The Integrating Special Populations into Research Program (ISP) facilitates access to the varied populations at Johns Hopkins and affiliated institutions.
Are you looking to expand your research study to increase diversity in age and race/ethnicity? Are you interested in finding potential participants with Rare Diseases? Do you want to learn research methodologies specific to Special Populations? The ICTR can help.
Our Methods
We provide consultations with our Population Liaisons who are experts with knowledge of 4 broad populations that are critical to the mission of expanding research participation.
Geriatrics
Pediatrics
Genetics/Rare Diseases
Underserved Minorities
To initiate a consultation with the ISP team, please complete an intake form that will tell us a bit about your project and the type(s) of assistance we can offer you. You will receive a response in 3-5 business days.
Geriatrics Population Liaison
Jeremy Walston, MD, Johns Hopkins University
Dr. Walston is the Raymond and Anna Lublin Professor of Geriatric Medicine at Johns Hopkins University where he is a clinical geriatrician and translational researcher in the area of the biology of frailty. He is the Principal Investigator of the Older American Independence Center which provides an outstanding resource for investigators interested in etiologic frailty research, and research to develop and test prevention and intervention strategies in human subjects. Walston will help investigators interested in specific geriatric populations to find collaborators/cohorts, as well as provide recommendations for research methodologies in this population. Investigators interested in frailty measurement can also find more information on the Johns Hopkins Frailty Science website located at https://frailtyscience.org.
Pediatrics Populations Liaisons
Robert Alan Wood, MD, Johns Hopkins University
Dr. Wood is a professor of pediatrics, director of the division of Pediatric Allergy & Immunology, a professor of International Heath at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and director of the ICTR Pediatric Clinical Research Unit. He conducts clinical, epidemiologic and translational research aimed at better understanding and treating food allergies and childhood asthma. Dr. Wood will help investigators find specific pediatric populations at Johns Hopkins and consult on pediatric research methodologies.
Neil Goldenberg, MD, PhD, Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital (St. Petersburg, Florida)
Neil Goldenberg, MD, PhD, Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital (St. Petersburg, Florida)
Dr. Goldenberg is a professor of pediatrics and medicine and a pediatric hematologist/oncologist at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida. He also serves as the associate dean for research and the director of the Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital Institute for Clinical and Translational Research. Goldenberg is an international leader in the field of venous thromboembolism in children and young adults. Given his position as the associate dean for research, Goldenberg is a resource for investigators outside of All Children’s Hospital to access multiple pediatric populations and biospecimens.
Rare Diseases Populations Liaison
Ali Fatemi, MD, Kennedy Krieger Institute; Johns Hopkins University
Dr. Fatemi is an associate professor of neurology and pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University and a pediatric neurologist at the Kennedy Krieger Institute with expertise in leukodystrophies and other rare neurogenetic disorders affecting neurodevelopment. He is a founding member of the Board of Directors of a rare disease network ALDConnect, an all-inclusive multinational consortium for patients with X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD), whose goal is to harmonize multi-center data collection and conduct multi-center clinical trials. Fatemi worked closely with advocacy groups and foundations to gather natural history data on these individual disorders and in developing therapeutic strategies. With this objective, he serves as a member of scientific advisory boards to several patient advocacy groups, industry partners and the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) Rare Disease Task Force. As the co-director of the Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center at Kennedy Krieger, he is also involved in the coordination/supervision of many research projects through various research cores. He is a superb resource for investigators interested accessing populations with rare genetic diseases.
Underserved Minority Populations Liaisons
Lisa Cooper, MD, MPH, Johns Hopkins University
Dr. Cooper is a professor of Medicine, Epidemiology, and Health, Policy, and Management, holds the James Fries Chair in Medicine, and is a Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Distinguished Professor. Cooper is a general internist, social epidemiologist, and health services researcher. She is one of the first scientists to document disparities in the equality of relationships between physicians and patients from socially at-risk groups and her research program examines the effectiveness of patient-centered strategies for improving health outcomes and overcoming racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare. She will help investigators access minority populations in Baltimore. For those interested in learning more about health equity research in general, the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity, directed by Dr Cooper, assembled a variety of superb resources including online courses- https://www.jhsph.edu/research/centers-and-institutes/johns-hopkins-center-for-health-equity/learning-resources).
Kathleen Page, MD, Johns Hopkins University
Dr. Page is an associate professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases. Page’s research focuses on addressing disparities in health care, particularly among Latinx immigrants. She is the co-founder of Centro SOL, a Johns Hopkins Center of Excellence in Latino Health with a mission to promote equity in health and opportunities for Latinxs. Centro SOL is involved in a variety of activities, such as improving services for patients with Limited English Proficiency, developing culturally-sensitive mental health resources for the community, and engaging Latino mothers to be pro-active members of our Latino family advisory board. Centro SOL also provides consulting services for researchers wishing to engage Latinx populations by helping with participant recruitment, material review, bilingual staff support, and culturally-appropriate study design.
