Prashant Mahajan, MD, MPH, MBA
William G Barsan Collegiate Professor
Chair
Department of Emergency Medicine
Professor of Emergency Medicine
Professor of Pediatrics
[email protected]

Available to mentor

Prashant Mahajan, MD, MPH, MBA
Professor
  • About
  • Qualifications
  • Center Memberships
  • Research Overview
  • Recent Publications
  • About

    Dr. Mahajan is certified in pediatrics and pediatric emergency medicine. In addition, he has a Master's in Public Health (Health Administration and Policy) and a Master's in Business Administration. He is currently the Chair, Section of Emergency Medicine, for the American Academy of Pediatrics. His research interests are in infection/inflammation and in the area of clinician diagnostic decision making. He has been serially funded by NIH for the evaluation of the febrile infant with the use of novel RNA expression analysis using microarrays to define bacterial and non-bacterial biosignatures. He is involved in patient safety and quality and is funded by AHRQ on the study of diagnostic errors in the pediatric emergency setting.

    Qualifications
    • Diploma of National Boards
      National Board of Examinations, New Delhi, 1993
    • MB BS, Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery
      University of Bombay, Bombay, 1988
    Center Memberships
    • Center Member
      Precision Health Initiative
    • Center Member
      Eisenberg Family Depression Center
    • Center Member
      e-Health and Artificial Intelligence Initiative
    • Center Member
      Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation
    Research Overview

    My research has focused on enhancing decision making in austere circumstances such as emergency care delivery. To that end, I have co-led the first nationwide study of host immune response via transcriptomic analysis to distinguish bacterial vs. viral etiologies of fever in febrile infants in the first two months of life. I have helped develop highly precise and clinically meaningful prediction rules in the evaluation and management of young febrile infants. My second area of focus has been reduction of patient harm from the perspective of diagnostic quality in the context of emergency care. I have modified the National Academies framework on diagnostic safety for emergency care, for the first time, defined multiple electronic triggers for epidemiology and contributory factors of diagnostic errors, used artificial intelligence, including machine learning and natural language processing to investigate large datasets for diagnostic errors and finally developed the first protocol to perform ethnographic analysis of the process of diagnostic decision making in naturalistic settings. Finally, I use advanced technology such as mixed and augmented reality to enhance clinician decision making in real-time in remote settings. These endeavors have been industry funded and we have developed the first ambient intelligence module for pediatric resuscitation through the REACT Program (Research and Education in Acute Care using Advanced Technology).

    Recent Publications See All Publications
    • Journal Article
      Designing Patient-Centered Interventions for Emergency Care: Participatory Design Study.
      Seo W, Jain S, Le V, Li J, Zhang Z, Singh H, Pasupathy K, Mahajan P, Park SY. JMIR Form Res, 2025 Feb 12; 9: e63610 DOI:10.2196/63610
      PMID: 39938082
    • Journal Article
      Epidemiology of diagnostic errors in pediatric emergency departments using electronic triggers.
      Mahajan P, White E, Shaw K, Parker SJ, Chamberlain J, Ruddy RM, Alpern ER, Corboy J, Krack A, Ku B, Morrison Ponce D, Payne AS, Freiheit E, Horvath G, Kolenic G, Carney M, Klekowski N, O'Connell KJ, Singh H. Acad Emerg Med, 2025 Jan 15; DOI:10.1111/acem.15087
      PMID: 39815759
    • Journal Article
      Exploring diagnostic stewardship in the emergency department evaluation of pediatric abdominal pain in a statewide quality collaborative.
      Janke AT, Michelson KA, Kocher KE, Seiler K, Macy ML, Nypaver M, Mahajan PV, Arora R, Mangus CW. Acad Emerg Med, 2025 Jan 5; DOI:10.1111/acem.15075
      PMID: 39757751
    • Journal Article
      Natural Language Processing to Identify Infants Aged 90 Days and Younger With Fevers Prior to Presentation.
      Aronson PL, Kuppermann N, Mahajan P, Nielsen B, Olsen CS, Meeks HD, Grundmeier RW, PECARN Registry Working Group . Hosp Pediatr, 2025 Jan 1; 15 (1): e1 - e5. DOI:10.1542/hpeds.2024-008051
      PMID: 39679596
    • Preprint
      Designing Provider-centered Emergency Department Interventions: A Participatory Design Study (Preprint)
      Seo W, Li J, Zhang Z, Zheng C, Singh H, Pasupathy K, Mahajan P, Park SY. JMIR Preprints, DOI:10.2196/preprints.68891
    • Journal Article
      Characterizing Acute Pulmonary Embolism Cases Diagnosed at an Emergency Department Revisit Using a Statewide Clinical Registry.
      Janke AT, Haimovich AD, Mangus CW, Fung C, Kamdar N, Mahajan PV, Kocher KE. Ann Emerg Med, 2024 Nov; 84 (5): 530 - 539. DOI:10.1016/j.annemergmed.2024.06.014
      PMID: 39033451
    • Journal Article
      Role of eXtended Reality use in medical imaging interpretation for pre-surgical planning and intraoperative augmentation.
      Kantor T, Mahajan P, Murthi S, Stegink C, Brawn B, Varshney A, Reddy RM. J Med Imaging (Bellingham), 2024 Nov; 11 (6): 062607 DOI:10.1117/1.JMI.11.6.062607
      PMID: 39649776
    • Journal Article
      Procalcitonin for safe reduction of unnecessary blood cultures in the emergency department: Development and validation of a prediction model.
      Kaal AG, Meziyerh S, van Burgel N, Dane M, Kolfschoten NE, Mahajan P, Julián-Jiménez A, Steyerberg EW, van Nieuwkoop C. J Infect, 2024 Oct; 89 (4): 106251 DOI:10.1016/j.jinf.2024.106251
      PMID: 39182652
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    Prashant Mahajan, M.D., MPH, MBA
    Medical School News
    Prashant Mahajan, M.D., MPH, MBA, named interim chair of Emergency Medicine
    The Board of Regents approved the appointment of Prashant Mahajan, M.D., MPH, MBA, as interim chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine in the Medical School, effective July 1, 2024