Department of Pediatrics has been highly ranked for its NIH funding, when compared with pediatric departments of medical schools across the United States. The University of Iowa’s Institute for Clinical and Translational Science through its NIH-support is able to provide services to support child health research in multiple ways including assisting in grant preparation, biostatistical analysis, and database management. 

Specific interests within our division include: traumatic brain injury, hemodynamic monitoring in sepsis, patient safety with specific emphasis on studying the diagnostic process in critical care environments, pathogenesis of acquired heart defects, cardiac arrest management, simulation, curriculum development, outreach education, acute lung injury management, and extracorporeal therapies.

Recent scholarly work projects from graduating fellows include:

• Optimizing enteral nutrition in the PICU: Identifying interruptions and barriers to feeding and developing a protocol
• Using simulation to teach how to deliver bad news
• Impact of ventilator liberation protocol on mechanical ventilation in the PICU
• Traf3 regulated pathways in B cell lymphoma
• Analyzing staph aureus isolates and resistance
• Multi-frequency oscillatory ventilation in ARDS
• Identifying anticoagulation practices on ECMO: Development and implementation of a protocol

Faculty/Research Mentors

View a full list of our Pediatric faculty research profiles.