About the Kids Risk Project

Children are one of our greatest resources, but are we doing our best for them? The Kids Risk Project dared to ask big questions:

  •  What are the biggest risks to children?
  •  Are we investing sufficient resources in children's healthy development?
  •  Are we investing our scarce resources wisely?
  •  How can we put all children ahead?

Professor Kimberly M. Thompson launched the Kids Risk Project in January 2000 to empower kids, parents, policy makers, and others to improve children's lives. The project focused on understanding the risks that children face and finding cost-effective strategies to better manage these risks. The Kids Risk Project sought to develop the field of pediatric risk analysis, inform decisions related to managing children's health risks, put risks in context for all stakeholders, and help correct mismatches between perception and reality. In January 2009, Dr. Thompson created Kid Risk, Inc. as a self-standing, non-profit organization that would continue the Kids Risk Project mission.

Members of the Kids Risk Project team included:

Kimberly M. Thompson, Sc.D., Creator and Director - all areas of research
Radboud J. Duintjer Tebbens, M.S., Ph.D. - polio
Kevin Haninger, Ph.D. - video games
Lois Lee, M.D., M.P.H. - drowning
Karen Tepichin, J.D. - corporate commitment to kids, video games
Fumie Yokota, Ph.D. - movies, value-of-information

Dr. Thompson also collaborated with Dr. Michael O. Rich, MD, MPH, Children's Hospital Boston to found the Center on Media and Child Health, which they launched at the first Kids Risk Symposium in March 2003. She collaborated with Dr. Tracy A. Lieu, MD, MPH on the Harvard-CDC Joint Initiative for Vaccine Economics, which funded some of the Kids Risk Project research on polio.

The Kids Risk Project hosted three symposia:

Managing Children's Risks: Putting All Children Ahead - June 30, 2008
Managing Children's Risks: It Takes a Commitment - March 26-27, 2003
Media and Child Health: Peril and Promise - October 5, 2001

The Kids Risk Project was created and led by Dr. Kimberly M. Thompson of the
Harvard School of Public Health, Departments of Health Policy and Management and Society, Human Development, and Health, 677 Huntington Ave., 3rd Floor, Boston, MA 02115.
For more information about this completed project, please e-mail Dr. Thompson.

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