Skip to main content
Per H. Gesteland

Per H. Gesteland, MD, MSc

Languages spoken: English

Clinical Locations

  • Dr. Gesteland is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Pediatric Hospital Medicine and an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Informatics at the University of Utah. Dr. Gesteland completed his medical school training at the University of Utah in 1996 and his combined Internal Medicine and Pediatrics residency training at the University of Minnesota in 2000. He completed his medical informatics training at the University of Utah as a Fellow in The National Library of Medicine’s University-based Medical Informatics Training Program in 2002.

    The subject of Dr. Gesteland’s Master’s of Science dissertation work was the rapid deployment and evaluation of a real-time disease outbreak detection system for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City. As a fellow of Intermountain Healthcare’s Institute of Healthcare Delivery Research and later as a member of the inaugural class of Pediatric Clinical and Translational Research Scholars in the Department of Pediatrics, he built upon his thesis work to create a novel infectious disease situational awareness program for state of Utah. The program, called GermWatch, has become an invaluable resource for public health, caregivers, hospital administrators, researchers and the communities of Utah.

    Dr. Gesteland has a breadth of clinical experience including 20 years of adult and pediatric urgent care and 16 years of pediatric hospital medicine. He is a practicing clinician working as an academic Hospitalist at Intermountain Healthcare’s Primary Children's Hospital since 2004, where he cares for a wide variety of acuity and complexity, from healthy infants with fever to children with multiple complex chronic conditions who have recently had major surgery.

    Dr. Gesteland’s research interests and expertise encompasses clinical information systems, health information technology, natural language processing, machine-learning, biosurveillance, health services research and clinical decision support. He has over 40 publications in peer-reviewed journals relating to these topics. His current research focus is in furthering the development and deployment of probabilistic and interoperable methods for disease surveillance, forecasting, mitigation and response.

    Dr. Gesteland has been the Principle Investigator or Co-Investigator on grants from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center, the University of Utah’s Center for Translational Science, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the National Library of Medicine.

  • Dr. Gesteland is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Pediatric Hospital Medicine and an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Informatics at the University of Utah. Dr. Gesteland completed his medical school training at the University of Utah in 1996 and his combined Internal Medicine and Pediatrics residency training at the University of Minnesota in 2000. He completed his medical informatics training at the University of Utah as a Fellow in The National Library of Medicine’s University-based Medical Informatics Training Program in 2002.

    The subject of Dr. Gesteland’s Master’s of Science dissertation work was the rapid deployment and evaluation of a real-time disease outbreak detection system for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City. As a fellow of Intermountain Healthcare’s Institute of Healthcare Delivery Research and later as a member of the inaugural class of Pediatric Clinical and Translational Research Scholars in the Department of Pediatrics, he built upon his thesis work to create a novel infectious disease situational awareness program for state of Utah. The program, called GermWatch, has become an invaluable resource for public health, caregivers, hospital administrators, researchers and the communities of Utah.

    Dr. Gesteland has a breadth of clinical experience including 20 years of adult and pediatric urgent care and 16 years of pediatric hospital medicine. He is a practicing clinician working as an academic Hospitalist at Intermountain Healthcare’s Primary Children's Hospital since 2004, where he cares for a wide variety of acuity and complexity, from healthy infants with fever to children with multiple complex chronic conditions who have recently had major surgery.

    Dr. Gesteland’s research interests and expertise encompasses clinical information systems, health information technology, natural language processing, machine-learning, biosurveillance, health services research and clinical decision support. He has over 40 publications in peer-reviewed journals relating to these topics. His current research focus is in furthering the development and deployment of probabilistic and interoperable methods for disease surveillance, forecasting, mitigation and response.

    Dr. Gesteland has been the Principle Investigator or Co-Investigator on grants from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center, the University of Utah’s Center for Translational Science, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the National Library of Medicine.

    Board Certification and Academic Information

    Academic Departments Pediatrics -Primary
    Biomedical Informatics -Adjunct

    Education history

    Fellowship Medical Informatics - National Library of Medicine’s University-based Training Program, University of Utah Fellow
    Medical Informatics - Department of Medical Informatics, University of Utah School of Medicine M.S.
    Residency Combined Internal Medicine and Pediatrics - University of Minnesota School of Medicine Resident
    Combined Internal Medicine and Pediatrics - University of Minnesota School of Medicine Intern
    Professional Medical Medicine - University of Utah School of Medicine M.D.
    Biology and Chemistry - Allegheny College B.S.

