Dr. Ariana Pichardo-Lowden joined the faculty of Penn State College of Medicine in 2010. She is a clinician-investigator with a research focus on the development, implementation and study of strategies to reduce gaps in care, optimize systems of practice and promote preventive approaches to improve outcomes among people with diabetes.

Sponsored by an NIDDK K23 grant (K23 DK107914), she worked on the assessment of barriers to diabetes care in the hospital, led a team on the design and development of a Health Informatics clinical decision support tool to optimize management of diabetes and dysglycemia in the hospital, and successfully conducted a project to study the impact of this tool at Penn State. This research project continues in two centers, academic and community, to determine clinical, economic and practice performance outcomes related to clinical decision support for diabetes funded by an NIDDK R01 grant (1R01DK130992).

She has experience in qualitative and quantitative research and has served on several peer reviewer panels and as reviewer to journals on both research domains.

Dr. Ariana Pichardo-Lowden is involved in the education of medical students, internal medicine residents, family and community medicine residents and endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism fellows as a preceptor in ambulatory and hospital settings.

She teaches in the Endocrinology-Reproductive and Profession of Medicine III courses for medical students, and in the MD/MPH Biological Basis of Human Health and Disease course at Penn State College of Medicine, as well as in the endocrine section of the Patients and Sciences 4 course in the college's University Park Curriculum.

She is passionate about improving patient care through education and quality initiatives. Along those lines, she developed a curriculum for the quality improvement program of the Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism Fellowship at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, which she co-facilitates with faculty colleagues at Penn State. She also developed a diabetes education and self-management curriculum for Hispanic patients in Spanish.

Dr. Pichardo-Lowden is the faculty adviser of Endo for All, the College of Medicine's endocrinology and diabetes medical student interest group, and a former faculty adviser of the Latin Medical Student Association at the College of Medicine. She serves as faculty mentor in the Department of Medicine, Penn State Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute's education program and the College of Medicine's Junior Faculty Development Program.

Dr. Ariana Pichardo-Lowden is a board-certified clinical endocrinologist responsible for the care of ambulatory patients in Penn State Health clinics in Hershey and Harrisburg, Pa. She is an active faculty member in the care of hospitalized patients at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and has received recognition for her high patient satisfaction among providers nationwide.

Dr. Pichardo-Lowden serves as the physician lead for the medical center's inpatient diabetes interdisciplinary team, supporting the development of quality improvement initiatives, management protocols and patient education programs.

Motivated by her interest in addressing health disparities, she has been volunteering in efforts to pioneer a global health initiative focused on health prevention and education in a rural community in the Dominican Republic.

Member, National Research Mentoring Network, 2016 to present

Member, Hispanic/Latino Professionals Association, 2015 to present

Member, Network of Minority Research Investigators, 2013 to present

Member, American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, 2008 to present

Member, The Endocrine Society, 2002 to present

Member, International Society of Endocrinology, 2002 to present