Scholarly Work

Elizabeth Cox, MD, PhD

Launched in 2007, the Program of Research on Outcomes for Kids (PROKids) is a health services research team whose major goal is to improve the children’s outcomes by implementing family-centered interventions and evaluating these interventions from the perspectives of children and families. Under the leadership of Dr. Elizabeth Cox, PROKids not only conducts original research, but also serves as a key collaborator or consultant for other investigators at UW and beyond.

Dr. Elizabeth Cox is also the Director of the CDC-funded UW Prevention Research Center, which is focused on improving the health of low-income women, infants, and families by conducting health promotion and disease prevention research focused on maternal, infant, and child health.

Anthony “Tony” Garcia-Prats, MD, MSc, PhD

The mission of the Garcia-Prats Research Group is to perform high quality clinical and translational research that positively impacts the care of vulnerable children with tuberculosis (TB), HIV and other illnesses in underserved areas globally, with a commitment to excellence, innovation, pragmatism, and partnership, and in a spirit of service and humility.

Mala Mathur, MD, MPH

The mission of the Families and Mindfulness Research Team is to improve the lives of children and families by promoting evidence-based principles of mindfulness including the use of these principles for the management of pediatric specific conditions. Dr. Mathur’s research interests focus on child and parent resilience using integrative health approaches including mindfulness practices to reduce stress and improve health outcomes.

Megan Moreno, MD, MSEd, MPH

The mission of the Social Media & Adolescent Health Research Team is to advance society’s understanding of the relationships between media and adolescent health towards educating adolescents, providing better care, and developing innovations in adolescent healthcare.

Ellen Selkie, MD, MPH

The Selkie research group seeks to identify ways to promote well-being for adolescents and young adults when using technology and digital media. Adolescence is a crucial developmental period in which skills and beliefs are developed and carried into adulthood. With the ubiquity of the Internet and social media, adolescents have many opportunities to use these technologies for positive development, but also can be at risk for harm.  In 2015, Dr. Selkie, an Adolescent Medicine specialist, started the Learning More from Adolescents Online (LMFAO) Research Team at the University of Michigan and has recently moved the lab to the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Our work uses a positive youth development lens to examine how technology and digital media relate to socioemotional well-being. We are specifically interested in decreasing negative social media activities and amplifying positive social media activities for marginalized adolescents, including sexual and gender minority (SGM) youth. Youth voice and direct observation of social media activities are at the core of our team’s research methods.

Jess Babal, MD

Jess Babal, MD is a general pediatrician at the 20 South Park Clinic in Madison, Wisconsin. Her academic work examines the culture of medicine and influencers of professional well-being. She aims to advance the medical humanities in the educational and professional setting (e.g. narrative medicine, reflective and creative writing, the creative arts, history and philosophy) as a way to foster thriving and advance patient care. She teaches the 2-week medical student elective: Introduction to the Medical Humanities.

Her publications have evaluated storytelling and limerick writing in resident education; factors that contribute to pediatrician wellness; factors that contribute to student pharmacist wellness; and gender bias in teaching evaluations. Along with her colleagues, she edited a textbook, “Understanding and Cultivating Well-being for Pediatricians.”

Ande Jones, MD

Ande Jones joined the GPAM division in 2017, after serving as chief resident here in Madison. After a few years working as a general pediatrician to Madison’s east side at UW Health Union Corners Clinic, Ande was delighted to rejoin the residency education group in 2020 in becoming the Continuity Clinic Director. She is passionate about teaching medical students and residents in her clinic, and is looking forward to continuing to work on strengthening residents’ outpatient education experience. She will continue projects working on:

• Biannual reports on resident clinical activity, include data on number, age and gender of patients and types of visits, with next steps to focus on making continuity clinic experiences more robust, to include adequate diversity of exposures and learning, as well as improving continuity.
• Working with and mentoring residents participating in the Primary Care Pathway
• Residents receive family/patient feedback in spring and fall, which are incorporated into their semi-annual reviews.

Mala Mathur, MD, MPH

Dr. Mathur’s interest in quality improvement includes a population health based approach to address gaps in care between evidence based guidelines and current ambulatory pediatric practice. Over the years, she has worked on quality improvement projects including: implementing routine developmental screening within the medical home, addressing health literacy within ambulatory care clinics, creating workflows during well child checks for transition of youth from pediatric to adult health care, developing workflows and EMR changes to implement chlamydia screening, and promoting care coordination for youth with ADHD through Shared Plans of Care. She has also served as faculty for three statewide/regional quality improvement collaborative projects to increase HPV vaccination rates through the Wisconsin Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Dr. Mathur has presented her work at the Pediatric Academic Societies Meeting, the American Academy of Pediatrics National Conference and Exhibition and the Wisconsin Collaborative for Health Care Quality Assembly Meeting.
Past projects include:

• Boosting Primary Care Awareness and Treatment for Childhood Hypertension: Through national quality improvement collaborative and local partners, we are working to increase awareness of elevated blood pressures during routine ambulatory office visits and creating workflows with our pediatric subspecialty colleagues on how to manage these elevated blood pressures and treat pediatric hypertension.
• Assessing Acceptability to learn about Mindfulness within the Pediatric Medical Home: Conducted a survey of 3,000 parents across the U.S. to assess their knowledge, beliefs and willingness to learn about Mindfulness within the Pediatric Medical Home. In addition, used survey data to assess willingness of parents with children diagnosed with asthma to learn about Mindfulness techniques as a way to reduce stress and improve asthma symptoms.

Karen Pletta, MD

Dr Karen Pletta’s primary academic interest is in pediatric asthma. She is working with the GPAM Asthma quality team on work flows to increase Asthma Action Plans to patients during well child visits and to improve asthma outreach. She has presented posters related to pediatric asthma quality at the AAP NCE conference in 2016, local and statewide conferences, the Pediatric Academic Society 2018 and will be presenting at the AAP NCE conference 2018. Recent and current projects include:

• longitudinal evaluation of the EHR Asthma Registry and patient outcomes
• Case-control study evaluating GPAM asthma patients who did and did not have ER visits over the past 2 years ER to determine if there are factors that could reduce need for asthma ER visits.
• Evaluating Asthma Action Plans effectiveness/value for families for work days, school days and home/daycare management.