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Michael D. Johnson

Michael D. Johnson, MD

  • Dr. Johnson completed his medical degree at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, WI. He then completed his residency in pediatrics at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. He is currently an Associate Professor in the Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine at the University of Utah.

    Dr. Johnson´s clinical interests include improving the efficiency and effectiveness of patient care in the Emergency Department and Rapid Treatment Unit at Primary Children's Hospital and across the Intermountain Health system, especially the care of children with respiratory illness including asthma and bronchiolitis. He serves as the representative of the Primary Children's Hospital EmergencyDepartment for hospital and system-wide work groups tasked with improving respiratory care.

    His research focuses on optimizing the care provided to children with severe acute asthma in the emergency department. Currently this work is centered on understanding the effectiveness of intravenous magnesium sulfate for children who are likely to be hospitalized despite other treatment in the emergency department. He works with pediatric emergency medicine physicians and researchers across the United States as a member of the steering committee for the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) and across the world as a participant in the Pediatric Emergency Research Networks (PERN) to conduct research that improves the lives of children no matter where they seek emergency care.

    Dr. Johnson sees patients at Primary Children’s Hospital Emergency Department and Rapid Treatment Unit.

    Board Certification

    American Board of Pediatrics (Pediatrics)
  • Dr. Johnson completed his medical degree at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, WI. He then completed his residency in pediatrics at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. He is currently an Associate Professor in the Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine at the University of Utah.

    Dr. Johnson´s clinical interests include improving the efficiency and effectiveness of patient care in the Emergency Department and Rapid Treatment Unit at Primary Children's Hospital and across the Intermountain Health system, especially the care of children with respiratory illness including asthma and bronchiolitis. He serves as the representative of the Primary Children's Hospital EmergencyDepartment for hospital and system-wide work groups tasked with improving respiratory care.

    His research focuses on optimizing the care provided to children with severe acute asthma in the emergency department. Currently this work is centered on understanding the effectiveness of intravenous magnesium sulfate for children who are likely to be hospitalized despite other treatment in the emergency department. He works with pediatric emergency medicine physicians and researchers across the United States as a member of the steering committee for the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) and across the world as a participant in the Pediatric Emergency Research Networks (PERN) to conduct research that improves the lives of children no matter where they seek emergency care.

    Dr. Johnson sees patients at Primary Children’s Hospital Emergency Department and Rapid Treatment Unit.

    Board Certification and Academic Information

    Academic Departments Pediatrics -Primary
    Academic Divisions Emergency Medicine
    Board Certification
    American Board of Pediatrics (Pediatrics)

