Department of Pediatrics

I have dedicated my career to decreasing health and educational disparities among low income children, through clinical work, education and advocacy. I am a primary care pediatrician at Lurie Children’s Uptown Clinic, an academic community health center, where I also teach Northwestern residents and medical students. I am also the Immediate Past-President of the Illinois Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. One of my main areas of expertise is literacy promotion in pediatrics. I am the Medical Director and Board Chair of Reach Out and Read (ROR) Illinois, providing technical and fina...

My primary clinical and research interest is IBD (Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis) where I am the medical director of the IBD program at Lurie Children's, which now includes physician/APN/PA specialists, a psychologist, nurse clinicians, dieticians, and a dedicated social worker. I focus on translational and clinical research, including investigation of novel biomarkers, collaboration with overlapping specialists at Lurie and participation in numerous clinical trials. We are an active participant on the international IBD quality improvement and research consortium, Improve Care Now.

My primary research interest is the induction of transplant tolerance; as it applies to the prevention and treatment of a/cGVHD in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and prevention and treatment of rejection in solid organ transplantation. As director of the Therapeutic Apheresis Program, I am very active in the field of apheresis, and am committed to providing state of the art apheresis procedures in all children. 

My primary effort is in quality improvement and its ability to transform care within our division, the hospital, the medical school and our among our community partnerships. Education and exposure to quality improvement initiatives at the medical student leve will enable future physicians to provide care which is safe, equitable, efficient, effective, timely and patient-centered. Through implimentation of initiatives across both academic and community sites, care can be optimized and coordinated, ensuring evidence-based practice regardless of where their care is obtained. As Co-Director of Qua...

Sara H. Katsanis is a Research Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine appointed in 2019. Her research focuses on policy options for genetic testing applications in medicine and law enforcement and how genetic technologies affect individuals. She has explored direct-to-consumer genetic testing, pharmacogenetics drug labeling, familial searching of CODIS, and surreptitious collection of DNA. She is currently delving into policy options for the applications of kinship analyses in immigration, and to identify missing persons and victims of human trafficking. ...

Dr. Patel joined the Division of Rheumatology in 2020. She is experienced in all areas of general pediatric rheumatology but has a special clinical and research interest in complex rheumatic diseases including systemic lupus erythematosus and systemic vasculitis. Dr. Patel is fascinated by the pathophysiology of autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases. She enjoys taking on complex cases with diagnostic and therapeutic challenges and tailoring immunosuppressive therapies to help patients achieve the best quality of life possible. She works with families to help them understand their child’s di...

I am a pediatric emergency medicine practitioner and educator who began my work at Northwestern and Lurie Children's in 2001, having completed residency and fellowship at Johns Hopkins Hospital. I am the Director of the founder of the kidSTAR Medical Education Program. I am actively involved in the Society for SImulation In Healthcare and the INSPIRE pediatric simulation research consortium.

My interest in Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics covers a broad range of topics--all which are related to the optimal developmental and behavioral functioning of the child and the family. I have spent the majority of my professional time focusing on the care of the fussy baby and developing new models of clinical care and support for the family.My expertise, leadership, training in developmental and behavioral pediatrics has many facets and include mentoring from Dr. T Berry Brazelton, Dr. Steven Porges, and Mr. Fred Rogers.

My clinical interests include health and nutrition, obesity, procedural sedation, and the care and coordination of the medically complex child.My educational interests include the oversight and evaluation of pediatric residents.