Presenter Profile
Maneesha Agarwal, MD, FAAP
Emory University School of Medicine
Pediatric Emergency Medicine Physician
Children's Healthcare of Atlanta
Co-PI/Atlanta IFCK Chapter
maneesha.agarwal@emory.edu
Twitter: @tarhealer
Dr. Maneesha Agarwal is an associate professor in pediatrics and emergency medicine at Emory University School of Medicine and an attending physician in pediatric emergency medicine at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. She received her undergraduate and medical school degrees at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill followed by pediatrics residency in the Boston Combined Residency Program in Pediatrics and pediatric emergency medicine fellowship at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte. She is passionate about injury prevention, and her previous work encompasses multiple fields including poisoning prevention, child passenger safety, teen driving, firearm safety, consumer product safety, and adverse childhood experiences. Dr. Agarwal enjoys research, advocacy, education, and mentoring the next generation of injury prevention leaders. She co-founded the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Injury Prevention Program (CHIPP) and serves as the pediatrics expert for the Injury Prevention Research Center at Emory. She is also faculty for the national Trainees for Child Injury Prevention program.
Presentations
From Prevention to Promotion: Advancing Your Academic Career Through Your Injury Prevention Efforts
Maneesha Agarwal, MD
Lindsay Clukies, MD
Holly Hanson, MD, MS
*** will recruit additional faculty if accepted
An academic career in pediatric injury prevention is rewarding as it has a direct impact on children and can result in many lives saved. Yet many early-career faculty struggle to see how their injury prevention efforts—whether in advocacy, program implementation, education, clinical work, or research—can contribute meaningfully to academic promotion.
This interactive workshop is designed to bridge that gap. Faculty leaders who have successfully navigated the promotion process will offer practical guidance and candid insight into how injury prevention work can be strategically aligned with institutional promotion criteria.
Participants will learn to recognize the value of their full scope of contributions, even those that may not traditionally “count” in academic culture. We’ll explore how to position injury prevention activities within teaching, service, and scholarship portfolios—and how to translate these efforts into language that resonates with promotion committees.
Topics will include: • Key similarities and differences in academic promotion criteria across institutions. • How to “play the game” by your institution’s rules . • Strategies to build your CV beyond publications—through leadership, community partnerships, mentorship, and policy impact. • Tapping into national networks like Injury Free to support your case and increase visibility.
Participants will engage in reflective exercises and small-group discussions to identify their own goals, assets, and barriers. Everyone will leave with tailored action steps to help them integrate promotion planning into their everyday work—and to advocate for broader recognition of injury prevention as an essential academic contribution.
1. Describe common promotion pathways and how they apply to injury prevention work.
2. Identify local and national resources and mentors to support their promotion journey.
3. Develop personalized action items that align injury prevention efforts with academic advancement.
Social Media Posts by Children’s Hospitals and Injury Prevention Content - A Missed Opportunity for Education & Advocacy
Maneesha Agarwal, MD
Kristyn Melchiors, MD
Morgan Cantor, MD
Jacqueline Gluck, BS
Zoe Fischman, BS
Wendy Pomerantz, MD, MS
Preventable injuries are the leading cause of pediatric death. Most healthcare organizations and the general public engage in social media (SoMe) to disseminate and consume health-related information. However, it is unclear how frequently pediatric hospitals leverage their SoMe platforms to educate the general public on injury prevention (IP) topics. Thus, we sought to better characterize SoMe messaging and IP content by children’s hospitals.
This was a retrospective cross-sectional study of US children’s hospitals’ primary SoMe Facebook (FB), Twitter/X (X), and Instagram (IG) accounts. Included hospitals were associated with the Injury Free Coalition for Kids (IFCK), a current or past Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Injury Control and Research Center (CDC ICRC), a level 1 pediatric trauma center, or a pediatric surgery fellowship. Accounts established after 1/1/23 or covering adult health topics were excluded. Trained data abstractors reviewed all posts from 2023; posts were dichotomized into IP vs non-IP content, with further subcategorization based on injury mechanisms and other topics covered. Data abstraction is ongoing. Descriptive statistics and frequencies with ranges were calculated. Chi-squared analyses were used for comparisons between groups.
Of the 82 unique hospitals with eligible SoMe accounts, all used FB and 69 (84.1%) used all 3 SoMe platforms. FB accounts had the most followers (median=53,500; 25th%ile 25,750; 75th%ile 124,250) compared to IG (median 12,831; 25th%ile 6,512; 75th%ile 22,229) and X (median 10,125; 25th%ile 5,840; 75th%ile 23,572). IP affiliations included IFCK (N=40; 48.8%), level 1 pediatric trauma center (N=78; 95.1), pediatric surgery fellowship (N=50; 61.0%), and CDC ICRC (N=18; 22.0%). Only 10 hospitals (12.2%) had all four IP affiliations, while 27 (32.9%) had three, 20 (24.4%) had two, and 25 (30.5%) had only one.
Of 25,685 posts from 43 hospitals, 1,600 (6.2%) posts covered IP. Individual hospital SoMe accounts discussed IP in 0% to 12.4% of posts. Amongst IP posts, the most frequently covered specific topics were mental health/suicide (N=210; 0.8%), poisonings (N=161; 0.6%), and water safety (N=124; 0.5%). Most non-IP posts were focused on general publicity/goodwill (N=24,085; 46.5%); the most frequently covered medical categories were cardiac (N=1,110; 4.3%), cancer (N=984; 3.8%), and neonatal (N=804; 3.1%). Hospital affiliation with IFCK (??2 =10.72; p<.001), pediatric surgery fellowship (??2 =16.81; p<.001), and level 1 pediatric trauma center (??2 =6.65; p=.01) was associated with more IP content. More affiliations with IP oriented organizations were also associated with more IP content (??2 =35.05; p<.001).
Although children’s hospitals have large SoMe followings, IP is rarely discussed in SoMe content. While ties to IP oriented organizations improves coverage of IP content, this represents a critical missed opportunity to address the leading causes of pediatric deaths.
1. Although US children's hospitals have large social media followings, pediatric injury prevention is infrequently covered on social media channels.
2. Stronger connections to organizations that promote injury prevention improves the frequency of injury prevention content on social media channels.
3. Content covered on US children's hospitals' social media channels do not reflect the epidemiology of pediatric injuries or pediatric morbidity & mortality.