Dr. Tan is Professor of Pediatrics at the Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, and a Pediatric Infectious Diseases attending; Medical Director of the International Patient Services Program (IPS); co-Director of the Pediatric Travel Medicine Clinic; and Director of the International Adoptee Clinic at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois. She is board certified in Pediatrics and Pediatric Infectious Diseases. Dr. Tan received her medical degree from Louisiana State University School of Medicine in New Orleans, Louisiana. She completed her residency, chief residency, and pediatric infectious diseases fellowship in the Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas. Dr. Tan is the Chairperson of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Section on Infectious Diseases (SOID) and a member of the AAP Committee on Infectious Diseases (COID – Redbook Committee). She also serves as a member of the: AAP Global Immunization Advocacy Project Advisory Committee and is a Technical Advisor for the AAP/CDC Global Immunization Advocacy Project, the AAP Antimicrobial Resistance and Stewardship Workgroup – Education Subcommittee, AAP Expert Pertussis Cocooning Advisory Committee, and is a liaison to the CDC ACIP Pertussis Working Group and to the Illinois Chapter of the AAP OB/GYN Immunizations and Pregnancy Outreach Committee. She is a member of the American Board of Pediatrics Global Health Task Force Dissemination and Advocacy Work Group. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA). Dr. Tan also serves on the Immunization Advisory Committee for the State of Illinois Department of Public Health and a member of the Advisory Commission on Childhood Vaccines of the US Department of Health and Human Services. She serves on the editorial boards of: the Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society (Official Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society - PIDS), and Internal Medicine Reviews. She is the Co-Chairperson and US Representative to the International Steering Committee of the Global Pertussis Initiative; a member and consultant to the Steering Committee of the Latin America Without Pertussis Initiative (PAHEF, SLIPE); a member of the Board of Directors of the World Association of Infectious Diseases and Immunological Disorders (WAidid), and a member of the US National Pertussis Task Force (AAP and Every Child by Two). She also is a member of the vaccine advisory boards of Merck, Sanofi Pasteur, GSK and Pfizer/Wyeth.

Research Interest: Dr. Tan’s research interests focus on 1) The epidemiology of pneumococcal infections, pneumococcal vaccines, and antibiotic resistance and is a principal investigator in the U.S. Multicenter Pneumococcal Surveillance Study Group; 2)Pertussis disease epidemiology and preventative vaccines and the use of Tdap vaccination in pregnant women and close contacts of newborn infants to prevent transmission of disease (in collaboration with investigators in the Depart of OB/GYN); 3)Community-acquired methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) infections and the transmission dynamics between pregnant women and their newborn infants (in collaboration with investigators in the Department of OB/GYN, Prentice Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago). 4)She has participated in both vaccine and antibiotic clinical trials as a Principal-Investigator and 5) is also involved in several vaccine survey studies which examine the awareness, acceptance, barriers and utilization of recommended preventative vaccines among healthcare consumers and primary healthcare physicians, advanced practice nurses and pharmacists. These studies are being conducted in collaboration with Dr. Melvin Gerbie in the Department of OB/GYN. 6)She is also working with faculty in the Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern on implementing a protocol for administration of routinely recommended adult preventative vaccines to all cancer patients and studying the impact of vaccinating on decreasing disease burden and morbidity and mortality in this patient population.

Pneumococcal infections, Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Infections (MRSA), Pertussis (Whooping Cough) disease and vaccine, Travel Immunizations, International Adoption, Antibiotic Resistance, Vaccine preventable diseases, Vaccine education for healthcare providers, general infectious diseases