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Research

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Stanford University,  Santa Clara County,  the state of California, and the National Institutes of Health have issued guidelines and have mandated certain procedures that affect our ongoing research. We have temporarily suspended all in-person visits for our current projects listed below until we can safely resume, as our main priority is your family's health and safety.

Please do not hesitate to reach out to us with any questions or concerns.

Hair Biomarkers Study

Description: We are exploring the concept of wellness in childhood–particularly among preschool children–who have a limited capacity to communicate or interpret their everyday experiences. Using a painless method for hair collection, we measure the levels of hair biomarkers (hormones, proteins, etc.) contained in these hair samples. Measuring biomarkers will help us to establish wellness parameters and normal ranges for hair cortisol or other biomarkers in healthy preschool children and to differentiate them from critically ill or injured children.

Subjects: We are recruiting healthy children, aged from 9 months to 72 months.

Locations: Bing Nursery School, CCSC, SACC, SMGCC, McKinley Head Start, Rouleau Head Start, Wool Creek Head Start, Kidango sites, and general population in Alameda, San Mateo, and Santa Clara Counties.

Contact: If you are interested in learning more about participation, please  fill out this survey. You may also contact HairBiomarkers@lists.stanford.edu  or call (650) 687-7329.

Resident Burnout Study

Description: Professional burnout is common among health care workers and is linked to medical errors and other markers of poor quality of patient care. Burnout is currently diagnosed through surveys, but it is possible that hormone biomarkers in one’s hair could serve as an indicator that they are at increased risk for burnout. Using a painless method for hair collection, we are studying a pilot cohort of pediatrics residents over time to evaluate the relationships between their self-reported burnout symptoms and the levels of biomarkers in their hair indicative of stress. We will then refine and expand this pilot cohort to a larger study investigating the relationships between burnout and objective biomarkers.

Subjects: Pediatric resident physicians (recruitment complete)

Locations: Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford

Contact: If you are interested in learning more about this study, please contact Daniel Tawfik (dtawfik@stanford.edu).

PACES: Pediatric Anxiety and Cortisol concentration from Experiencing Stress

Description: We are examining the validity of hair cortisol concentrations as a biomarker of anxiety in children. We hope to explore the complexity of  anxiety in children, within the context of early childhood adversity. Immigrant and nonimmigrant children will be examined to compare anxiety and cortisol levels between groups, since many adverse experiences are associated with migrating to a new country. Therefore, with this study, we will validate the use hair cortisol concentration as a biomarker of stress and to assess the anxiety via hair cortisol concentrations in children with a known exposure to adversity.

Subjects: We are recruiting healthy children, aged from 2.5 years to 5 years.

Locations: Bing Nursery School, CCSC, SACC, SMGCC, McKinley Head Start, Rouleau Head Start, Wool Creek Head Start, Kidango sites, and general population in Alameda, San Mateo, and Santa Clara Counties.

Contact: If you are interested in learning more about participation, please contact Monica Ruiz (ruizmo6@stanford.edu) or call (650) 687-7329.

Measuring Infant Pain Objectively (NCT03330496)

Description: Pain assessments in non-verbal, critically ill infants represent an important clinical challenge. Bedside nurses currently assess pain using pain scores, before taking action to ameliorate pain. Pain scores increase nursing workload and provide subjective assessments, rather than objective data for evaluating infant pain. We aim to develop a multimodal pain assessment system, using sensor fusion and novel machine learning algorithms, to provide an objective measure of pain that is context-dependent and rater-independent. This will enhance the quality of pain management in infants and other non-verbal populations, and allow continuous pain monitoring in real-time.

Subjects: Preterm infants (34-37 weeks), term neonates (37-42 weeks), 1-3 month-old infants, and 3-6 month-old infants.

Locations: Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, Stanford, CA.

Contact: Participation is currently suspended.  Contact information will be posted whenever patient enrollment restarts.