Jeffrey D. Edwards, MD

I am an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and a physician-investigator with clinical and research interests in children with complex chronic conditions and technology-dependence. Broadly, I focus on how critical illness impacts these children, how these children impact pediatric ICUs, and improving their patient-centered outcomes. Just as the care of these children is multi-faceted, my interests go beyond health services research to also include ethics and palliative care.

Having always gravitated towards difficult questions/situations, I earned a Master's of Arts in theology with a concentration in bioethics prior to medical school. During medical school, I created a volunteer project to provide home respite care to families with medically complex children. As a senior pediatric resident, I spent six months exclusively with an inpatient complex care service. As a pediatric critical care fellow at an institution with a large home mechanical ventilation program, I used my nonservice time to work with and study children on chronic ventilation. These early experiences shaped future professional endeavors.

After fellowship, I accepted a T32 position at UCSF. There I earned a Master's in clinical research and published several outcomes papers on children on chronic ventilation via tracheostomy. After that, I transitioned to a junior faculty position and was selected as a NICHD Pediatric Critical Care and Trauma Scientist Development Program Scholar.

In 2012, I joined the faculty at Columbia. Here I continue to focus on children with complex chronic conditions in the ICU, especially those needing chronic ventilation and those with extended hospitalizations. In 2018, I became Medical Director of the 9 Central general PICU at Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital, where I hope to make a real impact on the care of our critically ill patients, especially those with complex chronic conditions.