About

Emily F Gregory, MD, MHS, is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics (General Pediatrics) at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. She is an attending physician at the Karabots Pediatric Care Center within the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Her educational background includes a BA in Environmental Science and Public Policy from Harvard University (2000), an MD from McGill University Faculty of Medicine (2006), and an MHS from Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health (2015). Her research focuses on child health, healthcare access, and public health issues, with numerous publications addressing topics such as rural-urban healthcare differences, lead testing implementation, postpartum hypertension screening, and pediatric weight outcomes. She is actively involved in academic and clinical work aimed at improving health outcomes for children and families.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Family medicine
• Psychology
• Nursing
• Pediatrics

Selected publications

• Characteristics of Youth Treated With GLP-1RAs at an Integrated Weight Management Clinic

  PEDIATRICS · 2026-03-02

  article1st authorCorresponding

  OBJECTIVES: Youth use of GLP-1RAs is increasing. This study described GLP-1RA prescription patterns and barriers to treatment at a pediatric integrated weight management clinic. METHODS: This retrospective cohort included youth 12 to 17 years with BMI at least 95th% for age and sex, with at least 1 visit at an integrated weight management program from January 2023 to August 2025. We identified youth with at least 1 GLP-1RA prescription in the electronic health record. We assessed demographic factors (age, sex, race, ethnicity, insurance payer, preferred language) and health factors (BMI, Type 2 diabetes, results of ALT, cholesterol, and hemoglobin A1c testing). Logistic regression assessed for an association between GLP-1RA prescription and demographic and health factors. Manual medical record review of a subsample of 102 youth with GLP-1RA prescriptions described reasons for interruptions in use. RESULTS: Of 1647 youth, 325 (20%) had at least 1 GLP-1RA prescription. Odds of prescription increased with increasing age, increasing BMI, abnormal laboratory testing results, and non-Hispanic white or Hispanic race and ethnicity (compared with non-Hispanic Black). Odds of a prescription decreased with a preferred language other than English. In medical record review, 65 youth (64%) experienced GLP-1RA treatment interruptions, most commonly related to cost and insurance coverage. CONCLUSIONS: At one institution's integrated weight management program, 20% of potentially eligible youth were prescribed GLP-1RAs. Prescriptions were more likely for older patients and those with comorbid conditions, and less likely for Black or non-English speaking patients, reflecting known pediatric health disparities. Barriers to treatment were common after the prescription.

  PublisherDOI

• A Life Course Approach to Health Equity: Lessons From Medical-Legal Collaborations

  NeoReviews · 2026-05-01

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Knowledge and Training About Caring for Children With Intrauterine Opioid Exposure: A Multisite Pediatrician Survey

  Academic Pediatrics · 2026-01-28

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Length of gestation and postpartum visit attendance

  Pregnancy · 2026-05-01

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Introduction Approximately 40% of obstetric patients do not attend a postpartum visit. Postpartum parents of preterm infants (<37 weeks) are often sicker than parents of full‐term infants. Nonetheless, they may forgo postpartum visits to attend to the needs of their infant when admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit. Our goal was to evaluate whether postpartum visit attendance varied with length of gestation at birth, hypothesizing after preterm birth, parents would be less likely to attend postpartum visits than after full‐term birth. Methods Retrospective cohort study of births in Epic Systems Cosmos research platform (2018–2024), a national electronic health record database with deidentified, patient‐level data. To increase the likelihood that postpartum visits, if attended, would be captured by Cosmos, we only included births with prenatal visits in the database. Bivariate analyses examined characteristics associated with not attending postpartum visits. Multilevel, multivariable, modified Poisson regression models calculated adjusted risk ratios (aRRs) of not attending postpartum visits after various lengths of gestation compared to full‐term birth (39–40 weeks). Models adjusted for age, race and ethnicity, insurance, residential Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Social Vulnerability Index, rural versus urban residence, smoking, body mass index (BMI), hypertension, diabetes, parity, cesarean birth, and birth year. Results Of the 2,403,574 included births, 653,552 (27%) parents did not attend a postpartum visit. For the several characteristics with significant differences in visit attendance rates, notably high rates of not attending a postpartum visit were observed for Black non‐Hispanic race and ethnicity (32%), smoking during pregnancy (56%), BMI > 30 kg/m 2 (30%), no diabetes (28%), multiparity (29%), and no cesarean birth (29%). After multivariable adjustment, preterm (<37 weeks), early‐term (37–38 weeks), and late‐ and post‐term (41–43 weeks) births were all associated with not attending a postpartum visit compared to full‐term (39–40 weeks’ gestation) birth. Periviable birth (22–23 weeks) demonstrated the highest risk (aRR, 1.21; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.13–1.29). Conclusions Compared to full‐term birth, all other length‐of‐gestation categories were significantly associated with not attending a postpartum visit, with periviable birth at the highest risk. Interdisciplinary, innovative approaches to provide postpartum care to this vulnerable population are needed.

  PublisherDOI

• Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Receptor Agonists and Youth Obesity

  JAMA Pediatrics · 2025-07-21

  articleSenior author

  This Viewpoint discusses the use of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist treatments for weight management in youth.

