Alaina Vidmar, MD

Alaina Vidmar, MD is an Assistant Professor in Pediatric Endocrinology, a Board Certified Pediatric Obesity Medicine Specialist, and the Medical Director of the Healthy Weight Clinic at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Dr. Vidmar received her medical degree and completed her residency in Pediatrics at the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin. She completed her fellowship in Pediatric Endocrinology at the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles.

Dr. Vidmar’s main research and clinical interest is improving patient outcomes through novel clinical approaches and behavioral interventions for youth with overweight and obesity. There continues to be a steady increase in the prevalence of obesity in adolescents. Current treatment recommendations in pediatrics are costly, labor intensive and difficult to implement on a large scale. The creation of innovative and personalized treatment strategies that target the whole adolescent, including nutrition, activity and behavioral skills training are essential. Dr. Vidmar’s lab is interested in three components of the treatment of obesity in adolescents: 1) Cognitive phenotyping: The relationships between food addiction, executive function and mood in adolescents with obesity are not well-understood. Her lab aims to categorize these cognitive phenotypes to better understand how these phenotypes impact treatment engagement and response. 2) Intervention Delivery Modalities: Her lab aims to utilize app-based interventions to deliver targeted treatment in their real life setting to determine which delivery method is most cost effective at promoting sustained behavior change and weight control. 3) Chrononutrition: Dr. Vidmar is interested in investigating how pediatric chronobiological intersects with nutrition and obesity. She is gathering data to investigate how sleep timing, eating periods and glycemic excursions overlap to impact metabolic health in adolescents across the spectrum of beta cell dysfunction.