The Academic Pediatric Association presented Christina Rojas, MD, Attending Physician, Emergency Medicine, at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, with the RAPID Scholars Award. The award (award period 2025–2026) will support her study, Healthcare Navigation after the Emergency Department: Evaluating for Inequities Based on Patient and Family Language.
Patients and families who use languages other than English are a growing population in the United States. Prior studies have found that these patients experience healthcare inequities, though less work has explored how this population navigates healthcare once discharged from the emergency department, according to Dr. Rojas. This project will utilize two methodologies: a retrospective cohort study and a qualitative component to understand how patients and families who use languages other than English navigate healthcare. The results will inform the development of interventions to better support these patients.
Dr. Rojas, who is also an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and the Health Equity lead for the Lurie Children’s Center for Quality and Safety, focuses her scholarship on improving care of and communication for patients and families who use languages other than English. She will collaborate with Elizabeth Alpern, MD, MSCE, Division Head of Emergency Medicine; Kenneth Michelson, MD, MPH, Attending Physician, Emergency Medicine; and Carolyn Foster, MD, MS, Director, Health@Home Initiative, Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute—all at Lurie Children’s.
Pediatric research at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago is conducted through Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute.
