SUMMARY
The academic focus of Emily R. Levy, M.D., is on infections in children who are critically ill. Specifically, Dr. Levy studies health care-associated and catheter-associated bloodstream infections and severe lower respiratory tract infections.
She is a Mayo Clinic site contributor for multiple national studies of viral pneumonias in patients who are immunocompromised. She represents Mayo Clinic in the national Pediatric Acute Lung Injury and Sepsis Investigators (PALISI) Network. Dr. Levy also is the principal investigator for multiple studies related to pediatric COVID-19, multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) and COVID-19 vaccine efficacy.
Focus areas
- COVID-19 pediatric vaccine effectiveness. Dr. Levy contributes to a study funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) exploring the effectiveness of vaccines for prevention of severe illness from COVID-19 in children.
- Immunodysregulation in MIS-C. Dr. Levy is participating in studies regarding immune pathways that contribute to MIS-C. One study is funded by the CDC, and others are funded by the National Institutes of Health.
- Critical influenza illness in children. Dr. Levy explores risk factors that contribute to pediatric critical illness and respiratory failure from influenza.
- Bloodstream infections. Dr. Levy studies central line-associated infections and prevention tactics related to placement and maintenance bundles.
Significance to patient care
Through her research, Dr. Levy aims to improve care for critically ill children with respiratory infections and to develop techniques to identify or decrease risk factors for pediatric critical illness.
In studying respiratory viral illnesses, Dr. Levy has an overall goal of identifying which children will develop critical illness when infected with respiratory viruses that — in other children — might lead to simple colds. Identifying those factors will allow clinicians to focus on at-risk children sooner and more intensely, offering earlier therapies and attempting to modify health factors that might be changed — for example, obesity.
Dr. Levy's work related to vaccine efficacy and adverse effects will benefit pediatric patient care by underscoring the importance and efficacy of certain vaccines to prevent severe infectious illness.
Professional highlights
- Program director-principal investigator, Immunobiology of Influenza Virus-related Critical Illness in Young Hosts, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), 2020-2024.
- Co-investigator, An Observational Cohort Study to Determine Late Outcomes and Immunological Responses After Infection With SARS-CoV-2 in Children With and Without Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome (MIS-C), NIAID, 2020-2023.
- Program director-principal investigator, Understanding COVID-19 Among Critically Ill Children in the Pediatric Acute Lung Injury and Sepsis Investigator's (PALISI) Network, CDC, 2020-2022.
- Star Research Achievement Award, Society of Critical Care Medicine, 2018.
- Farley Fund Award for Clinical Excellence and Leadership, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard University, 2017.