Melissa Langhan, MD, MHS

When parents bring children into the Pediatric Emergency Department, Melissa Langhan, MD, assures them they are in the right place.

“As health care providers, we need to understand that this really is their emergency,” Dr. Langhan says. “A lot of these problems, we see all of the time, but for a parent whose child has a high fever or is vomiting, it is distressing. I like to explain that we will examine their child, reassure them that it’s going to be OK, and make them feel comfortable taking their child home.”

Variety is what Dr. Langhan says she enjoys the most about her work. “We see so many different things that come through our doors. To be able to work on cases that are new and complex, and others that are straightforward—all at the same time—is great,” she says.

Dr. Langhan has a special interest in clinical patient-oriented research, and has worked extensively with capnography, a noninvasive way to measure patients’ ventilation and cardiac output when they are under anesthesia or in intensive care. She is currently working on a pilot study focused on improving the use of the technology in the emergency department for critically ill children.

Dr. Langhan is an associate professor of pediatric emergency medicine and of emergency medicine at Yale School of Medicine.