Research

During their second year, our pediatric residents work in teams along with a faculty mentor on a quality improvement project of their choice. Through this process they become familiar with study design and implementation, PDSA cycles, and IRB protocol submission.  

At the beginning of their 3rd year, residents submit their projects as poster presentations for the annual South Carolina AAP conference.  Our Pediatric and Med/Peds resident pairs have taken top honors among SC residency programs for the past several years with project topics focused on Tobacco Cessation, Inpatient DKA Management standardization, Implementation of an Early Onset Sepsis Calculator, and improving utilization of postpartum birth control with LARC placement by pediatric providers.  

Many of our faculty are also active in local and national quality improvement projects in addition to supporting resident projects. The Center for Pediatric Medicine, where residents complete their outpatient general pediatric training, is part of the South Carolina Quality through Technology and Innovation in Pediatrics (QTIP) program, with initiatives targeting asthma management, oral health care, social determinants of health, and depression and developmental screening. Our children’s hospital is also a participant in national AAP-sponsored quality research projects including REVISE: Reducing Excessive Variability in Infant Sepsis Evaluation. This project is a joint effort between the Pediatric Emergency and Pediatric Hospitalist faculty.

Residents interested in clinical research will find multiple opportunities across a variety of clinical settings. Specific faculty areas of research interest include Eosinophilic Esophagitis, Weight Management/Lifestyle Medicine, Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome, Autism genetics and translational neuroscience, Genetics and Inherited Disorders, Pediatric Pain Management, Cystic Fibrosis, Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus, and Medical Education. Resident involvement in clinical research has resulted in multiple oral and poster presentations at national venues as well as peer reviewed publications.