Alex Fiks, MD, MSCE

Dr. Fiks is a primary care pediatrician, a Professor of Pediatrics, and holds a Distinguished Endowed Chair in the Department of Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Board certified in clinical informatics, Dr. Fiks’ research is aimed at improving outcomes for ambulatory pediatric patients through primary care practice-based research with a focus on improving health and healthcare decision-making through health information technology.

To achieve these goals, much of Dr. Fiks’ research has focused on fostering shared decision making between clinicians and families, often in the setting of behavioral health conditions. He is also especially interested in how electronic health record data may best be used to improve primary care, medication use and child health more broadly. With the American Academy of Pediatrics Pediatric Research in Office Settings Network, which he directs, Dr. Fiks has overseen the creation of the Collaborative Electronic Reporting for Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER2), an electronic health record database designed to support pharmacoepidemiologic and other comparative effectiveness studies that currently includes >1.2 million US children from across multiple health systems. 

Dr. Fiks is also the medical director for the Pediatric Research Consortium (PeRC), CHOP's practice-based research network, director of Clinical Futures, a CHOP Research Institute Center of Emphasis, a founding member of the hospital’s Department of Biomedical and Health Informatics, and faculty in PolicyLab. He also directs the Possibilities Project, a CHOP-based effort focused on primary care practice innovation and transformation.

An elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, Dr. Fiks’ human papillomavirus vaccine intervention research was awarded the best practice-based study of immunization delivery by the US Department of Health and Human Services and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (2013) and was designated a National Cancer Institute Research-Tested Invention Program (2017). Dr. Fiks received a national award for mentorship from the Academic Pediatric Association (2012) and received the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Samuel Martin Health Evaluation Sciences Research Award in 2023. With ongoing studies and innovation projects involving hundreds of thousands of children, Dr. Fiks’ research regularly informs the primary care of children across the United States.