John Carlson, MD, PhD

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John Carlson received his MD and PhD from Tulane University in 2004, completed his Pediatrics Residency Training at Tulane University in 2007 and his Pediatrics Chief Resident in 2008, and completed an Allergy & Immunology Clinical Fellowship in 2010.  Dr. Carlson is board certified in Pediatrics and Allergy & Immunology.  He is currently Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Sections of Allergy & Immunology and Community Pediatrics & Global Health and Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Epidemiology. Dr. Carlson is the Director of the Tulane-Ochsner Pediatrics Residency Program.

His undergraduate training was in insect ecology, and he continued to study complex ecosystems during my PhD training in Parasitology. It was at that time that he began to look more at the effects of ecosystem dynamics on human health. Subsequent research has focused on identifying the most important variables that effect systems under stress- a background that is particularly valuable for looking at the complex ecosystem of human health. In an effort to understand the variables affecting healthcare for patients with asthma, he has worked on mobile clinics and through other novel venues to bring effective medical care to children that otherwise do not obtain consistent medical care. Early successes with these approaches resulted in an appointment as the medical director of the New Orleans Children’s Health Project. He has expanded our services to Federally Qualified Health Centers throughout the Greater New Orleans area, public schools in two parishes, and the venues of our community partners. Through collaborations with the Children’s Health Fund and other partners he has worked with medical directors across the country on successful approaches to healthcare delivery in the community. Currently, he works with residents and fellows at Tulane, training them in the approaches of community medicine and complex systems and have established contracts for trainees to work in a variety of community settings. His research has also used an ecosystem approach to understanding risks to health, described below. This includes his current work as the site-PI for one of the IDeA State Pediatric Clinical Trials Network grants as part of the larger Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcome (ECHO, https://www.nih.gov/echo).