Department of Pediatrics

Dr. Trainor is Professor of Pediatrics and Medical Education at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in the Division of Emergency Medicine. She is Associate Chair for Education in the Department of Pediatrics and oversees activities across the educational spectrum from medical student to residency and fellowship programs within the Department of Pediatrics. She is a pediatric emergency physician with special expertise in pediatric acute care simulation-based instruction and debriefing and is a member of the kidSTAR Medical Education training program at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Chil...

As the Division Head of Hospital Based Medicine Outreach, I have focused much of my clinical interests surrounding clinical simulation activities and quality improvement. More recently, we are using both of these tools to develop pediatric core competencies for the pediatric hospitalist.

As an attending pediatric cardiologist with specialty training in heart failure and heart transplantation, I take care of children with various forms of cardiac dysfunction whether it is due to congenital heart disease, muscular dystrophy, exposure to anthracycline or other cardiotoxic chemotherapeutic agents, or an underlying cardiomyopathy; as well as  children who have undergone heart transplantation. My long term goals are to improve the lives of children and their families and improve the quality of care so that children will live the best life possible!  I feel that personalized medicine...

As a clinical educator, my goals are to combine my clinical interests in general pediatric cardiology as well as more specialized clinical expertise in echocardiography and exercise medicine, with my interests in fellow education.

My primary areas of interest lie within the broad continuum of emergency medical services for children (EMSC). I am interested in issues relating to pediatric readiness of the various components of the EMSC continuum, including prehospital and hospital-based services. Within the realm of pediatric emergency care, i am interested in a variety of clinical issues, including care quality and patient safety. More recently, I have focused on issues relating to pediatric disaster preparedness. My interests in EMSC also include public policy and health care access.

I am a hospital-based physician, in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at Northwestern Memorial and Lurie Children's Hospitals. I co-lead the Medical Decision Making (Evidence-based Medicine) course at the medical school and serve as core clinical faculty within the Internal Medicine Residency, which affords me additional opportunities to mentor and teach.

Robert Garofalo MD, MPH is a Professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois. He is the founding Chief of the Division Adolescent & Young Adult Medicine at Lurie Children's Hospital and previously served as the hospital's director of adolescent HIV services. Dr. Garofalo founded and co-directs the Lurie Children’s Gender and Sexual Development Program. He received a B.S. from Duke University (1988), his M.D. from New York University School of Medicine (1992) and a M.P.H. from the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Garofalo has >25 years o...

Joanna Blackburn, MD received her medical degree from the University of Rochester School of Medicine, completed her pediatrics residency at NYU and her child neurology residency at Northwestern University/Children's Memorial Hospital (now Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago). She then completed a fellowship in pediatric movement disorders at University of Rochester. She joined the faculty at Northwestern University/Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago in 2012. Additionally she has been the program director for the child neurology residency training program since 2013.

Dr. Patel is a Pediatric and Fetal Cardiologist with subspecialized training in Cardiac Imaging. Her research interests lie at the intersection of pediatric and fetal cardiology and clinical medical ethics. She explores the societal, ethical, and legal implications of emerging technology and intervention as it relates to medical management and shared decision-making in patients with congenital heart disease. In addition, she contributes frequently to media outlets thorugh her op-ed writing on topics related to medicine, education, policy, and ethics. She is Associate Chair of Faculty Developme...