Research is critical to improving the health of children. Too often, however, our best evidence fails to inform real world practice.

PolicyLab aims to ensure optimal child health and well-being by informing programmatic and policy changes through interdisciplinary research.

A new Center of Emphasis at Children’s Hospital, PolicyLab was founded on the beliefs that research should be informed by community needs and priorities and that evidence should inform the decisions of policymakers.

In essence, PolicyLab’s leaders and experts believe that real-time, practical, and sustainable solutions are needed to improve the well-being of vulnerable children.

Co-directors Kathleen Noonan, JD; Susmita Pati, MD, MPH; and David Rubin, MD, MSCE, lead a multidisciplinary team that partners with practitioners, policymakers, and families to develop evidence-based solutions to the most challenging health-related issues affecting children.

“By involving all stakeholders in the search for solutions, PolicyLab fosters collaborative thinking and builds capacity for future program and policy advancement,” says Kathleen Noonan, who serves as the center’s managing director and policy director. “We strive to create novel opportunities to advance the well-being of children, diminish health disparities, and use healthcare resources effectively.”

The PolicyLab team, which includes investigators, a vast program staff with extensive methodological and policy expertise, and a Healthcare Analytics Unit, is working on research and policy projects affecting adolescent health, behavioral health, child welfare, complex chronic conditions, and healthcare service delivery.

In addition to leading research studies with a more intentional focus on program and policy change, PolicyLab will convene local and national stakeholders in critical discussions on child health and well-being and will disseminate “Evidence to Action” briefs highlighting PolicyLab’s research topics in the context of local and national policy issues. Combined, these efforts enable PolicyLab to affect needed program and policy change that improve child health and well-being in Philadelphia and beyond.