    Selected Publications

    Journal Article

    1. Greene C, Nian H, Zhu Y, Antoon JW, Freundlich KL, Ampofo K, Sartori LF, Johnson J, Arnold DH, Gesteland P, Stassun J, Robison J, Pavia AT, Grijalva CG, Williams DJ (2022). Associations between comorbidity-related functional limitations and pneumonia outcomes. J Hosp Med, 17(7), 527-533.
    2. Sekmen M, Johnson J, Zhu Y, Sartori LF, Grijalva CG, Stassun J, Arnold DH, Ampofo K, Robison J, Gesteland PH, Pavia AT, Williams DJ (2022). Association Between Procalcitonin and Antibiotics in Children With Community-Acquired Pneumonia. Hosp Pediatr, 12(4), 384-391.
    3. Laura F Sartori, Yuwei Zhu, Carlos G Grijalva, Krow Ampofo, Per Gesteland, Jakobi Johnson, Rendie McHenry, Donald H Arnold, Andrew T Pavia, Kathryn M Edwards, and Derek J Williams (2020). Pneumonia Severity in Children: Utility of Procalcitonin in Risk Stratification. Hosp Pediatr.
    4. Aronis JM, Ferraro JP, Gesteland PH, Tsui F, Ye Y, Wagner MM, Cooper GF (2020). A Bayesian approach for detecting a disease that is not being modeled. PLoS One, 15(2), e0229658.
    5. Hughes MM, Carmack AE, McCaffrey K, Spencer M, Reed GM, Hill M, Dunn A, Risk I, Garg S, Reed C, Biggerstaff M, Mayer J, Gesteland P, Korgenski K, Dascomb K, Pavia A, Rolfes MA (2019). Estimating the Incidence of Influenza at the State Level - Utah, 2016-17 and 2017-18 Influenza Seasons. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep, 68(50), 1158-1161.
    6. Dunnick J, Gesteland P (2019). Isolated Increased Intracranial Pressure and Unilateral Papilledema in an Infant With Traumatic Brain Injury and Nondepressed Basilar Skull Fracture. Pediatr Emerg Care, 35(11), e198-e200.
    7. Millett NE, Aronis JM, Wagner MM, Tsui F, Ye Y, Ferraro JP, Haug PJ, Gesteland PH, Cooper GF (2019). The design and evaluation of a Bayesian system for detecting and characterizing outbreaks of influenza. Online J Public Health Inform, 11(2), e6.
    8. Horne BD, Joy EA, Hofmann MG, Gesteland PH, Cannon JB, Lefler JS, Blagev DP, Korgenski EK, Torosyan N, Hansen GI, Kartchner D, Pope CA 3rd (2018). Short-Term Elevation of Fine Particulate Matter Air Pollution and Acute Lower Respiratory Infection. Am J Respir Crit Care Med, 198(6), 759-766.
    9. Meyers L, Ginocchio CC, Faucett AN, Nolte FS, Gesteland PH, Leber A, Janowiak D, Donovan V, Dien Bard J, Spitzer S, Stellrecht KA, Salimnia H, Selvarangan R, Juretschko S, Daly JA, Wallentine JC, Lindsey K, Moore F, Reed SL, Aguero-Rosenfeld M, Fey PD, Storch GA, Melnick SJ, Robinson CC, Meredith JF, Cook CV, Nelson RK, Jones JD, Scarpino SV, Althouse BM, Ririe KM, Malin BA, Poritz MA (2018). Automated Real-Time Collection of Pathogen-Specific Diagnostic Data: Syndromic Infectious Disease Epidemiology. JMIR Public Health Surveill, 4(3), e59.
    10. Aronis JM, Millett NE, Wagner MM, Tsui F, Ye Y, Ferraro JP, Haug PJ, Gesteland PH, Cooper GF (2017). A Bayesian system to detect and characterize overlapping outbreaks. J Biomed Inform, 73, 171-181.
    11. Ferraro JP, Ye Y, Gesteland PH, Haug PJ, Tsui FR, Cooper GF, Van Bree R, Ginter T, Nowalk AJ, Wagner M (2017). The effects of natural language processing on cross-institutional portability of influenza case detection for disease surveillance. Appl Clin Inform, 8(2), 560-580.
    12. Ye Y, Wagner MM, Cooper GF, Ferraro JP, Su H, Gesteland PH, Haug PJ, Millett NE, Aronis JM, Nowalk AJ, Ruiz VM, Lpez Pineda A, Shi L, Van Bree R, Ginter T, Tsui F (2017). A study of the transferability of influenza case detection systems between two large healthcare systems. PLoS One, 12(4), e0174970.
    13. Bhattacharyya S, Gesteland PH, Korgenski K, Bjrnstad ON, Adler FR (2015). Cross-immunity between strains explains the dynamical pattern of paramyxoviruses. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 112(43), 13396-400.
    14. Luo G, Stone BL, Fassl B, Maloney CG, Gesteland PH, Yerram SR, Nkoy FL (2015). Predicting asthma control deterioration in children. BMC Med Inform Decis Mak, 15, 84.
