Kira Bona, MD, MPH

• Physician
• Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School

Appointment Phone

• 888-733-4662 (New Pediatric Patients)
• 617-632-3270 (Established Pediatric Patients)

Fax

• 617-632-5710

General

Treatment Centers

• Pediatric Hematologic Malignancies

Discipline

• Pediatric Hematology/Oncology

Clinical Interests

Hematologic malignancies

Location

Background

Board Certifications

• Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, 2012
• Pediatrics, 2009

Fellowship

• Boston Children's Hospital/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Pediatric Hematology/Oncology

Residency

• Boston Combined Residency Program, Boston Children's Hospital/Boston Medical Center, Pediatrics

Medical School

• Yale University School of Medicine

Biography

Dr. Kira Bona received her MD from the Yale University School of Medicine and her MPH from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health with a focus on clinical effectiveness. She completed her pediatrics residency in the Boston Combined Residency Program (BCRP) at Boston Children's Hospital and Boston Medical Center and her pediatric hematology/oncology subspecialty fellowship training at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Boston Children's Hospital. She joined the faculty at Dana-Farber/Boston Children's as a pediatric oncologist in 2012. In addition to her role in the treatment of children with leukemia and lymphoma, Dr. Bona is a physician-scientist with research focused on identifying poverty-associated outcome disparities in childhood cancer and developing interventions to ameliorate these disparities. Dr. Bona has been the recipient of several past awards and honors including a Young Investigator Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology, a St. Baldrick's Fellow Award, a Junior Faculty Career Development Award from the National Palliative Care Research Center, a Charles H. Hood Child Health Research Grant, and an NCI K07 Mentored Career Development Award.

Research

The Bona Lab at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute studies disparities in childhood cancer with a focus on improving childhood cancer outcomes by systematically considering poverty as a risk factor in the clinical trial setting and a target for interventions. Dr. Bona's research to date has demonstrated that poverty is associated with higher rates of relapse, decreased overall survival, and inferior symptom management even when children are treated on clinical trials. Her ongoing research includes open protocols to (1) identify mechanisms linking poverty and inferior outcomes by embedding survey and healthcare utilization research in multi-center clinical trials run by the DFCI/ALL Consortium and Children's Oncology Group; (2) develop and test novel poverty-targeted interventions; and (3) collaboratively investigate physiologic stress-responses that may induce chemotherapy resistance or immune dysfunction.