Christine C. Cheston, MD Hear my name
Clinical Associate Professor
Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine
Pediatrics

MD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
BA, University of Virginia

Pronouns: she/her/hers



Christine Cheston, MD is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics in Hospital and Newborn Medicine at the Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine and the Program Director of the Boston Combined Residency Program (BCRP) at Boston Medical Center (BMC). Dr. Cheston completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Virginia, and her medical training at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She completed her pediatric residency in the Urban Health and Advocacy Track of the BCRP and, as a senior resident, received the Harvard Medical Student Teaching Award. She graduated as Chief Resident at Boston Medical Center prior to joining the faculty. In 2022, she became one of the inaugural graduates of the Clinician Educator Leadership Program at BU.

Dr. Cheston has published important work on the role of social media in medical education, value-based health care in inpatient pediatrics, novel educational curricula focused on quality improvement and working with patients with limited English proficiency, and advancing antiracism and equity both in medical education and clinical care. She has had early success as a QI leader, most notably with a medical interpreter project, which succeeded in incorporating in-person interpreters into family-centered rounds with non-English speaking families. She is passionate about formulating innovative educational strategies that teach residents how quality improvement solutions can address problems of health inequity to address structural determinants of health and that advance understanding of the intersection of systemic racism, bias, and pediatrics. Dr. Cheston is interested in studying best practices for incorporating antiracism into medical training for future pediatricians, enhancing equity using holistic evaluation in recruitment of a diverse pediatric workforce, and improving the learning climate for trainees from backgrounds underrepresented in medicine.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility

Diversity, equity, inclusion, and antiracism are at the center of Dr. Cheston's current and future educational and academic work. Early in her career as a resident, Dr. Cheston advocated for improvement in accessibility of professional interpreter services on family-centered rounds for admitted pediatric patients through a quality improvement initiative on the inpatient pediatrics floor that fundamentally changed the culture of care and focus on equity for patients with limited English proficiency. This work was expanded into the internal medicine inpatient units, NICU, and newborn nursery. She has been recognized for her leadership through partnership with the Interpreter Services department where she has led initiatives to streamline processes for universal testing for approved bilingual providers, both across the medical school, all graduate medical education (GME) programs, and hospital staff. Dr. Cheston was a key member of a recent hospital-wide committee that re-envisioned the way interpreter services are triaged and accessed throughout Boston Medical Center.

Academically, Dr. Cheston is interested in understanding how systems of recruitment and selection for residency training may be influenced by systemic racism and bias in the medical education pipeline as well as how residency programs may support trainees from diverse backgrounds in academic settings. Dr. Cheston has been one of two dedicated antiracism Associate Program Directors for the Boston Combined Residency Program, which is one of the largest pediatric residencies in the country. There, she has pioneered new techniques for conducting holistic review of medical student applications during residency recruitment, enhanced educational offerings and curricula for both residents and faculty across BMC and Boston Children's Hospital related to antiracism, and spearheaded initiatives that address workplace bias to improve retention of diverse residents. Dr. Cheston led development of a novel residency process to support of trainees who have experienced bias and microaggressions while ensuring accountability for systems-based change to prevent future events. Dr. Cheston has been recognized through invitation to join DEI-focused committees within the residency program, Department of Pediatrics, and GME office and is a member of the Associate of Pediatric Program Directors Underrepresented in Medicine Learning Community. Her teaching innovations have most recently focused on Racism and Poverty and Best Practices for Working with Interpreters, both currently being evaluated in preparation for dissemination.



Improving Identification of Patient Preferred Language and Need for Interpreter: A Quality Improvement Initiative in the Pediatric Emergency Department
03/01/2022 - 02/28/2023 (PI)
Boston Medical Center


Title


Yr Title Project-Sub Proj Pubs

Publications listed below are automatically derived from MEDLINE/PubMed and other sources, which might result in incorrect or missing publications. Faculty can login to make corrections and additions.

iCite Analysis       Copy PMIDs To Clipboard

  1. Alarcon LN, Ewen AM, Acuña-Martinez E, Cheston CC. Improving Communication with Patients with Limited English Proficiency: Non-English Language Proficiency Assessment for Clinicians. Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf. 2024 Jan; 50(1):83-86. PMID: 37730484
     
  2. Cheston CC, Luercio M, Streater B, Karim S, Sectish T, Michelson CD. A Bias Response Committee to Improve the Experience of Diverse Pediatric Residents. Acad Pediatr. 2023; 23(8):1500-1501.View Related Profiles. PMID: 37302702
     
