Financing of Home Health Care, Partnering With Caregivers in Bereavement Research – Episode 273

Dr. Carolyn Foster is a tenure track assistant professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and an attending physician at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago in primary and complex care. As a primary investigator of the Foster Health Lab, she holds NIH, AHRQ and Lucile Packard Foundation funding to improve the health of children with disabling chronic conditions, while reducing health care related stress for their families, through innovative health care design, research and policy change.  She directs Lurie Children’s Stanley Manne Research Institute’s Health@Home Initiative to catalyze innovation in pediatric health care delivered outside hospital walls by designing, developing and evaluating novel digital tools and devices for care at home and in the community where children and families live their everyday lives. Dr. Foster’s work has been covered by The New York Times and National Public Radio, and she has been honored with election to Society for Pediatric Research. 

Dr. Emily Johnston is pediatric oncologist and associate professor with tenure of pediatrics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. At UAB, she is a member of the Institute for Cancer Outcomes and Survivorship and the Center for Palliative and Supportive Care, where she is also the Associate Director for Pediatric Research and Education. She is an NIH funded researcher with a career focused on addressing disparities in end-of-life care.  She is also a mother of 2 boys and a runner. 

Dr. Sarah Brand-McCarthy is a pediatric psychologist and health services researcher whose work centers on improving psychosocial care for children with serious medical illness and their families. She serves as the Director of Psychology for the Robert’s Program on Sudden Unexpected Death in Pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital. Dr. Brand-McCarthy’s program of research focuses on developing and evaluating interventions that address grief, trauma, and family well-being following a child’s death. 

Her perspective as a bereaved parent deeply informs her clinical and research endeavors. Following the illness and death of her daughter, Molly, in 2022, Dr. Brand-McCarthy’s work has increasingly explored the intersections of personal experience, professional identity, and compassionate care in pediatric healthcare. She is committed to advancing family-centered, trauma-informed and grief-responsive models of care that honor the enduring connections between children, families, and clinicians.