Associate Professor, Pediatrics
Texas Children's Hospital / Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, Texas, United States
Dr. Keila N Lopez is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics in the Section of Pediatric Cardiology at Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine. Her research portfolio reflects a longstanding commitment to addressing health disparities and public health initiatives. She has presented nationally on health disparities, leading teams to conduct multidisciplinary work using large databases and GIS mapping to better understand the connection between health, socioeconomic status, neighborhood level factors and access to quality healthcare. She has participated in several community initiatives to help underserved populations, and more recently was the only Latina and pediatrician appointed to Houston Mayor Turner’s COVID-19 Health Equity Response Task Force.
Given her public health and health policy background, she serves as an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at Rice University and serves as a co-investigator for the Texas Children’s Policy and Advocacy Center. She is the creator and Director of the pediatric cardiology Transition Program, screening knowledge and transition skill gaps for youth with congenital heart disease to improve their ultimate transfer to adult care. Her NIH early career award focused on creating a mobile application that is a “portable transition program” to reduce health disparities during the transition process in patients with congenital heart disease.
Dr. Lopez seeks to incorporate cardiology, public health, and minority health policy in order to develop research initiatives that directly inform health policy and improve the health care of minorities and underserved populations. She hopes to identify strategies to enhance and prolong the lives of those with CHD through surveillance, population-based research, education, health promotion, advocacy, and policy development.
Tuesday, March 28, 2023
8:00 AM – 9:30 AM