    Selected Publications

    Journal Article

    1. Craig, Simon Xu, Yao Robas, Kael et al (2023). Core outcomes and factors influencing the experience of care for children with severe acute exacerbations of asthma: a qualitative study. BMJ Open Respir Res.
    2. Johnson MD, Barney BJ, Rower JE, Finkelstein Y, Zorc JJ (2023). Intravenous Magnesium: Prompt Use for Asthma in Children Treated in the Emergency Department (IMPACT-ED): Protocol for a Multicenter Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial. JMIR Res Protoc, 12, e48302. (Read full article)
    3. Gray CS, Xu Y, Babl FE, Dalziel S, Powell CVE, Chong SL, Roland D, Lyttle MD, Fernandes RM, Benito J, Johnson M, Yock-Corrales A, Santhanam I, Schuh S, Cheema B, Couper J, Craig S, Pediatric Emergency Research Network PERN (2022). International perspective on research priorities and outcome measures of importance in the care of children with acute exacerbations of asthma: a qualitative interview study. BMJ Open Respir Res, 10(1). (Read full article)
    4. Willer RJ, Johnson MD, Cipriano FA, Stone BL, Nkoy FL, Chaulk DC, Knochel ML, Kawai CK, Neiswender KL, Coon ER (2021). Implementation of a Weight-Based High-Flow Nasal Cannula Protocol for Children With Bronchiolitis. Hosp Pediatr, 11(8), 891-895. (Read full article)
    5. Woodward S, Mundorff M, Weng C, Gamboa DG, Johnson MD (2020). Incidence of supraventricular tachycardia after inhaled short-acting beta agonist treatment in children. J Asthma, 58(4), 471-480. (Read full article)
    6. Luo G, Johnson MD, Nkoy FL, He S, Stone BL (2020). Automatically Explaining Machine Learning Prediction Results on Asthma Hospital Visits in Patients With Asthma: Secondary Analysis. JMIR Med Inform, 8(12), e21965. (Read full article)
    7. Kaiser SV, Johnson MD, Walls TA, Teach SJ, Sampayo EM, Dudley NC, Zorc JJ (2020). Pathways to Improve Pediatric Asthma Care: A Multisite, National Study of Emergency Department Asthma Pathway Implementation. J Pediatr, 223, 100-107.e2. (Read full article)
    8. Johnson MD, Zorc JJ, Nelson DS, Casper TC, Cook LJ, Finkelstein Y, Babcock L, Bajaj L, Chamberlain JM, Grundmeier RW, Webb M, Alpern ER, Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network PECARN (2020). Intravenous Magnesium in Asthma Pharmacotherapy: Variability in Use in the PECARN Registry. J Pediatr, 220, 165-174.e2. (Read full article)
    9. Luo G, He S, Stone BL, Nkoy FL, Johnson MD (2020). Developing a Model to Predict Hospital Encounters for Asthma in Asthmatic Patients: Secondary Analysis. JMIR Med Inform, 8(1), e16080. (Read full article)
    10. Craig S, Babl FE, Dalziel SR, Gray C, Powell C, Al Ansari K, Lyttle MD, Roland D, Benito J, Velasco R, Hoeffe J, Moldovan D, Thompson G, Schuh S, Zorc JJ, Kwok M, Mahajan P, Johnson MD, Sapien R, Khanna K, Rino P, Prego J, Yock A, Fernandes RM, Santhanam I, Cheema B, Ong G, Chong SL, Graudins A, Pediatric Emergency Research Networks PERN (2020). Acute severe paediatric asthma: study protocol for the development of a core outcome set, a Pediatric Emergency Reserarch Networks (PERN) study. Trials, 21(1), 72. (Read full article)
    11. Luo G, Stone B, Nkoy FL, He S, Johnson MD (2019). Predicting Appropriate Hospital Admission of Emergency Department Patients with Bronchiolitis: Secondary Analysis. JMIR Med Inform, 7(1), e12591.
    12. Becker SM, Job KM, Lima K, Forbes TJ, Wagstaff J, Tran NK, Sherwin CM, Nelson DS, Johnson MD, Rower JE (2018). Prospective study of serum and ionized magnesium pharmacokinetics in the treatment of children with severe acute asthma. Eur J Clin Pharmacol, 75(1), 59-66. (Read full article)
    13. Luo G, Johnson MD, Nkoy FL, He S, Stone BL (2018). Appropriateness of hospital admission for emergency department patients with bronchiolitis: Secondary analysis.  2018;20(11):1–10. doi:10.2196/10498. J Med Internet Res, 20(11), 1-10.
    14. Johnson MD, Zorc JJ (2018). What Is the Role for Magnesium to Treat Severe Pediatric Asthma Exacerbations? . Clin Pediatr Emerg Med, 19(1), 61-68.
    15. Johnson MD, Nkoy FL, Sheng X, Greene T, Stone BL, Garvin J (2016). Direct concurrent comparison of multiple pediatric acute asthma scoring instruments. J Asthma, 54(7), 741-753. (Read full article)
    16. Rower JE, Liu X, Yu T, Mundorff M, Sherwin CM, Johnson MD (2016). Clinical pharmacokinetics of magnesium sulfate in the treatment of children with severe acute asthma. Eur J Clin Pharmacol, 73(3), 325-331. (Read full article)
    17. Stanley RM, Johnson MD, Vance C, Bajaj L, Babcock L, Atabaki S, Thomas D, Simon HK, Cohen DM, Rubacalva D, David Adelson P, Bulloch B, Rogers AJ, Mahajan P, Baren J, Lee L, Hoyle J, Quayle K, Charles Casper T, Michael Dean J, Kuppermann N, Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network PECARN (2017). Challenges Enrolling Children Into Traumatic Brain Injury Trials: An Observational Study. Acad Emerg Med, 24(1), 31-39. (Read full article)
    18. Liu X, Yu T, Rower JE, Campbell SC, Sherwin CM, Johnson MD (2016). Optimizing the use of intravenous magnesium sulfate for acute asthma treatment in children. Pediatr Pulmonol, 51(12), 1414-1421. (Read full article)
    19. Luo G, Nkoy FL, Stone BL, Schmick D, Johnson MD (2015). A systematic review of predictive models for asthma development in children. BMC Med Inform Decis Mak, 15, 99. (Read full article)
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