PAMELA PETERSEN

TitleAssociate Professor
InstitutionBaylor College of Medicine
DepartmentDepartment of Pediatrics
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    Collapse Biography 
    Collapse education and training
    Milwaukee School of Engineering, Milwaukee, WIBachelor of Science05/2007Biomedical Engineering
    Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin Unversity, North Chicago, ILMedical Doctorate06/2012Medicine
    Advocate Children’s Hospital-Oak Lawn, Oak Lawn, IL06/2015General Pediatric Residency Training
    Medical College of Wisconsin/ Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI06/2018Pediatric Critical Care Fellowship Training
    Collapse awards and honors
    2025BCM Star Award for Excellence in Patient Care, Baylor College of Medicine (BCM)
    2022Caught You Caring clinical award, Texas Children's Hospital
    20212nd place in the overall: Texas Children's Hospital Healthcare Hackathon, Hospital of the future, Texas Children's Hospital
    20212nd place, Meeting People Where They Are challenge: Texas Children's Hospital Healthcare Hackathon, Texas Children's Hospital
    2017Readers' Choice Award Mental Health Edition, in-House Magazine
    2010Second Place: Research Poster Competition, 41st Midwest Student Biomedical Research Forum
    2009First Place: Summer Research Fellowship Poster Session, Rosalind Franklin University
    2007Outstanding Senior Biomedical Engineering Student of the Year (Inaugural Recipient), Milwaukee School of Engineering
    2007First place: Business Plan Competition, Milwaukee School of Engineering
    2007Inducted into Tau Beta Pi, Tau Beta Pi – Engineering Honor Society
    2006Inducted into Alpha Eta Mu Beta, Alpha Eta Mu Beta – National Biomedical Engineering honor society
    2005Inducted into Eta Kappa Nu, Eta Kappa Nu - International electrical and computer engineering honor society of the IEEE

    Collapse Overview 
    Collapse overview
    Dr. Pamela C. Petersen is an Associate Professor of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and practices at Texas Children's Hospital (TCH), where she provides care for critically ill neonates, children, and young adults. Board certified in Pediatrics and Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, she combines clinical expertise with a background in biomedical engineering to advance technology-enabled care delivery.

    Dr. Petersen serves as the Associate Chief Health Information Officer for Inpatient Services at Texas Children's Hospital, where she partners with clinical, operational, and IT leaders to optimize the safe, reliable, and scalable use of technology across the inpatient enterprise. Her work focuses on clinical communication, health information technology governance, patient safety, system reliability, workflow optimization, and enterprise-wide downtime preparedness. In 2026, she was elected to the Epic Unified Communications Advisory Board, where she collaborates with health system leaders and Epic to guide the optimization and future development of communication tools within the electronic health record. Prior to her current role, she served as the TCH Associate Medical Director of Mission Control, leading initiatives to improve communication, patient flow, and care coordination across a multi-hospital health system.

    Her academic and innovation interests center on the integration of emerging technologies into pediatric care. Her work includes digital health, wireless patient monitoring, clinical informatics, medical device development, and electronic health record optimization to improve efficiency, documentation quality, and patient outcomes. She also serves as an advisor to the Texas Medical Center Innovation Accelerator and collaborates with engineers, trainees, and industry partners to translate novel technologies into meaningful clinical applications. Through these efforts, Dr. Petersen strives to advance pediatric healthcare by improving patient, family, and clinician experiences while reducing administrative burden and enhancing operational effectiveness.[

    Collapse Research 
    Collapse research activities and funding
         (Brandon Hunter)Nov 1, 2024
    Internal BCM Department Funding
    Large Language Model Application in Healthcare: Use of Generative Pre-Trained Transformer Models to Enhance Communication and Understanding in the Pediatric Hospital Setting
    Role Description: The purpose of this study is to develop and evaluate a pilot chatbot application based on the GPT-4 model as a patient education tool in the inpatient setting, with a focus on enhancing communication and pubunderstanding of medical information for parents. As a Co-investigator for this study, I assisted the PI with developing and implementing tools in the EHR to assist with obtaining information to send to the chatbot.
    Role: Co-Investigator

