Q: Could you tell us about yourself? What PTN studies are you currently involved with? What are you hoping to learn from the study/studies?
A: As a clinical researcher and clinician, I am committed to improving the efficacy and safety of therapeutics in infants, children, and adolescents. To accomplish this goal, I strive to help design and implement clinical trials to close knowledge gaps in children’s drug dosages, while educating trainees to become clinician scientists, and applying evidence-based practice at the bedside. To impact children beyond the walls of the Duke Children’s Hospital, I am committed to multi-center clinical research. This commitment is exemplified through my roles in leading the site team at Duke University Medical Center in the Division of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine and leading several clinical coordinating center teams at the Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI).
I have experience in collaborating with many sites and investigators. I currently serve as coordinating center Principal Investigator (PI) of an Infant Platform, a posterior tibial nerve stimulation (POSITRON-C) device study, and a safety, pharmacokinetics (PK), and pharmacodynamics study evaluating understudied drugs (NICHD funded POP02) in special populations, with a sub-study evaluating therapeutics and clinical course of acute COVID-19 and multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C) patients (POP02-COVID). My prior role as Co-PI of the multicenter PK study of understudied drugs of interest (NICHD funded POP01) study, while coordinating >60 international sites with >4000 enrollments, allowed me to leverage existing infrastructure to create the POP02-COVID study that was quickly able to enroll affected children through the rapid activation of new sites. As one of the study PIs leading prospective studies in children with COVID-19, I have been collaborating as an investigator in National Institutes of Health CARING (Collaboration to Assess Risk and Identify Long-term outcomes) for Children with COVID-19 and an invited member of the trans-NIH Pediatric COVID-19 Biomedical Common Data Elements for Post-Acute Sequelae of Children with COVID-19 Working Group. In addition, I am a member of the CURE Drug Repurposing Collaboratory (CDRC) that is a public-private partnership led by the Critical Path Institute and the US Food and Drug Administration.
I am involved in both sides of PTN studies, on the clinical coordinating teams at DCRI as well as serving as site Principal Investigator conducting the studies at Duke Hospital. I’m the DCRI PI for the POP02 Study to close knowledge gaps in medications that are prescribed commonly but are still understudied ( Pharmacokinetics, Pharmacodynamics, and Safety Profile of Understudied Drugs Administered to Children per Standard of Care (POP02) | Pediatric Trials Network ), evaluating a posterior tibial nerve stimulation device in children, and helping to lead trials in infants, including therapeutics for prevention of bronchopulmonary dysplasia in preterm infants and treatment of viral infections like congenital cytomegalovirus.
Q: Can you recall an especially impactful encounter with a participant and/or family of a participant?
A: There are two encounters I have experienced that remind me daily of WHY research is critical.
One of the most impactful encounters I have had in my role as site PI was during a conversation with a teenager with acute pain due to sickle cell crisis. The teen was alone in the room, because their parent was at work. I spoke to the teen about how they were feeling and asked if I could speak to them about one of the studies that they qualified for. Despite having a 10 out of 10 pain score, the teen repositioned in the bed and perked up. The teen wanted to participate and spent some time convincing their reluctant mother to agree to consent for the trial. Learn more about this participant’s experience
The other encounter was with a family of a child who was critically ill. As I was kneeling next to the family to discuss the possibility of participating in a trial their child qualified for, the family said they would do anything to help advance research to improve the care for another child who has a similar condition. They felt that most researchers would not approach them during a time in which they were overwhelmed as research procedures may be perceived as a burden to the family. However, this family wanted their child’s life to have a positive impact even if their child did not survive. Their altruism reminded me that research can provide hope and an opportunity to contribute to something larger.
Q: Why is the work of PTN important to you? What goals do you hope to achieve through your PTN-related work?
A: I believe in PTN’s mission. I am a clinician, educator, and researcher for this very reason. I hope to help children beyond the walls of Duke Hospital, and I hope to mentor clinician scientists to join in the mission of ensuring that the research we conduct has representation of children from all races/ethnic backgrounds and social-economic status, so we can continue to move the needle forward to improve health for all children.