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Kathleen E. Walsh, M.D., M.Sc.
Associate Professor of Pediatrics
University of Massachusetts Medical School
WalshK02@ummhc.org
2007-2010 Cohort
Project Title:  “Outpatient Medication Errors in Children with Chronic Conditions”





About the Project:

In this project Dr. Walsh described rates and types of home medication errors among children with chronic conditions and worked with parents to develop a web-based intervention to prevent errors.  Early successes in developing home visit methods to detect errors helped Dr. Walsh secure additional funding from the Charles Hood Foundation and the Cancer Research Network to study home medication errors in children with cancer at multiple sites.  This work is still ongoing, with home visits at three Cancer Research Network sites to be completed by mid-2011.  Dr. Walsh is currently pilot testing the web-based intervention at a single site in preparation for a multisite proposal.

Biosketch:

Kathleen Walsh, M.D., M.Sc. is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Massachusetts.  Dr. Walsh graduated from Cornell University in 1992 with a bachelor’s degree in Biology, and from Georgetown Medical School in 1998.  She did her residency training in Pediatrics at Brown University where she also served as chief resident.  She completed her General Pediatrics fellowship training from Boston University and received her M.Sc. in Epidemiology from Boston University School of Public Health.

Dr. Walsh is interested in preventing medication errors in children with chronic conditions.  She has evaluated the impact of health information technology on inpatient pediatric medication error rates and described technology related errors.  She is currently studying outpatient medication errors in children and adults with cancer. 

Her Physician Faculty Scholars Program project was entitled “Outpatient Medication Errors in Children with Chronic Conditions” and involved developing home visit methods to directly observe medication administration to children and interview parents about barriers to effective medication use at home.  The aims of the projects were to describe the range of home medication errors, to quantify medication errors in the outpatient setting and home, and to pilot an intervention to prevent outpatient and home medication errors in children with chronic conditions.   

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