Researcher | Research Overview
Dr. Toomey’s research focuses on studying the factors that affect the quality of pediatric care. She has studied how receiving care in a patient-centered medical home (PCMH) relates to healthcare quality for children with chronic conditions. In one paper, she found that receipt of care in a PCMH is associated with higher rates of medication use and improved outcomes for children with ADHD (e.g., fewer problem behaviors, better school attendance). In another, she found that family-centered care may mitigate racial/ethnic disparities in unmet need for care coordination. In addition to this research documenting gaps in quality, she is currently expanding her expertise by developing new measures of pediatric care quality. She is the Managing Director of the AHRQ/CMS-funded Center of Excellence for Pediatric Quality Measurement at Boston Children’s Hospital. As part of the Center’s work she is also a member of the core team tasked with developing a measure of pediatric inpatient experience of care, the Pediatric Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (Pediatric HCAHPS) Survey. She is also the Principal Investigator on a career development award project, "Racial/Ethnic Differences in Parent Perspectives of Pediatric Inpatient Care," that extends the Pediatric HCAHPS project to examine racial/ethnic disparities in parent experience of pediatric inpatient care
Researcher | Research Background
Dr. Toomey is an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School and in the Division of General Pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital. She is a general pediatrician and health services researcher. After completing Harvard Medical School and her pediatric training, she spent three years as a primary care pediatrician at a federally-funded community health center in West Philadelphia. Prior to starting her faculty position, she did a fellowship in the Harvard-wide Pediatric Health Services Research Fellowship Program. She currently practices inpatient and outpatient pediatrics.
Active Projects
2011-2014 Improving Quality of Children’s Health Care with ipc-Consults
CHB Faculty Grant Children’s Hospital Boston
Principal Investigator
Internal grant to support initial qualitative work and course work for the development of the ipc-Consult system.
2012-2014 Racial/Ethnic Differences in Parent Perspectives of Pediatric Inpatient Care
NIH 8KL2TR000168-05
Principal Investigator
Harvard University NIH funded career development grant for research to understand racial/ethnic differences in reporting of parent/caregiver experience of pediatric inpatient care and additional course work.