Associate Professor, Jefferson School of Population Health 2009

maternal child health, health care for children, childhood obesity, tobacco use and treatment, etc
Dr. Abatemarco's primary research is focused on innovative methods of enhancing health care for children and systems for maternal child health. She is currently the Co-Principal Investigator of Practicing Safety, a study to evaluate a pediatric-based practice change intervention to prevent maltreatment of children 0 to 3 years of age. Dr. Abatemarco and her Co-PI, Dr. Stephen Kairys, are developing a proposal to implement Practicing Safety in a national sample of pediatric practices. The work has been highlighted recently as an AHRQ Innovation.

She is also the implementation and evaluation consultant to Fitwits, an intervention to prevent and reduce child obesity. Dr. Abatemarco recently was the Primary Investigator of a US/Croatian Healthy Cities Partnership to delay the onset of alcohol use among adolescents in Split, Croatia. She has worked actively with the nation of Croatia on two separately funded projects. Her studies include comprehensive quasi-experimental and experimental designs and the use of qualitative and quantitative methods.