Poster Sessions: a View into the Future of Pediatric Medicine

Poster sessions may seem like routine fare at academic medical campuses, but they are critical to advancing research. “One of the major goals of the pediatric poster session is to allow presenters and attendees to interact in a supportive, non-threatening environment, to share ideas and data, and to hopefully develop new collaborations and mentoring relationships that will propel child health science and innovation into the future,” said Ron Sokol, MD, chief scientific officer, Child Health of the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.

And for 25 years, the Colorado Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CCTSI) and Children’s Hospital Colorado have fulfilled that goal by co-hosting annual poster sessions. The events bring together researchers, clinicians and students to share impactful work that spans the full spectrum of child health research. As director of the CCTSI, Sokol has been one of the primary advocates of the event over the years. 

Since 1999, the Pediatric Research Poster Session has attracted more than 3,000 researchers to present their posters! The result has been a representative sample of exciting research in child health at Children’s Colorado and CU Anschutz. Open to the public, the event helps to increase awareness of research and bridge the gap between research and real-world impact.

“Considering the excellence of research on our campus, I look forward to creating opportunities for research teams to share findings that make way for future breakthroughs,” said the CCTSI's Tristan Adams, who has been organizing the poster session since 2019.

A supportive space for researchers to learn from their peers

The Pediatric Research Poster Session provides an opportunity for researchers from different departments to connect and share ideas. Early-career researchers have a chance to present their work to Children’s Colorado faculty, research teams and staff, receive feedback, and hone their presentation skills in a relaxed environment. 

The event’s informal and interactive venue encourages presenters to engage in one-on-one or small group discussions, promoting new collaborations. 

“Being able to speak to people in person and develop new collaborations helps you see different perspectives and answer hard questions,” said Marko Babiak, a data entry specialist at CU Anschutz and one of 86 presenters at the 2025 Spring Pediatric Research Poster Session. “It helps you identify gaps in your thinking and how you're approaching things.”

Pediatric research that makes an impact

The poster session offers a glimpse into the wide range of high-impact research being conducted at Children’s Colorado and CU Anschutz. At the 2025 Spring Pediatric Research Poster Session, presenters explored topics ranging from the relationship between mothers and toddlers' mobile device use to how cannabidiol (CBD) impacts behavior in autistic children: 

• Marko Babiak presented his team’s research, showing that the more frequently mothers use their smartphones, the more often their toddlers do, too, along with other findings that can help inform interventions to reduce smartphone use in young children.
• Maya Rieselbach, MA, PhD, a psychology intern at a primary care clinic, shared her work to better understand who is presenting anxiety in primary care and how clinicians can better support children with anxiety.    
• Leonora Ryland, PhD, BCBA, a post-doctoral fellow and behavioral analyst, presented her work examining how cannabidiol (CBD) affects the way autistic children react to attention from their caregivers, providing clear, observable behavioral data that can help families with autistic children make difficult decisions around medication changes.
• Anna Abrams, MD, presented her research to understand how the presence of law enforcement in the emergency department impacts clinical care and health outcomes, aiming to improve the quality of care for children and their families. 

Attendance at the Pediatric Research Poster Session has steadily increased since resuming in-person sessions after the COVID-19 pandemic. As the event continues to thrive, it reinforces the CCTSI’s and Children’s Hospital Colorado’s shared mission of supporting research that transforms tomorrow’s patient care and the health of children and their families.

By promoting collaboration and the exchange of ideas, the poster session helps researchers find solutions to future health challenges. “Oftentimes, the people that come to ask about my poster have experience or specific interests that overlap with mine, so we get to discuss barriers we’ve come up against and how we’ve approached them, said Maya Rieselbach, MD, PhD. “I really appreciate that interactive element of collaborative problem-solving.”