Overview
Our Division of Pediatric Surgery faculty research interests include clinical outcomes and quality improvement research.
Specific clinical areas of interest include gastroesophageal reflux, necrotizing enterocolitis, spontaneous intestinal perforation, Hirschsprung's disease, anorectal malformations, advanced laparoscopic procedures in infants and children, pediatric oncology, bariatric procedures for adolescents, trauma, ECMO, and pediatric critical care.
Research efforts are also being directed toward innovative biomedical approaches to neonatal surgical care and innovative uses of machine learning for clinical outcomes research.
The division participates extensively in high-impact multi-institutional studies via the Eastern Pediatric Surgery Network (EPSN), Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN), and the Western Pediatric Surgery Research Consortium, the Children’s Hospitals Neonatal Consortium as well as other collaboratives.
Current Faculty Investigators
Matthew Clifton, MD
Dr. Clifton's research involves pediatric hepatobiliary disease and the application of clinical research to improve pediatric healthcare. He is the institutional surgical representative at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta for the Childhood Liver Disease and Research Education Network (ChiLDREN), which studies biliary atresia as well as a host of other childhood liver pathologies. Innovative approaches to congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) are another avid research interest of his. To this end, he is currently partnering with a team of biomedical engineers at Georgia Tech to develop novel materials for CDH repair.
Megan Durham, MD
Dr. Durham is a founding member of the Pediatric Colorectal and Pelvic Learning Consortium whose goal is to equitable improve the health and quality of life of individuals affected by congenital colorectal disorders and associated urologic/gynecologic anomalies. She is also the surgical principle investigator (PI) for the Children’s Oncology Group at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.
Matthew Santore, MD
Dr. Santore is the Medical Director of Surgical Quality for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. He has a strong interest in health services research and quality improvement programs for pediatric surgery. He is an active member of the Eastern Pediatric Surgery Network and has been the site PI for appendicitis, biliary atresia, and thyroid disease in children. He has a strong clinical and research interest in thyroid disease in the pediatric population.
Amina Bhatia, MD
Dr. Bhatia has a strong interest in necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) and spontaneous intestinal perforation (SIP) in neonates, as well as esophageal atresia. She leads several studies related to NEC and SIP, including development of a novel score to assist in pre-operative diagnosis of SIP vs NEC and development of a machine learning tool for the same. She is an active member of the Eastern Pediatric Surgery Network and is the site PI for the study of long-gap esophageal atresia management in children and co-PI for the study of surveillance practices for children with esophageal atresia.
Hanna Alemayehu, MD
Dr. Alemayehu is the primary research mentor for the Pediatric Surgery Research Fellows, working in collaboration with all active research faculty. She has a strong interest in the study of surgical outcomes, specifically with a focus on healthcare disparities. In collaboration with Dr. Linden, she established the Pediatric Surgery Health Equity Center after obtaining an intra-mural grant. Dr. Alemayehu is the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta/Emory Site Lead for the Eastern Pediatric Surgery Network and has been the site PI for the study of inguinal hernia in noenates, and co-PI for the study of surveillance practices for esophageal atresia patients as well as the study of the impact of bowel prep on colorectal surgery. She is also co-PI for a Western Pediatric Surgery Research Consortium study related to cervical-spine evaluation and clearance in trauma patients. She is the site PI for a multi-institutional collaborative studying choledocholithiasis in children. She has a strong clinical and research interest in neonatal pathology, and has obtained a small grant to evaluate the microbiome of neonates in the context of mucous fistula refeeding. She is co-PI in the development of a machine learning tool for evaluating NEC vs SIP in collaboration with Dr. Bhatia. Dr. Alemayehu has also established several prospective observational studies, some as pilot studies for future clinical trials.
Allison Linden, MD
Dr. Linden has particular research interests in healthy equity, ECMO, critical care and quality improvement. She is involved in multiple studies, including multi-institutional collaboratives, examining variations in access to surgical care and associated outcomes both locally and globally. Globally, she studies the burden of disease, barriers to care, and effectiveness of interventions in order to build surgical capacity. She has long-standing relationships with surgical colleagues in Rwanda and recently obtained an intramural grant to study anorectal malformation outcomes and associated quality improvement programs in Rwanda. In collaboration with Dr. Alemayehu, she established the Pediatric Surgery Health Equity Center. Her scholarly interests also include investigating outcomes and quality improvement initiatives in ECMO and surgical critical care.
Justin Sobrino, MD
Dr. Sobrino has a strong interest in trauma and critical care research. and quality improvement programs for pediatric surgery. He is co-PI for a Western Pediatric Surgery Research Consortium study related to the cervical-spine evaluation and clearance in trauma patients. He actively contributes to trauma studies related to PECARN such as one evaluating massive transfusion and will be leading Emory/Children's Healthcare of Atlanta's participation in a large mutli-institutional solid organ injury prospective study and large multi-center evaluation of vascular injuries.
Melissa Danko, MD
Dr. Danko has a strong interest in quality improvement studies and investigation related to ECMO. She is an active member of the Eastern Pediatric Surgery Network and is site PI for a study examining pre-operative antibiotic prophylaxis.