When Jessica Keeley, MD and Mohsen Saidinejad, MD talk about research, they rarely start with grants, publications, or data. Instead, they talk about patients. It is about improving healthcare outcomes and ensuring quality across the healthcare continuum.
As executive directors of the Translational Science and Population Health Innovation Hub at The Lundquist Institute, both physicians have spent their careers on the front lines of care at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, where they witness firsthand the challenges patients, families, and healthcare providers face every day. They have also witnessed heroic acts by the healthcare team to do extraordinary work with limited time and resources. Those experiences shape their shared vision for the hub: to support research that is practical, impactful, patient centered, and is deeply connected to the communities it serves.
For Dr. Keeley, a trauma surgeon at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, those problems often emerge during life’s most critical moments. Her work spans trauma care, violence prevention, and recovery services. She is passionate about bringing together clinicians, researchers, community organizations, and patients to address the root causes of injury and improve health outcomes beyond the hospital setting. Whether advancing preventative health initiatives or expanding research participation across departments, her focus remains on creating partnerships that lead to meaningful change.
Dr. Saidinejad, a pediatric emergency medicine physician, shares that commitment to improving care where it matters most. His nationally recognized research in pediatric readiness addresses a striking reality: more than 80 percent of seriously ill or injured children receive emergency care at hospitals that are not specialized children’s hospitals.
This is particularly important because not all hospitals are equally pediatric ready. We know that high pediatric readiness saves lives, and it can be achieved at a reasonably low cost. His goal is to see one day, all acutely ill or injured children receiving the same high-quality care and have the same outstanding care outcome, regardless of which hospital emergency department they show up to. This is the goal of the National Pediatric Readiness Project that Dr. Saidinejad has been a leader in.
Through innovative training programs, simulations, and evidence-based tools, his work through the federally funded Emergency Medical Services for Children Innovation and Improvement Center, the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network, and the Pediatric Pandemic Network Dr. Saidinejad helps ensure that every child receives high-quality care regardless of where they enter the healthcare system. The Lundquist Institute has served as a national center for all three of these networks.
Together, they lead a hub that is unlike any other at The Lundquist Institute. While many research centers focus primarily on laboratory science, the Translational Science and Population Health Innovation Hub is dedicated to clinical, bedside, and patient-facing research. Its mission is to bridge the gap between discovery and delivery—ensuring that research findings translate into better care, stronger health systems, and healthier communities.
Just as importantly, the hub is committed to supporting the people who make that research possible. Many Harbor-UCLA Medical Center clinicians balance full-time patient care responsibilities while pursuing research on evenings, weekends, and limited protected time. Drs. Keeley and Saidinejad believe that great ideas should not be limited by administrative barriers.
Their vision includes creating an accessible research ecosystem with mentorship opportunities, statistical and grant-writing support, research navigation resources, and practical guidance that helps clinicians move from an idea to a funded project. At its core, the Translational Science and Population Health Innovation Hub is about people—patients whose lives are improved through better care, clinicians who are driven to find solutions, and communities that deserve to be partners in the research process.
For Drs. Keeley and Saidinejad, success isn’t measured solely by studies completed or grants awarded. It’s measured by healthier communities, stronger healthcare systems, and lives changed through research that makes a difference where it matters most.