Elsie M. Taveras

About

Elsie M. Taveras, M.D., M.P.H., is the Conrad Taff Professor of Pediatrics in the Department of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. She serves as Chief of the Division of General Academic Pediatrics and Director of Pediatric Population Health Management at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Taveras is also a Professor of Nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Her main focus of research is understanding determinants of obesity in women and children and developing interventions across the lifecourse to prevent obesity and chronic diseases, especially in underserved populations. Her work spans observational studies and interventions to identify, quantify, and modify risk factors for health promotion and disease prevention. She has published over 150 research studies and served on Committees for the National Academy of Medicine to develop recommendations for the prevention of obesity in early life and for evaluating the progress of national obesity prevention efforts. Her research in early life origins of childhood obesity was recognized as one of the most influential studies of 2010 by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and was included in the White House Task Force Report on Childhood Obesity in May 2010. Dr. Taveras has received extensive research funding from multiple federal and foundation sources and was awarded the Public Health Leadership in Medicine Award from the Massachusetts Association of Public Health in 2016 for her work in improving health and…

Research topics

• Environmental health
• Medicine
• Internal medicine
• Endocrinology
• Psychiatry
• Demography
• Pediatrics
• Gerontology

Selected publications

• Obesity Treatment Among Adolescents

  JAMA Pediatrics · 2020 · 203 citations

  Importance: Obesity in adolescence has reached epidemic proportions around the world, with the prevalence of severe obesity increasing at least 4-fold over the last 35 years. Most youths with obesity carry their excess adiposity into adulthood, which places them at increased risk for developing obesity-driven complications, such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and negatively affects social and emotional health. Given that adolescence is a unique transition period marked by signifi…

  DOI

• Assessment of Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Use of Medication to Treat Opioid Use Disorder Among Pregnant Women in Massachusetts

  JAMA Network Open · 2020 · 176 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Importance: Racial and ethnic disparities persist across key health and substance use treatment outcomes for mothers and infants. The use of medications, such as methadone or buprenorphine, for the treatment of opioid use disorder (OUD) has been associated with improvements in the outcomes of mothers and infants; however, only half of all pregnant women with OUD receive these medications. The extent to which maternal race or ethnicity is associated with the use of medication to treat OUD, the du…

  DOI

• Costs to Implement a Pediatric Weight Management Program Across 3 Distinct Contexts

  Medical Care · 2023-09-07 · 16 citations

  articleOpen access

  BACKGROUND: The Connect for Health program is an evidence-based program that aligns with national recommendations for pediatric weight management and includes clinical decision support, educational handouts, and community resources. As implementation costs are a major driver of program adoption and maintenance decisions, we assessed the costs to implement the Connect for Health program across 3 health systems that primarily serve low-income communities with a high prevalence of childhood obesity…

  PublisherDOI

• Associations of Childhood Adiposity and Cardiometabolic Biomarkers With Adolescent PCOS

  PEDIATRICS · 2024-04-18 · 14 citations

  articleOpen access

  OBJECTIVE: Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) is common among females, with significant metabolic and reproductive comorbidities. We describe PCOS development in a pediatric population. METHODS: We assessed cardiometabolic biomarkers and adiposity at the midchildhood (mean 7.9 y), early teen (mean 13.1 y), and midteen (mean 17.8 y) visits among 417 females in the prospective Project Viva cohort. We defined PCOS via self-reported diagnosis or ovulatory dysfunction with hyperandrogenism in midlate a…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Development and application of a cost tool for a primary care‐based intensive health behaviour and lifestyle treatment

  Pediatric Obesity · 2025-06-18 · 4 citations

  article

  OBJECTIVE: This paper aims to describe the development and application of a cost tool to help predict return on investment and sustainability of the Healthy Weight Clinic Family Healthy Weight Program (FHWP) through insurance reimbursement. METHODS: Case studies to apply the cost tool were conducted with 3 sites to assess the break-even point for clinic patient volume (i.e., financial neutral point: operational costs = revenue) during implementation. Financial neutral points were based on averag…

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Sheryl L. Rifas–Shiman

  Harvard University

  389 shared

• Matthew W. Gillman

  Office of the Director

  367 shared

• Julie Obbagy

  Food and Nutrition Service

  337 shared

• Ronald E. Kleinman

  Massachusetts General Hospital

  336 shared

• Gisela Butera

  National Cancer Institute

  331 shared

• Kathryn G. Dewey

  University of California, Davis

  330 shared

• Rachel Novotny

  University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

  327 shared

• Jamie Stang

  324 shared

Awards & honors

• Public Health Leadership in Medicine Award from the Massachu…

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