Janet Childerhose, PhD
Assistant Professor
Internal Medicine
Academic information
- Department: Internal Medicine
Research interests
- Community-Engaged Research
- Harm Reduction and Overdose Prevention
- Biomarker Concordance Analyses
- Co-design Approaches
- Research Ethics
- Return of Results to Participants
About
Biography
I am a Research Assistant Professor in The Ohio State University College of Medicine with appointments to the Division of General Internal Medicine and the Division of Bioethics. I have been a multiple principal investigator (MPI) principal investigator (PI) or co-investigator on grants worth more than $60 million that are funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Human Genome Research Institute, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), and intramural funders.
My research focus is reducing stigma and related harms in the care of vulnerable populations including people who use drugs, persons with sickle cell disease and autistic adults. I was a co-investigator with the Ohio HEALing Communities Study (2020-2025), and also was the Ohio lead and co-investigator of the supplemental Stay Safe Study to investigate use and distribution of fentanyl test strips in three states (5UM1DA049417-04).
I have 40 years’ experience as a community-engaged and multi-methods researcher, along with international expertise on the opioid epidemic and harm reduction practices, and held past roles on three multi-site consortia funded by the NIDA, the NHGRI and the CIHR.
I have led clinical research on provider dilemmas in billing for substance use disorder care, parental decision-making for pediatric whole exome and genome sequencing, adolescent decision-making for bariatric surgery, and the impacts of hospitalization in the pediatric intensive care unit.
My expertise in human subjects research oversight includes four years as a member of three hospital-based ethics boards in the United States and Canada.
p>Key contributions include: (1) Demonstrating effectiveness of a community-based intervention to increase naloxone distribution (the HEALing Communities Study), (2) Demonstrating effectiveness of fentanyl test strips to prevent overdose, (3) Leading community-engaged product evaluations and co-design of fentanyl test strips for use in real-world settings, and (4) Advancing a biopsychosocial model of sickle cell pain.I have published work in the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA Network Open, American Journal of Public Health, Substance Use and Misuse, BMC Public Health, PLOS One, Drug and Alcohol Dependence, Pediatrics, and Clinical Obesity, and my research has been presented at international meetings in Brazil, Portugal and Italy.
I have provided expert testimony to a Virginia policymaker on decriminalizing fentanyl test strips and to a Tennessee Congressional Representative on stigma and sickle cell disease. In 2024, I received an Outstanding Scholarly Achievement Award from the Ohio State College of Medicine.
Credentials
Education
- Hech-Levi Postdoctoral Fellow, The Berman Institute of Bioethics
- Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States
- Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Center for Bioethics and Social Science in Medicine
- University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States
- PhD - Medical Anthropology
- McGill University, Montreal, QC, United States
- MA - History and Philosophy of Science and Technology
- University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, United States
- BA - Anthropology
- University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, United States
Research
Research interests
- Community-Engaged Research
- Harm Reduction and Overdose Prevention
- Biomarker Concordance Analyses
- Co-design Approaches
- Research Ethics
- Return of Results to Participants
Current Projects
- The Overdose Stories. Funders: The Ohio State University Society of Fellows (Global Arts + Humanities Discovery Theme), The SOAR Initiative / SAMHSA, and HOMES microgrant. Role: PI.
- Fentanyl Test Strip Use and Overdose Risk Reduction Behaviors Among People Who Use Drugs in HCS Communities (The Stay Safe Study). Funder: NIH NIDA, 5UM1DA049417-04. Role: Co-I and Ohio Site Lead)
- Optimizing HEALing in Ohio Communities (OHiO). Funder: NIDA/NIH, UM1 DA049417. Role: Co-I.
- Development of a Mobile Application to Train Adults with Sickle Cell Disease in Mindfulness-Based Pain Management. Care Innovation and Community Improvement Program. Role: Co-I.