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Dr. Tasian and his research team use an epidemiologic framework, including randomized trials and multi-institutional observational studies, to examine the etiology of kidney stone disease and the comparative effectiveness of surgical interventions. He also employs machine learning of complex data to improve diagnosis, risk stratification, and prediction of treatment response for children and adults with benign urologic disease.
The long-term goal of Dr. Tasian's clinical and research programs is to improve the lives of children with nephrolithiasis and congenital urologic disease. His research group uses a combination of large data analytics, behavioral economics, nutritional profiling, and human biospecimen analysis to discover determinants of kidney stone disease with the goal of translating this knowledge into new treatments for kidney stone prevention.
Active projects include examination of metabolic pathways in the gut-kidney axis that could be targets for novel therapeutics to prevent kidney stones. Specifically, Dr. Tasian is investigating the impact of diet and antibiotic exposure on the gut microbiome and metabolites in the intestinal and urinary tract and their contribution to calcium kidney stones in children and adults. He is also performing prospective cohort studies to compare stone clearance and patients’ experiences after alternative surgical interventions for kidney stones. He also applies machine learning to improve understanding of the pathophysiology, diagnosis, risk stratification, and prediction of treatment responses of benign urological disease among children.
Dr. Tasian and his team have made the following discoveries:
BA, Trinity University (Biology and English), 2000
MSc, University of Oxford (Neuroscience), 2004
MD, Baylor College of Medicine, 2005
Fellowship, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, 2013
MSCE, University of Pennsylvania (Clinical Epidemiology), 2014
Attending Urologist
Associate Professor of Surgery and Epidemiology (with tenure)
Director, Pediatric KIDney Stone (PKIDS) Care Improvement Network
Core Faculty, CHOP PolicyLab
Core Faculty, CHOP Center for Pediatric Clinical Effectiveness
American Urological Association, 2007-
Society of Pediatric Urology, 2011-
Pediatric National Surgery Quality Improvement Program, 2014-
American College of Surgeons, 2014-
American Medical Association, 2014-
Society of University Urologists, 2014-
Outstanding Patient Oriented Research Presentation; 22nd annual CHOP Research Poster Day, 2012, 2014
CPCE Pilot Grant Award, 2013
Best Poster Award; International Pediatric Nephrology Association, 2013
American Society for Clinical Investigation Young Physician-Scientist Award, 2016
Election to Research on Calculous Kinetics (ROCK) Society, 2017
Third place, American Urological Association Young Investigator Award, 2017
Harnessing Behavior to Decrease Urinary Stone Disease Morbidity
Anatomic Biomarkers of Chronic Kidney Disease Progression Among Children
Evaluation of the Gut-Kidney Axis in Kidney Stone Disease
Comparative Effectiveness of Pediatric Kidney Stone Surgery
Center for Machine Learning in Urology
Machine Learning to Predict Outcomes for Children with Urologic Disease
Overlap: There is no scientific overlap with the active and pending grants.
Center for Pediatric Clinical Effectiveness Profile
Antibiotics May Raise the Risk for Kidney Stone (New York Times, May 10, 2018)
CHOP study links antibiotic use with risk of kidney stones (Philadelphia Inquirer, May 10, 2018).
CHOP researchers: Why are so many kids getting kidney stones? (WHYY, May 8, 2018)
Climate change may increase kidney stone risk (news@JAMA, July 10, 2014)
Climate change may bring more kidney stones (Science Daily, July 10, 2014)
Pediatric KIDney Stone (PKIDS) Care Improvement Network (PKIDS)