Biomedical Graduate Studies

Description of Research Expertise

Research Interests:

Complementary/alternative medicine, genetic epidemiology, pediatrics, perinatal, causal inference, diagnostic testing, longitudinal methods.

Description of Research

Dr. Pinto-Martin is the Director of the recently-funded Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities Research and Epidemiology (CADDRE). The University of Pennsylvania Center is one of five such Centers funded by the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to work collaboratively to understand the causes of autism and the reasons for its recent increase in prevalence nationwide. The CADDRE is also engaged in research on early screening and identification of ASD, nursing care for families with children newly diagnosed with ASD, sleep disorders in children with ASD, and the psychological health of siblings of children with ASD.

Dr. Pinto-Martin served as the President of the Society for Pediatric Epidemiologic Research and is currently on the Editorial Board for the journal Pediatric and Perinatal Research. She served as a special consultant to the National Institutes of Health on their research initiative on autism during 2001.

Dr. Pinto-Martin teaches undergraduate “Statistics” with a focus on the real world application of statistical knowledge. In addition, she teaches an “Introduction to the Principles” and “Methods of Epidemiology,” a course that is very popular with researchers who want to learn about the techniques of epidemiologic research.