10 Research Opportunities Poised to Advance Child Health

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Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center

Oct 13, 2026, 16:43 ET

Cincinnati Children's research leader Tina Cheng, MD, MPH, and colleagues identify priority areas that could transform health—not just during childhood, but across the lifespan

CINCINNATI, Oct. 13, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Ten areas of pediatric research could drive the next generation of major advances in child health, according to a new special article in Pediatric Research led by Cincinnati Children's research leader Tina Cheng, MD, MPH.

Cincinnati Children’s research leader Tina Cheng, MD, MPH, and colleagues identify 10 priority areas that could transform health—not just during childhood, but across the lifespan.

Cheng, who leads the Cincinnati Children's Research Foundation, worked with Stephen Daniels, MD, PhD, of Children's Hospital Colorado; Jessica Snowden, MD, MS, of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center; and Tracy Glauser, MD, associate director of the Cincinnati Children's Research Foundation, to identify the 10 next great research opportunities in child health.

Their work builds on a previous report about seven great achievements in child health research that Cheng co-authored in 2016.

"To realize the promise of the 10 areas requires funding and support to maintain and accelerate momentum and to fully translate science to practice and policy. However, we often take for granted the research progress of the past," Cheng says. "Recently, U.S. federal support for biomedical research has been seriously challenged. Child health research has been historically underfunded compared to research on adult health issues, even in the best economic circumstances. It is more important than ever that research on child health issues receives an equitable share of available resources."