Dr. Ruest currently has NIH funding through a RI Hospital Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) Grant, and is working with experts in machine learning and artificial intellegence techniques to develop clinical decision support for clinicians who see young children with potential abusive/inflicted fractures. She is also funded through the Children's Miracle Network on a collaborative intervention program to address food insecurity among patients seen at Hasbro Children's Hopsital and Rhode Island Hospital. 

Dr. Ruest has ongoing research projects focused on child abuse and accidental injury. She has been the site PI for multiple multicenter studies. She is the site PI for an  ongoing Injury Free Coalition for Kids study of pediatric injuries during the Covid-19 pandemic. The second study is an NIAAA funded multicenter study evaluating alcohol misuse screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment among adolescents admitted for traumatic injuries. Her recently completed projects include an American Academy of Pediatrics CATCH Grant-funded food insecurity intervention program in the Hasbro ER as well as a Pediatric Emergency Care Research Network (PECARN) nodal study describing pediatric firearm-related injuries.

5/2022 – Present

Rhode Island Hospital Injury Control Center for Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE)

Research Project 3: Derivation of a Clinical Prediction Rule for Pediatric Abusive Fractures (Ruest)

NIH/NIGMS P20 GM139664

12/1/21-11/30/26   Total COBRE Award Amount: $12,099,111; Research Project 3: $1,327.163

COBRE Study PI: Michael Mello, MD, MPH

Research Project 3 PI: Stephanie Ruest, MD, MPH, FAAP

• The study will use machine learning and natural language processing techniques to develop a CDR to detect fracture presentations highly associated with abusive fractures among children ≤5 years old and validate it in a different institutional cohort, with the subsequent goal of broad validation in a multi-center prospective study. 
• Collaborators include machine learning experts at the Brown University Artificial Intelligence Lab and pediatric child abuse specialists.

11/1/2022 - Present

Children’s Miracle Network, Hasbro Children’s Hospital Department of Pediatrics

A Primary Care and Emergency Department Collaboration to Address Food Insecurity in Rhode Island Families

11/1/2022-12/31/2023, $25,000

Primary Investigators: Celeste C Corcoran, MD and Stephanie Ruest, MD, MPH

Key Personnel: Susan Duffy MD, MPH, Rebecca Wingerter, MD, and Christine Penfield, RN

2019    Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine Director’s Clinical Excellence Award

2017    Pediatric Emergency Medicine Fellow Teaching Award, Hasbro Children’s Hospital