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Waltz developed and implemented multiple innovative methodologies with the goal of translating research results to improving patient care and medical trainee education. First, Waltz created a method using audio recordings to analyze patient and provider communication during pediatric genetics and neurology appointments across clinics in North Carolina. This novel research will contribute to the body of literature on patient engagement and patient centered care and translate into improved clinical care.

Secondly, Waltz was instrumental in creating an Observed Standardized Clinical Examination (OSCE) to assess ethical tenets of the ACGME pediatric professionalism milestones, which she published in MedEd Portal. The OSCE includes four ethically challenging vignettes based on actual cases and was piloted with UNC residents and standardized patients. It offers a structured method to assess professionalism milestones and a forum to discuss ethical problem solving.

Waltz also recently became the first leader of the Hospital Ethics Committee’s (HEC) Research Work Group. In that role, she developed a method to use clinical ethics consult data for research purposes to advance ethical care of patients while educating medical student members of the HEC in the conduct of research.