Golden Anniversary Alumni Prize

Elizabeth Keating has published 26 academic studies on topics ranging from thiamine deficiency in Cambodian infants to blood transfusions for children with severe anemia in Malawi. She’s recognized as an authority in pediatric trauma care in low- and middle-income countries. And her current clinical research in Tanzania is funded by a prestigious National Institutes of Health Fogarty Fellowship.

Impressively, Keating is just 30 years old. She’s just getting started.

“Liz is a rising star in global child health, and her work may one day influence the care of millions of children worldwide,” says Jeff Robison, MD ‘’05, a pediatrician and director of the Global, Rural and Underserved Child Health Program at the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine. “She is curious, ambitious, smart, and tenacious. Those qualities are essential because global health research involves answering complex questions in an environment where data collection and analysis can be very challenging.”

Liz Keating, MD, MPSH ’20, is the recipient of the 2021 Golden Anniversary Alumni Prize for Distinguished Clinical Investigation.

Raised in Minnesota, Keating knew from a young age that she wanted to follow in her mother’s footsteps and become a pediatrician. She pictured herself in primary care practice until her junior year at Notre Dame University when she visited her sister, who was studying in the Dominican Republic.

“It was just after an earthquake, and I was taken aback by seeing health care in an under-resourced setting,” she says. “We have so much access to care in the United States, but low- and middle-income countries have to make do with much less. So whatever care doctors provide can make a significant impact.”

Keating wasted no time exploring a career in child global health as a student at Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine. During her first year, she joined a medical mission trip to the Dominican Republic and spent two months at a clinic in Tanzania.

During her third year, with the support of a faculty mentor, Keating went to Cambodia, embarking on her first global health research project. There she studied thiamine deficiency, a common cause of beriberi in children in Southeast Asia. After completing the project, Keating was the first author of a study published in Paediatrics and International Child Health. She also worked with a non-governmental organization in India to improve neonatal and newborn care.

During her residency and internship at Baylor College of Medicine/Texas Children’s Hospital, Keating trained for a year at a hospital in the small African nation of Lesotho. While on emergency medicine rotations, Keating realized how much she didn’t know about caring for extremely sick children.

“In limited-resource countries, kids typically don’t come to the hospital until they are severely sick or injured,” she says. “I felt very ill-equipped to stabilize and treat these children. I recognized that if I wanted to do global health, I was going to have to focus on becoming proficient in pediatric emergency medicine.”

That belief led her to the University of Utah, where Robison recruited her to be a pediatric emergency medicine fellow with a focus on global health. Keating was drawn to the program because of its exceptional training opportunities. Her husband, Bryan, a ski patrol professional, loved the school’s proximity to mountain resorts.

For the next three years, the couple lived in Salt Lake City as Keating trained at Primary Children’s Hospital, earned a master’s in public health, learned invaluable skills in epidemiology and research, and spent five months in Malawi caring for acutely ill children.

During her time at the U, Keating’s career interests shifted to child global health research. “Serving in six different low-income countries showed me what life is like for clinicians who lack access to essential technology, supplies, and medication,” she says. “You really need to experience that work to understand it. Now my goal is to do research that will create lasting improvements in the care that acutely ill and injured children receive in under-resourced healthcare settings.”

Keating’s career took a giant leap forward when she was named a Fogarty Research Fellow in 2020. The fellowship funds her current work, a one-year study at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC), a referral hospital in Moshi, Tanzania. The work is supported by the National Institutes of Health and is a collaborative effort with Duke University School of Medicine.

“We have so much access to care in the United States, but low- and middle-income countries have to make do with much less. So whatever care doctors provide can make a significant impact.”

Keating and her colleagues, who include local providers, researchers, and two research assistants, are studying pediatric injuries, using qualitative and quantitative methods to assess current care practices across the continuum and identify potential interventions.

“It’s so important to work with local doctors and researchers who speak the language and know the culture and issues in their community,” Keating says. “The magic happens when we partner together to examine health issues and brainstorm ways to impact and help the local community. We have already uncovered several challenges that are ripe for improvement.”

The Keatings returned to Salt Lake City in December 2021. Bryan joined the ski patrol at Canyons Resort in Park City, while Liz works as an attending at the Primary Children’s Hospital emergency department and directs the pediatric emergency medicine global health fellowship track at the U.

Keating also plans to apply for another NIH grant that would allow her to return to KCMC to introduce health systems interventions that improve care for pediatric trauma patients.

The Golden Anniversary Alumni Prize, which includes a $6,000 award, will support Keating’s research in Tanzania in between grants. Keating, who recently had her first baby, is excited about returning to the U but will miss her life in Tanzania and the people she has gotten to know.

“Tanzania is a warm and welcoming country, and the families I’ve met at the hospital are so supportive of what my team and I are doing to improve care there,” she says. “I’ll miss seeing Mt. Kilimanjaro every morning and enjoying mangoes and avocadoes straight from the tree. On the other hand, it will be nice to have a Costco nearby!”

Robison marvels at Keating’s ability to shuttle between two healthcare worlds for the cause of improving pediatric medicine worldwide. It’s an unusual career path that he says demonstrates a great deal of courage and commitment—as well as institutional support.

“Dr. Howard Kadish, our pediatric emergency division chief, is incredibly supportive of Liz and has given her freedom to think and work outside the box,” he says. “It’s a real testament to him, our department, and by extension the U to make this type of investment in a young researcher.”

Robison has no doubt that the investment is worthwhile. “Liz’s reputation in research circles is on the rise, and she’s attracting outside funding for the work,” he says. “Most importantly, she’s working in this field for the right reasons. She cares about kids and wants to make a difference in underserved areas. There’s a lot to admire in that.”

• Leigh Wilkins

A shorter version of this article appears in the print edition of UtahMed.