About Us

 

Dr. Chris Bolling is a founding member and full time practitioner at Pediatric Associates, Kentucky’s largest private pediatric practice. He is also an Adjunct Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital where he is Research Director of the Cincinnati Pediatric Research Group, a consortium of pediatric practices conducting research in primary care settings. Dr. Bolling is involved in clinical care, research, advocacy and education regarding the treatment and prevention of pediatric obesity and overweight. Dr. Bolling completed his pediatric residency and chief residency at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and received additional training in General Academic Pediatrics at the University of Rochester. He is certified by the American Board of Pediatrics, serves on many community non-profit and child advocacy boards, and is licensed to practice medicine in Ohio and Kentucky. Published in the area of behavioral pediatrics and primary care pediatrics, Dr. Bolling serves as a consultant in matters related to obesity prevention, public policy and practice-based research.   He is also the former president of the Northern Kentucky Medical Society, the Cincinnati Pediatric Society and the Medical Staff of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. Dr. Bolling uses his clinical and research experience to help community members to engage in pediatric health-related issues, particularly initiatives related to obesity prevention and treatment.

Pat Heinrich is an independent quality improvement consultant specializing in work to reduce disparities in health care. She served for 10 years as the Executive Program Director for NICHQ, the National Initiative for Children’s Healthcare Quality. An experienced educator and coach, Pat continues to lead all of NICHQ’s perinatal and neonatal improvement programs. Over the years Pat has been involved in the development and implementation of multiple quality improvement and educational projects focused on the most common issues affecting the care of children in primary care (preventive care, immunizations, overweight and obesity, asthma, and mental health issues including ADHD and Autism), as well as projects designed to improve care for children with special health care needs (Epilepsy, Hearing Screening, Spina Bifida). She has also worked on projects to improve healthcare systems, including access and efficiency, cultural competency, and parent partnerships. Pat has worked with the American Academy of Pediatrics to develop the eQIPP Asthma and ADHD Distance Learning CME Programs, and the AAP ADHD Toolkit. Pat is currently serving as Technical Advisor for UCSF’s ACTION Project serving teams working to reduce disparities across California, and with Cincinnati Children’s Hospital as a Quality Improvement Consultant for the Healthy Kids Ohio Obesity and Concerned About Development Learning Collaboratives.

Dr. Carole Lannon is Co-Director of the Center for Health Care Quality at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, University of Cincinnati. Since 2000, CHCQ has worked with more than 1000 practices, hospitals and health systems, communities, professional organizations to improve care and outcomes. The Center applies its expertise multi-organizational systems improvement and research methods across a wide range of medical specialties, in public health, and in the social services sector. It has conducted over 35 multi-organizational QI and research projects. Dr. Lannon is a member of the Credentials Committee of the American Board of Pediatrics, associate editor of Quality and Safety in Healthcare, and principal investigator, of the federally funded pediatric Center for Education and Research in Therapeutics.

Ms. Niemes is a registered dietitian and the Executive Director of the Nutrition Council, a nonprofit agency helping to make Greater Cincinnati a healthier community through innovative nutrition education and physical activity programs. Ms. Niemes has over 25 years experience in the field of nutrition and dietetics and is certified in Child and Adolescent Weight Management by the American Dietetic Association. She has been the Executive Director of the Nutrition Council since 1994. She helped start the Hamilton County Collaborative to Prevent Childhood Obesity, and since 2005 has been working with community partners in Southwest Ohio to implement a strategic plan to promote healthy weights in children. Prior to joining the Nutrition Council, Ms. Niemes was the Dietetics Program Director at the University of Cincinnati, a research nutritionist at the University Medical Center, and worked at the Cincinnati Center for Developmental Disorders. Ms. Niemes received her BS degree in Dietetics from the University of Cincinnati. She completed a clinical dietetic internship at New England Medical Center and earned a Masters of Education with an emphasis in nutrition from Tufts University in Boston. Her areas of expertise include nutrition and disease prevention, nutrition education, and childhood obesity. She loves to cook and is an editor of the cookbook, “More Nutritious, Still Delicious”.