  PublisherDOI

• Postpartum care in the neonatal intensive care unit, PeliCaN: a randomized controlled trial

  American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology MFM · 2025-05-06 · 12 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Rural–urban differences in health care access for postpartum parent and infant dyads

  The Journal of Rural Health · 2025-06-01 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access

  PURPOSE: To examine differences in perinatal health between rural and urban postpartum parents and infants and within postpartum parent-infant dyads. METHODS: Cross-sectional analysis of the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) data. Accounting for the complex survey design, we calculated weighted proportions of measures of self-rated health, health care utilization, and barriers to care and used chi-squared tests to assess rural-urban differences between postpartum parents and between infants, and repeated measures to test postpartum parent-infant differences within households in rural and urban counties. FINDINGS: The study included 2019 rural postpartum parents, 2191 rural infants, 12,112 urban postpartum parents and 13,088 urban infants. Compared to urban postpartum parents, those living in rural areas were less likely to see an obstetrician-gynecologist (p = 0.002) had more emergency department (ED) visits (p = 0.030), reported more hospitalizations (p = 0.041), more frequently experienced uninsurance (p = 0.006), and lost Medicaid coverage after pregnancy (p = 0.006). While a higher proportion of urban infants were hospitalized than their rural counterparts (p = 0.019), other measures were similar. Accounting for dyad correlations, compared to infants, postpartum parents generally reported worse health (fair or poor self-rated health), and were more likely to experience ED visits, hospitalizations, loss of health care coverage, and barriers to care. CONCLUSIONS: Rural postpartum parents experience worse health than their urban counterparts and compared to their infants. Rural-urban differences in access were less common among infants, thus leveraging infant care systems for services to both the infant and postpartum parent may improve household health in all communities.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Prevalence, predictors, and patterns of residential mobility by the parents of preterm infants

  Journal of Perinatology · 2025-09-17

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Preconception and Prenatal Medicaid Coverage for Medicaid-Insured Births

  Journal of Women s Health · 2025-07-22

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Background: Medicaid provides insurance for 40% of U.S. births. Patterns of preconception Medicaid enrollment are not well-described. Methods: Using Medicaid Analytic Extract files, this retrospective cohort study of individuals with a 2014 Medicaid-insured birth examined months of Medicaid enrollment and changes in enrollment status during 84 months prior to birth. We used linear regression to assess the association between enrollment months and 2014 age, race and ethnicity, rural residence, any Medicaid eligibility due to disability, foster care involvement, or pregnancy, chronic health conditions, and state of residence. We examined variation across states in the relationship between enrollment months and changes in enrollment status. Results: We identified 944,068 individuals in 30 states. Individuals had a median of 40.6 (SD 27.3) enrollment months of Medicaid and 3.2 (SD 2.3) changes in enrollment status. Twenty-eight percent were enrolled in Medicaid for ≥63 months. In regression analysis, age, race and ethnicity, and chronic health conditions were associated with enrollment months. Each year of age was associated with −0.93 enrollment months (95% CI −1.27, −0.60). For chronic conditions, hypertension was associated with an additional 3.12 enrollment months (95% CI 2.53, 3.71), diabetes with 3.28 (95% CI 2.24, 4.32), and mental health with 6.27 (95% CI 5.55, 6.98). The relationship between enrollment months and changes in enrollment status varied across states. Conclusions: Medicaid plays a substantial role in preconception health insurance for individuals with Medicaid-insured births. This is particularly true for younger individuals and those with comorbidities associated with adverse birth outcomes.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Integrating community health workers in early childhood well-child care: a statement from the Pediatric Academic Societies Maternal Child Health: First 1,000 days Special Interest Group

  BMC Primary Care · 2024-09-27 · 10 citations

  reviewOpen access

  This statement from the Pediatric Academic Societies Maternal Child Health: First 1,000 Days Special Interest Group provides an overview of the rationale, evidence, and key action steps needed to engage Community Health Workers (CHWs) into team-based well-child care (WCC) for families in low-income communities. CHWs have been defined as public health workers who have a trusted and valued connection to a community. Integrating CHWs into early childhood WCC can allow for greater cultural relevancy for families, reduce the burden on clinicians to provide the wide range of WCC services, many of which do not require the expertise of a high-level clinician, and improve preventive care services to families during the vulnerable but critical period of early childhood. There are evidence-based approaches to integrating CHWs into early childhood WCC, as well as payment models that can support them. Implementation and spread of these models will require collaboration and engagement across health systems, clinics, payors, and CHWs; flexibility for local adaptation of these models to meet the needs of clinics, practices, CHWs, and communities; publicly available training resources for CHW education; and research findings to guide effective implementation that incorporates parent and caregiver engagement as well as sustainable payment models.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• The role of pediatric interconception care in preventing adverse birth outcomes

  NIH · $833k · 2020–2025

Frequent coauthors

• Erica Sibinga

  Johns Hopkins University

  38 shared

• Lisa Ross DeCamp

  36 shared

• Marilyn Camacho Chrismer

  Johns Hopkins University

  36 shared

• Sarah Polk

  Johns Hopkins Medicine

  36 shared

• Flor Giusti

  36 shared

• Darcy A. Thompson

  University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

  36 shared

• Scott A. Lorch

  28 shared

• Alexander G. Fiks

  Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

  23 shared

Labs

• Emily F Gregory LabPI

Education

• MHS, Bloomberg School of Public Health

  Johns Hopkins University

  2015

• MD, Faculty of Medicine

  McGill University

  2006

• BA

  Harvard University

  2000