         (Ajay Thomas)Feb 1, 2024
    SWPDC/BCM/TCH Pediatric Device Faculty Seed Grant
    Neurobell Luna Pilot Study
    Role Description: This is a clinical study to evaluate the Neurobell Luna, a portable, pocket-sized, wireless EEG monitor with real-time automated neonatal seizure detection against gold standard inpatient monitoring devices in children with congenital heart disease. As a co-investigator for this study, I assisted the PI with obtaining funding, study design, obtaining IRB approval, navigating necessary implementation hurdles and conducting the study.
    Role: Co-Investigator

         (Pamela C. Petersen, M.D.)Jul 1, 2022 - Jul 1, 2025
    SWPDC/BCM/TCH Pediatric Device Faculty Seed Grant
    Evaluation of a Novel Remote Vital Sign Monitor Compared to Traditional Inpatient Monitoring in Cardiac Shunt-Dependent Children
    Role Description: This is a clinical study to test the VITLS platform (vitlsinc.com - Houston, TX) against gold standard inpatient monitoring devices in children with congenital heart disease. VITLS Tego is an FDA cleared device specifically designed for pediatric patients for wireless continuous vital sign monitoring that measures heart rate, respiratory rate, temperature, and oxygen saturation.
    Role: Principal Investigator

    R61HD105593     (Dr. Ananth Annapragada)Nov 1, 2020 - Oct 31, 2024
    NIH
    AICORE-KIDS: AICORE-kids: Artificial Intelligence COVID-19 Risk Assessment for Kids
    Role Description: Utilization of machine learning applications to risk-stratify COVID-19 and MIS-C pediatric patients including prediction of likely outcomes based on electronic health record and biomarker data.
    Role: Co-Investigator

    Collapse Featured Content 
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    Collapse Bibliographic 
    Collapse selected publications
    Publications listed below are automatically derived from MEDLINE/PubMed and other sources, which might result in incorrect or missing publications. Faculty can login to make corrections and additions.
    Newest   |   Oldest   |   Most Cited   |   Most Discussed   |   Timeline   |   Field Summary   |   Plain Text
    PMC Citations indicate the number of times the publication was cited by articles in PubMed Central, and the Altmetric score represents citations in news articles and social media. (Note that publications are often cited in additional ways that are not shown here.) Fields are based on how the National Library of Medicine (NLM) classifies the publication's journal and might not represent the specific topic of the publication. Translation tags are based on the publication type and the MeSH terms NLM assigns to the publication. Some publications (especially newer ones and publications not in PubMed) might not yet be assigned Field or Translation tags.) Click a Field or Translation tag to filter the publications.
    1. Hunter RB, Thammasitboon S, Rahman S, Kakarla S, Petersen P, Kumar S, Rappold T, Mehta S. Feasibility of a Large Language Model Chatbot to Support Parental Understanding in the PICU. Crit Care Explor. 2026 Apr 01; 8(4):e1378. PMID: 41860987; PMCID: PMC13008162.
      Citations:    Fields:    Translation:Humans
    2. . VITLS versus standard monitoring in pediatric patients with cyanotic congenital heart disease. Neonatology Today. 2025; 20(6):3-12. View Publication.
    3. . 686: HOW SLEEPY IS TOO SLEEPY? SEDATION OPTIMIZATION IN CRITICALLY ILL PEDIATRICS PATIENTS. Critical Care Medicine. 2024; 52(1):S316. View Publication.
    4. Petersen PC, Hanson S, Yan K, Clarke W. Partially Wireless Pulse Oximetry Reduces Loss of Signal Integrity due to Motion in Children. Hosp Pediatr. 2019 09; 9(9):690-696. PMID: 31420351.
      Citations:    Fields:    Translation:Humans
    5. Petersen PC, Balakrishnan B, Vitola B, Hong JC. Case report series of a novel application of neostigmine to successfully relieve refractory ileus status post-pediatric orthotopic liver transplantation. Pediatr Transplant. 2019 11; 23(7):e13564. PMID: 31407849.
      Citations: 2     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    6. . Hyperbaric Medicine Practice, 4th Edition edited by Dr. Harry T. Whelan and Dr. Eric Kindwall. Chapter 11 Pediatric Considerations for Hyperbaric Medicine. 2017.
    7. . Light Upon the Waves. 2017. View Publication.
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