    15. Luo G, Nkoy FL, Gesteland PH, Glasgow TS, Stone BL (2014). A systematic review of predictive modeling for bronchiolitis. Int J Med Inform, 83(10), 691-714.
    16. Cummins MR, Crouch B, Gesteland P, Wyckoff A, Allen T, Muthukutty A, Palmer R, Peelay J, Repko K (2013). Inefficiencies and vulnerabilities of telephone-based communication between U. S. poison control centers and emergency departments. Clin Toxicol (Phila), 51(5), 435-43.
    17. Dahle KW, Korgenski EK, Hersh AL, Srivastava R, Gesteland PH (2012). Clinical Value of an Ambulatory-Based Antibiogram for Uropathogens in Children. J Pediatric Infect Dis Soc, 1(4), 333-6.
    18. Gesteland PH, Livnat Y, Galli N, Samore MH, Gundlapalli AV (2012). The EpiCanvas infectious disease weather map: an interactive visual exploration of temporal and spatial correlations. J Am Med Inform Assoc, 19(6), 954-9.
    19. Cummins MR, Crouch BI, Gesteland P, Staggers N, Wyckoff A, Wong BG (2012). Electronic information exchange between emergency departments and poison control centers: a Delphi study. Clin Toxicol (Phila), 50(6), 503-13.
    20. Leecaster M, Gesteland P, Greene T, Walton N, Gundlapalli A, Rolfs R, Byington C, Samore M (2011). Modeling the variations in pediatric respiratory syncytial virus seasonal epidemics. BMC Infect Dis, 11, 105.
    21. Xu W, Pettey W, Livnat Y, Gesteland P, Rajeev D, Reid J, Samore M, Evans RS, Rolfs RT, Staes C (2011). Strengthening Partnerships along the Informatics Innovation Stages and Spaces: Research and Practice Collaboration in Utah. Online J Public Health Inform, 3(3).
    22. Staes CJ, Wuthrich A, Gesteland P, Allison MA, Leecaster M, Shakib JH, Carter ME, Mallin BM, Mottice S, Rolfs R, Pavia AT, Wallace B, Gundlapalli AV, Samore M, Byington CL (2011). Public health communication with frontline clinicians during the first wave of the 2009 influenza pandemic. J Public Health Manag Pract, 17(1), 36-44.
    23. Livnat Y, Gesteland P, Benuzillo J, Pettey W, Bolton D, Drews F, Kramer H, Samore M (2010). Epinome - a novel workbench for epidemic investigation and analysis of search strategies in public health practice. AMIA Annu Symp Proc, 2010, 647-51.
    24. Walton NA, Poynton MR, Gesteland PH, Maloney C, Staes C, Facelli JC (2010). Predicting the start week of respiratory syncytial virus outbreaks using real time weather variables. BMC Med Inform Decis Mak, 10, 68.
    25. Allison MA, Guest-Warnick G, Nelson D, Pavia AT, Srivastava R, Gesteland PH, Rolfs RT, Andersen S, Calame L, Young P, Byington CL (2010). Feasibility of elementary school children's use of hand gel and facemasks during influenza season. Influenza Other Respir Viruses, 4(4), 223-9.
    26. Lloyd MB, Lloyd JC, Gesteland PH, Bale JF Jr (2010). Rotavirus gastroenteritis and seizures in young children. Pediatr Neurol, 42(6), 404-8.
    27. Bender JM, Ampofo K, Gesteland P, Sheng X, Korgenski K, Raines B, Daly JA, Valentine K, Srivastava R, Pavia AT, Byington CL (2010). Influenza virus infection in infants less than three months of age. Pediatr Infect Dis J, 29(1), 6-9.
    28. Parks AL, Walker B, Pettey W, Benuzillo J, Gesteland P, Grant J, Koopman J, Drews F, Samore M (2009). Interactive agent based modeling of public health decision-making. AMIA Annu Symp Proc, 2009, 504-8.
    29. Shakib JH, Wyman L, Gesteland PH, Staes CJ, Bennion DW, Byington CL (2009). Should the pertussis case definition for public health reporting be refined? J Public Health Manag Pract, 15(6), 479-84.
    30. Staes CJ, Gesteland PH, Allison M, Mottice S, Rubin M, Shakib JH, Boulton R, Wuthrich A, Carter ME, Leecaster M, Samore MH, Byington CL (2009). Urgent care providers' knowledge and attitude about public health reporting and pertussis control measures: implications for informatics. J Public Health Manag Pract, 15(6), 471-8.
    31. Bender JM, Ampofo K, Gesteland P, Stoddard GJ, Nelson D, Byington CL, Pavia AT, Srivastava R (2009). Development and validation of a risk score for predicting hospitalization in children with influenza virus infection. Pediatr Emerg Care, 25(6), 369-75.
