Carol Chen, MD, MPH

Carol Chen, MD MPH is a pediatric emergency medicine faculty member since 2016 who cares for patients at all three of our pediatric emergency department sites: UCSF BCH San Francisco, UCSF BCH Oakland, and San Francisco General Hospital (SFGH).

She is passionate about improving the emergent care of critically ill and injured children in low-resource settings around the world, both locally and globally. She serves as Medical Co-Director for Pediatric Emergency Medicine at SFGH and as Program Manager of the newly formed UCSF BCH Child Passenger and Pedestrian Safety (ChiPPS) program. She enjoys working closely with families and community organizations to reduce injuries in children. In her role as Co-Director of the UCSF WHO Collaborating Centre for Emergency, Critical and Operative Care, Dr. Chen is able to work with international organizations to build capacity in emergency care around the world.

Other interests include medical documentation and how that translates into better care and advocacy for the most vulnerable patients. In her free time, Dr. Chen enjoys running, practicing yoga, baking and reading.
Education
09/2025 - Lean Champion, University of California
09/2024 - Fellow, UCSF Foundations for Excellence in Physician Leadership, University of California
11/2022 - Stanford Physician Wellbeing Director Course, Stanford University
11/2022 - Clinician Health and Wellbeing Fellowship, University of California
08/2021 - UCSF Teaching Scholars Program, University of California
2019 - Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Champion Training, University of California

  1. Hartford EA, Rees CA, Kihurani I, Hussain SR, Seifert E, Schmid A, Bacha T, Chen CC, Schultz ML. Educational interventions to improve pediatric emergency care: A qualitative assessment of the perspectives of African healthcare workers. PLOS global public health 2025. PMID: 39774395


  2. Yusuf HM, Rosenthal E, Kornblith A, Sowar C, Del Toro R, Chen CC. Understanding a community's needs for an emergency department-based childhood injury prevention programme: a mixed-methods study. Injury prevention : journal of the International Society for Child and Adolescent Injury Prevention 2023. PMID: 38050122


  3. Cohen SE, Stookey J, Anderson N, Morris D, Singzon T, Dann M, Burk K, Chen CC. Using Geocoding to Identify COVID-19 Outbreaks in Congregate Residential Settings: San Francisco's Outbreak Response in Single-Room Occupancy Hotels. Public health reports (Washington, D.C. : 1974) 2022. PMID: 36239486


  4. Devlin G, Addo N, Shaahinfar A, Chen CC, Grupp-Phelan J, Kornblith AE. Toxic Exposures Among Young Children One Year into the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Retrospective Review of Three San Francisco Bay Area Emergency Departments. The Journal of emergency medicine 2022. PMID: 36828751


  5. Padrez KA, Brown J, Zanoff A, Chen CC, Glomb N. Development of a simulation-based curriculum for Pediatric prehospital skills: a mixed-methods needs assessment. BMC emergency medicine 2021. PMID: 34563131


  6. Chen CC, Whitehead A. Emerging and Re-emerging Infections in Children: COVID/ MIS-C, Zika, Ebola, Measles, Varicella, Pertussis ... Immunizations. Emergency medicine clinics of North America 2021. PMID: 34215396


  7. McLaren SH, Cruz AT, Yen K, Lipshaw MJ, Bergmann KR, Mistry RD, Gutman CK, Ahmad FA, Pruitt CM, Thompson GC, Steimle MD, Zhao X, Schuh AM, Thompson AD, Hanson HR, Ulrich SL, Meltzer JA, Dunnick J, Schmidt SM, Nigrovic LE, Waseem M, Velasco R, Ali S, Cullen DL, Gomez B, Kaplan RL, Khanna K, Strutt J, Aronson PL, Taneja A, Sheridan DC, Chen CC, Bogie AL, Wang A, Dayan PS, PEDIATRIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH COMMITTEE. Invasive Bacterial Infections in Afebrile Infants Diagnosed With Acute Otitis Media. Pediatrics 2020. PMID: 33288730


  8. Chen CC, Werne AL, Osborn KA, Vo H, George U, Sawe H, Addo N, Tenner AG. Erratum: This Article Corrects: "Effectiveness of a Pediatric Emergency Medicine Curriculum in a Public Tanzanian Referral Hospital". The western journal of emergency medicine 2020. PMID: 31999251


  9. Chen CC, Werne AL, Osborn KA, Vo H, George U, Sawe H, Addo N, Cruz AT. Effectiveness of a Pediatric Emergency Medicine Curriculum in a Public Tanzanian Referral Hospital. The western journal of emergency medicine 2019. PMID: 31913833


  10. Mantha A, Beckworth KL, Ansiaux JA, Chen CC, Hoffman B, Shenoi RP. Comparison of the effectiveness of hands-on versus online education in child passenger safety. Injury prevention : journal of the International Society for Child and Adolescent Injury Prevention 2017. PMID: 28848056


  11. Chen CC, McManemy JK, Vece TJ, Cruz AT. Idiopathic Pulmonary Hemosiderosis Presenting as Anemia, Failure to Thrive, and Jaundice in a Toddler. Pediatric emergency care 2016. PMID: 26414632