ECHO

Cella/Blackwell: Mutuality: What PROMIS Brought to ECHO and What ECHO Brought to PROMIS
2022-01-12 13:00 - 14:00 (America/New_York)
Cella/Blackwell: Mutuality: What PROMIS Brought to ECHO and What ECHO Brought to PROMIS
ECHO Discovery Summary
On January 12, David Cella, PhD (left) and Courtney Blackwell, PhD, EdM (right) of Northwestern University presented on the development of the Patient-reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS).
PROMIS is a unified and adaptable measurement system for evaluating and monitoring the physical, mental, and social health of adults and children. Within ECHO, PROMIS is a valuable resource for harmonizing patient-reported outcome measures across various cohorts, outcome areas, and age groups.
Until recently, PROMIS had only been validated for children over the age of 5. However, new ECHO research led by Dr. Blackwell resulted in the development of PROMIS measures for the reliable evaluation of health behaviors and outcomes during early childhood (PROMIS EC). PROMIS EC emphasizes features and behaviors that parents can easily and objectively observe in their children (e.g., “My child had a temper tantrum when upset or angry” instead of “my child felt upset”).
Speakers:
David Cella, PhD
Northwestern University

Speaker Bio: Dr. Cella is the Ralph Seal Paffenbarger Professor and Chair of the Department of Medical Social Sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine. His research portfolio extends from health outcomes measurement and applications to clinical trials, comparative effectiveness, and learning health system implementation. As an expert in applied health status measurement, he has led the development and validation of the FACIT Measurement System, PROMIS, Neuro-QoL, and the emotional health domain of the NIH Toolbox. These measurements are used around the world by thousands, in clinical practice and research.

Courtney K. Blackwell, PhD
Northwestern University

Speaker Bio: Dr. Blackwell is a Research Assistant Professor at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in the Department of Medical Social Sciences. As a co-Investigator for the ECHO Person Reported Outcome (PRO) Core, Dr. Blackwell develops and validates developmentally-sensitive survey and performance measures for young children, particularly in the domain of positive health. Her research focuses on identifying the social environmental factors that promote positive health and functioning across the lifespan.
Slides
Date: Wednesday, January 12th, 1 to 2pm ET

Christine Loftus, MS, MPH, Ph.D: Where there’s smoke… there’s action? What ECHO can do to protect children from wildfire smoke
2025-10-08 13:00 - 14:00
Where there’s smoke… there’s action? What ECHO can do to protect children from wildfire smoke
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Key Takeaways:
Wildfire smoke exposure is a growing public health crisis, causing significant harm to children nationwide. In 2025 alone, an estimated 12,000 ECHO participants have experienced at least one serious smoke event. Dr. Loftus’s presentation will describe wildfire smoke research in progress across the ECHO Program, including a new study collecting time-sensitive data after smoke events, aiming to characterize short-term health impacts and parents’ efforts to reduce child smoke exposure. Dr. Loftus will also discuss potential future research directions for the program, focusing on solution-oriented studies that leverage key strengths of the ECHO Cohort.

Christine Loftus, MS, MPH, Ph.D
Clinical Associate Professor
Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences
University of Washington
Project Director within Cohort 306
Award PI: ECHO Opportunities and Innovation Fund (OIF)
Co-chair: ECHO Air Pollution and Wildfire Smoke Interest Group
Speaker Biography:
Dr. Christine Loftus is a Clinical Associate Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at the University of Washington. Her research program focuses on environmental exposures and child health, including through applications of advanced study designs and statistical methods, community-engaged methods for remote and rural settings, and intervention research. She served as the science director of the PATHWAYS Consortium in ECHO Cycle 1 and is currently the project director of a new ECHO site in the Yakima Valley, recruiting new pregnancies. She’s the co-chair of the ECHO Air Pollution and Wildfire Smoke Interest Group and is principal investigator of an ECHO Opportunities and Innovation Fund award in progress, The Development and Evaluation of a Wildfire Smoke Protocol for Rapid Response (WiSPRR).
Keywords: Wildfires, smoke, interventions, disaster response
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Allan C. Just, PhD: Air pollution and temperature as spatial factors impacting child health
2025-12-10 13:00 - 14:00
Air pollution and temperature as spatial factors impacting child health
Key Takeaways: For this talk, Dr. Just explores how air pollution and temperature act as spatial factors impacting child health, with a focus on advanced exposure modeling using satellite data and machine learning. It highlights unique opportunities within the ECHO program to build spatiotemporal exposure models, integrate diverse data sources, and improve the accuracy of environmental health studies. Dr. Just also discusses technical challenges, model comparisons, and the importance of analyzing short-term exposures and humidity’s role in heat-related health outcomes.

Allan C. Just, PhD
Nazareth-Ferguson Family University Associate Professor
of Public Health in the Department of Epidemiology and
Institute at Brown for Environment and Society
Speaker Biography: Allan C. Just, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Public Health in the Department of Epidemiology and the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society at Brown University. Dr. Just specializes in environmental exposure modeling and epidemiology, leveraging satellite data and earth observations to enhance exposure assessment for large health registries and cohort studies. Dr. Just is recognized for advancing methodologies in air pollution and temperature modeling to support child health research.
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Courtney K Blackwell, PhD, MEd: The kids are(n’t) alright: The role of social media in youth mental health
2026-02-11 13:00 - 14:00
The kids are(n’t) alright: The role of social media in youth mental health
Key Takeaways: The parallel rise of youth mental health problems and social media use has led to speculations that the latter is a key contributor to the former. The US Surgeon General’s Advisory bolstered such speculations with a recent report detailing the potential harmful effects of social media use on youth mental health. However, others suggest engaging in social media can have positive psychological influences by increasing social connectedness and providing opportunities for creative self-expression and identity exploration. Dr. Blackwell will explore this duality by reviewing what we know about youth social media use and mental health outcomes, highlighting recent and on-going ECHO studies on this topic. She will also provide insight into the ECHO media use data more broadly to inspire future work leveraging the ECHO Cohort.

Courtney K Blackwell, PhD, MEd
she/her/hers
Associate Professor
Department of Medical Social Sciences (Outcome and Measurement Science)
Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University
MPI, ECHO Measurement Core
Biography:
Courtney Blackwell, PhD, MEd, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medical Social Sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. She is the MPI of the ECHO Measurement Core and has expertise in the development, validation, and implementation of patient-reported outcome measures and population health surveys for use across the lifespan, general and clinical populations, and health domains. Her research on pediatric mental health and well-being emphasizes promotive and protective factors of children’s positive psychological health. With a background in communication studies and the effects of digital media on child development, Dr. Blackwell has spent the past 10 years collaborating with such organizations as Common Sense Media, Sesame Workshop, PBS, Google, and Code.org on national surveys of children’s media use, the development and evaluation of educational media products, and investigations of the effects of digital media on children’s learning and development. She is also a Faculty Affiliate with the Northwestern University Institute for Innovations in Developmental Sciences (“DevSci”) and the Northwestern Institute for Adolescent Mental Health and Well-Being.
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