    32. Gesteland PH, Allison MA, Staes CJ, Samore MH, Rubin MA, Carter ME, Wuthrich A, Kinney AY, Mottice S, Byington CL (2008). Clinician use and acceptance of population-based data about respiratory pathogens: implications for enhancing population-based clinical practice. AMIA Annu Symp Proc, 232-6.
    33. Nkoy FL, Fassl BA, Simon TD, Stone BL, Srivastava R, Gesteland PH, Fletcher GM, Maloney CG (2008). Quality of care for children hospitalized with asthma. Pediatrics, 122(5), 1055-63.
    34. Walton N, Poynton MR, Maloney C, Gesteland PH (2007). Forecasting hospital census at a tertiary care children's hospital. AMIA Annu Symp Proc, 1147.
    35. Maloney CG, Wolfe D, Gesteland PH, Hales JW, Nkoy FL (2007). A tool for improving patient discharge process and hospital communication practices: the "Patient Tracker". AMIA Annu Symp Proc, 493-7.
    36. Gesteland PH, Samore MH, Pavia AT, Srivastava R, Korgenski K, Gerber K, Daly JA, Mundorff MB, Rolfs RT, James BC, Byington CL (2007). Informing the front line about common respiratory viral epidemics. AMIA Annu Symp Proc, 274-8.
    37. Ampofo K, Gesteland PH, Bender J, Mills M, Daly J, Samore M, Byington C, Pavia AT, Srivastava R (2006). Epidemiology, complications, and cost of hospitalization in children with laboratory-confirmed influenza infection. Pediatrics, 118(6), 2409-17.
    38. Gesteland PH, Nebeker JR, Gardner RM (2006). These are the technologies that try men's souls: common-sense health information technology. Pediatrics, 117(1), 216-7.
    39. Wagner MM, Espino J, Tsui FC, Gesteland P, Chapman W, Ivanov O, Moore A, Wong W, Dowling J, Hutman J (2004). Syndrome and outbreak detection using chief-complaint data--experience of the Real-Time Outbreak and Disease Surveillance project. MMWR Suppl, 53, 28-31.
    40. Mandl KD, Overhage JM, Wagner MM, Lober WB, Sebastiani P, Mostashari F, Pavlin JA, Gesteland PH, Treadwell T, Koski E, Hutwagner L, Buckeridge DL, Aller RD, Grannis S (2004). Implementing syndromic surveillance: a practical guide informed by the early experience. J Am Med Inform Assoc, 11(2), 141-50.
    41. Gesteland PH, Gardner RM, Tsui FC, Espino JU, Rolfs RT, James BC, Chapman WW, Moore AW, Wagner MM (2003). Automated syndromic surveillance for the 2002 Winter Olympics. J Am Med Inform Assoc, 10(6), 547-54.
    42. Hogan WR, Tsui FC, Ivanov O, Gesteland PH, Grannis S, Overhage JM, Robinson JM, Wagner MM, Indiana-Pennsylvania-Utah Collaboration (2003). Detection of pediatric respiratory and diarrheal outbreaks from sales of over-the-counter electrolyte products. J Am Med Inform Assoc, 10(6), 555-62.
    43. Tsui FC, Espino JU, Dato VM, Gesteland PH, Hutman J, Wagner MM (2003). Technical description of RODS: a real-time public health surveillance system. J Am Med Inform Assoc, 10(5), 399-408.
    44. Ivanov O, Gesteland PH, Hogan W, Mundorff MB, Wagner MM (2003). Detection of pediatric respiratory and gastrointestinal outbreaks from free-text chief complaints. AMIA Annu Symp Proc, 318-22.
    45. Gesteland PH, Wagner MM, Chapman WW, Espino JU, Tsui FC, Gardner RM, Rolfs RT, Dato V, James BC, Haug PJ (2002). Rapid deployment of an electronic disease surveillance system in the state of Utah for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games. Proc AMIA Symp, 285-9.
    46. Tsui FC, Espino JU, Wagner MM, Gesteland P, Ivanov O, Olszewski RT, Liu Z, Zeng X, Chapman W, Wong WK, Moore A (2002). Data, network, and application: technical description of the Utah RODS Winter Olympic Biosurveillance System. Proc AMIA Symp, 815-9.

    Book Chapter

    1. Wagner MM, Hogan WR, Chapman WW, Gesteland PH (2006). Chief Complaints and ICD Codes. In Michael M Wagner, Andrew W. Moore, Ron M. Aryel (Eds.), Handbook of Biosurveillance (Chapter, p. 23). New York: Academic Press.
    2. Jacobson N, Daswani S, Gesteland PH (2006). Project Management. In Michael M. Wagner, Andrew W. Moore, Ron M. Aryel (Eds.), Handbood of Biosurveillance (Chapter, p. 36). New York: Academic Press.
  • News & Podcasts