Dr. Ratcliff is a National Research Service Award (NRSA) research fellow jointly appointed in the Division of General and Community Pediatrics and the Division of Behavioral Medicine and Clinical Psychology at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. Dr. Ratcliff's research interests focus on understanding contextual factors that influence individuals' engagement in health behaviors, with a primary emphasis on pediatric overweight and obesity. She is a co-investigator on a recently submitted R01 grant entitled "Clinic and Home Family-based Behavioral Treatment for Obese Preschoolers." She is also completing an ancillary study assessing postoperative lifestyle behaviors of adolescent bariatric recipients during their second postoperative year to identify factors related to weight status. Clinically, Dr. Ratcliff works with Meg Zeller, Ph.D., and the Surgical Weight Loss Program for Teens conducting preoperative psychosocial evaluations to determine severely obese adolescents' candidacy for bariatric surgery. Dr. Ratcliff has received specialized training in Motivational Interviewing (MI) and is a proponent of using this approach to engage families in care.

 

Barbara Rose is the Program Director for population health in the James Anderson Center for Health Systems Excellence at Cincinnati Children's Hospital and for the Ohio Perinatal Quality Collaborative (OPQC). She has a master's degree in public health from St. Louis plus 30 years of experience in the fields of nursing, public health, physician practice, program management and community based health improvement. Her primary responsbilities include providing administrative overweight and leadership to a successful statewid perinatal collaborative to improve birth outcomes (OPQC) and a manager and contributor to local community health improvement efforts, using data to make decisions around child well-being and measuring program outcomes. She is the recipient of the Outstanding Scholar award in 2007 from the Ohio Public Health Leadership Insititute at the Ohio State University and the proud mother of successfully launched 20 year old triplets.

Dr. Bob Siegel is Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and Medical Director of the Center for Better Health and Nutrition. The center is a multidisciplinary program for pediatric weight management and has been treating overweight children for over 10 years. Dr. Siegel is a founding member of the Cincinnati Pediatric Research Group, a practice-based research network of over 40 practitioners. The group has done 16 research projects that include practitioner and parental perceptions of obesity and the treatment of obesity with a low carbohydrate diet. Dr. Siegel did his pediatric residency and infectious fellowship training at Cincinnati Children’s. Before coming to the Center this past July, Dr. Siegel was in general pediatric practice for over 20 years. 

 

Dr. Simpson is a Professor of Pediatrics and Director of the Child Policy Research Center (CPRC) at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. The CPRC provides evidence-based information to inform policy and program decisions with an emphasis on strategies to improve the quality of health care, the effectiveness of public policies, and child well being. Dr. Simpson is a board-certified pediatrician and serves as a National Policy Advisor for the National Initiative for Children’s Healthcare Quality. She also served as an elected member of AcademyHealth’s Board of Directors, the Coalition for Health Services Research, and on a national advisory committee to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality recommending a core quality measure set for use by state Medicaid and CHIP programs. Dr. Simpson serves on numerous other state and national committees, including being appointed in 2008 by Governor Beshear to co-chair the Committee on Child Health and Wellbeing of the Commonwealth of Kentucky’s Commission on Philanthropy.  A nationally recognized health policy researcher, Dr. Simpson has led studies of the quality and safety of care for children and adolescents, the role of health information technology in improving care for children, disparities in care for children and youth, and the health policy response to childhood obesity. She was formerly the Deputy Director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the Maternal and Child Health Director in Hawaii. Dr. Simpson earned her undergraduate and medical degrees at Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland), a Masters in Public Health at the University of Hawaii, and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in health services research and health policy at the University of California, San Francisco. She has received numerous awards including the Excellence in Public Service Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Senior Executive Service Meritorious Presidential Rank Award, the DHHS Secretary's Distinguished Service Award, the 2007 Health Policy Researcher of the Year award from the Health Policy Institute of Ohio, and most recently the 2010 Public Policy and Advocacy award from the Academic Pediatrics Association.

 

 

 

 

Project Manager

Anderson Center for Health Systems Excellence

Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center

3333 Burnet Avenue, MLC 7014

Cincinnati, OH 45229

Phone: (513) 803-1054

Fax: (513) 636-0171