Kathryn Johnson, MD, MS, FAAP

Kathryn Johnson, MD, is a board-certified pediatrician who specializes in the care of newborns. As a newborn hospitalist, Dr. Johnson provides care for newborns during their stay in the hospital. At UC San Diego Health, Dr. Johnson also serves as a quality medical director. In this role, she helps physicians and other providers translate quality data into clinical process improvement, leading to improved quality of care and patient safety. Dr. Johnson is also interested in health information technology and informatics, and has developed clinical decision tools for Epic (the most widely used electronic medical records system nationally). She has an interest in the evaluation and management of congenital infections, including Zika virus, syphilis, HIV, and cytomegalovirus.

As an associate professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Dr. Johnson trains medical students, residents and fellows at UC San Diego School of Medicine.

Prior to joining UC San Diego Health, she held faculty positions at UC San Francisco, Stanford University, and the University of Texas Southwestern.

Dr. Johnson completed her residency in general pediatrics at UC San Francisco, where she also earned her medical degree. She also holds a master's degree in healthcare leadership and management from The University of Texas at Dallas.

She is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics (FAAP), and a member of the Academic Pediatric Association (APA), the APA's Better Outcomes through Research for Newborns (BORN) Network, as well as the AAP's Council on Clinical Information Technology and Council on Quality Improvement and Patient Safety.

Dr. Johnson spends her free time hiking, beachcombing, gardening, and working on art projects with her two daughters and husband.

UC San Diego Health Links
For more information, see Newborn Care.