Dayton Children’s Hospital and Wright State University expand longtime partnership

The Wright State University Board of Trustees has approved an expansion of its long-standing partnership with Dayton Children’s Hospital to further develop and grow the pediatric clinical workforce and enhance research aimed at improving children’s health outcomes in the Dayton region.

Wright State’s Boonshoft School of Medicine and Dayton Children’s Hospital currently partner to provide the Integrated Pediatric Residency Program and fellowships in pediatric emergency and hospital medicine. As part of their medical education, all Wright State medical students complete their required pediatric rotations at Dayton Children’s, making this partnership essential to their training and success. Many Dayton Children’s physicians also serve on the Boonshoft School of Medicine faculty.

Through this expanded partnership, Wright State and Dayton Children’s will work together to:

• Grow and develop the clinical workforce by increasing the number of primary care pediatricians, building additional clinical workforce training capacity and upskilling in-career clinicians
• Increase research focused on regional children’s health priorities, including maternal health and infant mortality, chronic disease and mental health
• Expand services in underserved areas with focus on primary care deserts

“As Dayton’s public university, Wright State is committed to training the next generation of physicians who will positively impact the communities we serve,” said Sue Edwards, president of Wright State. “Our expanded partnership with Dayton Children’s Hospital marks a transformative step — enhancing clinical training opportunities for our medical students and residents while improving access to high-quality pediatric care. This partnership strengthens our shared mission to advance medical education, improve patient care and fuel the region’s health care workforce.”

The enhanced partnership aims to improve health outcomes for children of the Dayton region. Statistics show that many children in our community are not thriving:

• Ohio consistently ranks in the bottom half of states on child health and well-being.
• Infant mortality rates are much higher in our community compared to the state rate.
• A significant number of children in our community are facing mental health challenges.

“We recognize that, as two of the region’s critical organizations, we can do so much more together to grow and strengthen the pediatric-focused workforce, improve access to medical and mental health services for our children and focus research on moving the needle on health outcomes,” said Debbie Feldman, president and CEO of Dayton Children’s. “Together there is so much we can do to strengthen the health of our children and our community.”