Jane M. Garbutt, MB ChB

Jane Garbutt, MB ChB, associate professor of medicine and of pediatrics, is being recognized for her pioneering work in fostering and conducting practice-based pediatric research that has significantly improved community pediatric care in St. Louis and beyond.

Garbutt has been successful, her colleagues say, because of her tremendous intellectual curiosity and the energy she devotes to all endeavors. A native of England, she began her medical career at Bristol University in Bristol, England, where she earned her medical degree in 1977. She continued medical training with residencies in family practice and in community medicine at the University of Toronto. She practiced family medicine there for several years before coming to St. Louis in 1995. She then joined the Washington University community as a research fellow and began working with local pediatricians to study antibiotic use for sinusitis. In that role, she quickly recognized the need to fill gaps providing care. She has been an advocate for research and practice-based research ever since.

Garbutt joined the faculty in 1999, and three years later created the Washington University Pediatric and Adolescent Ambulatory Research Consortium (WUPAARC), a research network that partners community pediatricians with Washington University to conduct outpatient clinical studies. One of only 13 pediatric practice-based research networks in the country, WUPAARC now partners with 66 pediatricians from 35 practices in the metro area serving 130,000 children and adolescents. 


Through WUPAARC, Garbutt and colleagues have assessed the needs of providers, parents and children in St. Louis regarding prevention, diagnosis and management of childhood diseases and used that information to guide research. Their findings have contributed meaningfully to improving care for asthma, sinusitis, allergy, depression and neonatal jaundice. 

Garbutt also is involved in the Clinical Research Training Center as co-director of Washington University's Masters Degree in Clinical Investigation Program, director of the Postdoctoral Mentored Training Program in Clinical Investigation and co-director of the KL2 career development program.