Joanna Newton, MD, MSc, is a Pediatric Hematologist and Oncologist at the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Assistant Professor at Emory University School of Medicine. She is dedicated to the inpatient management of pediatric hematology, oncology, and bone and marrow transplant (BMT) patients at our Egleston and Scottish Rite hospital locations.

Dr. Newton’s scholarly activity is focused on supportive care, patient safety and quality improvement. In the context of her clinical work, Dr. Newton identifies opportunities where change can benefit any aspect of the healthcare delivery system, from the patient to the system level on both the local and national scale. Her approach is to address challenging clinical problems by developing innovative technologies in collaboration with her colleagues at Georgia Institute of Technology, the Children’s Pediatric Technology Center, where she is the Senior Clinical Advisor and Liaison, at Georgia Tech and Global Center for Medical Innovation. Dr. Newton uses QI methodology and implementation science strategies in addition to traditional research strategies to rapidly deploy technologies or changes in clinical practice to quickly address critical clinical issues.

Dr. Newton’s ongoing, grant-funded research activities are related to the prevention of central line-associated blood stream infections in pediatric hematology, oncology and BMT patients. These projects include innovation around medical devices and big data analytics. In her role as a Senior Task Force Clinical Lead with the Children’s COVID-19 Task Force, her primary research activities are related to device innovation and development around personal protective equipment (PPE) in collaboration with academic, government and industry leaders in order to address the critical shortage of PPE in the U.S. during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her primary QI projects have included evidence-based guidelines to change local clinical practice related to obtaining blood cultures in order to reduce waste in the medical system and to decrease unnecessary exposure to antibiotics; and evidence-based clinical practice guideline changes to the management of patients with sickle cell disease and fever or acute chest syndrome in response to critical patient safety events.