  3. Edwards JG, Cheston CC, Kelly CA, Brewster RCL, Williams AR, Mell AJ. A Community-Based COVID-19 Vaccine Education Initiative. Pediatrics. 2022 Dec 01; 150(6).View Related Profiles. PMID: 36349517
     
  4. Cheston CC, Michelson KA. Association of Virtual Interviews With Residency Application Geographic Diversity and Match. Acad Pediatr. 2023 Jul; 23(5):855-859. PMID: 36167252
     
  5. Fraiman YS, Cheston CC, Morales D, Leeman KT, Hansen AR. A mixed methods study of perceptions of bias among neonatal intensive care unit staff. Pediatr Res. 2023 May; 93(6):1672-1678. PMID: 36038641; PMCID: PMC9971322; DOI: 10.1038/s41390-022-02217-2;
     
  6. Fraiman YS, Cheston CC, Cabral HJ, Allen C, Asnes AG, Barrett JT, Batra M, Bernstein W, Bleeker T, Dietz PM, Lewis J, Li ST, Ma TM, Mahan JD, Michelson CD, Poynter SE, Vining MA, Watson K, Sox CM. Effect of a Novel Mindfulness Curriculum on Burnout During Pediatric Internship: A Cluster Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Pediatr. 2022 Apr 01; 176(4):365-372.View Related Profiles. PMID: 35072694; PMCID: PMC8787682; DOI: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2021.5740;
     
  7. Rainer T, Zheng DJ, Winn AS, Michelson CD, Sectish TC, Cheston CC. Becoming an Anti-Racist Training Program. J Pediatr. 2022 Nov; 250:3-6.e2.View Related Profiles. PMID: 35314153; PMCID: PMC9124054; DOI: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2022.03.028;
     
  8. Murphy Salem S, Chase B, Newman LR, Cohen AP, Cheston C, Huth K. Perspectives on Complex Care Training in a Large Academic Pediatric Training Program. Acad Pediatr. 2022 Jul; 22(5):867-872.View Related Profiles. PMID: 35306188
     
  9. Cheston CC, Rutledge R, Hsu HE. Should We Prioritize Deimplementation of Continuous Pulse Oximetry in Bronchiolitis Care? JAMA Pediatr. 2021 05 01; 175(5):459-461.View Related Profiles. PMID: 33646260
     
  10. Pingree EW, Huth K, Harper BD, Nakamura MM, Marcus CH, Cheston CC, Schumacher DJ, Winn AS. Encouraging Entrustment: A Qualitative Study of Resident Behaviors That Promote Entrustment. Acad Med. 2020 11; 95(11):1718-1725. PMID: 32379141
     
Showing 10 of 18 results. Show More

This graph shows the total number of publications by year, by first, middle/unknown, or last author.

Bar chart showing 18 publications over 9 distinct years, with a maximum of 6 publications in 2022

YearPublications
20101
20131
20141
20151
20181
20204
20211
20226
20232

2021-2023 Boston Combined Residency Program: Feedback Honor Roll
2020-2023 Boston Combined Residency Program: Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Honor Roll
2017-2023 Boston Combined Residency Program: Teaching Honor Roll
2004-2008 University of Virginia: Echols Scholar
2007 University of Virginia: Phi Beta Kappa
2008 University of Virginia: BA with Highest Distinction
2012 Johns Hopkins School of Medicine: Alpha Omega Alpha
2015 Harvard Medical School: Resident Teaching Award
2016 Boston Medical Center: Robert J. Vinci Award
2017 Boston Combined Residency Program: Academic Pediatric Association Teaching Program Award
In addition to these self-described keywords below, a list of MeSH based concepts is available here.

Medical Education, Graduate
Health Equity
Racism
Bias
Language Barriers
Quality Improvement

I find great joy in supporting young medical trainees and other health professionals in identifying their passions and then working to foster those passions through navigating professional "next steps" strategically. I also enjoy providing methodologic mentorship related to educational research or quality improvement project development focused on health equity, systemic racism, workplace bias, or patient populations facing social injustice, including those with limited English proficiency.

Available to Mentor as: (Review Mentor Role Definitions):
  • Career Mentor
  • Education Mentor
  • Project Mentor
Contact for Mentoring:
  • Email (see 'Contact Info')
  • Assistant
         Name: Monique Bailey
         Email: Monique.Bailey@bmc.org
         Phone: 6174143571

801 Albany St
Boston MA 02118
Google Map


Cheston's Networks
Click the "See All" links for more information and interactive visualizations
Concepts
_
Media Mentions
_
Co-Authors
_
Similar People
_
Same Department