Puja Umaretiya, M.D. Titles and Appointments Assistant Professor Schools Medical School Departments Pediatrics | Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center | Public Health You have reached the Academic Profile. For more information on the doctor and patient care, please visit the clinical profile. Biography Puja J. Umaretiya, M.D., M.S., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Hematology and Oncology at UT Southwestern Medical Center. She joined the UT Southwestern faculty in 2023. Dr. Umaretiya earned her Bachelor of Science in Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Arizona and earned her medical degree at the Mayo Clinic School of Medicine in Rochester, Minnesota. She completed her pediatric residency in the Boston Combined Residency Program (Boston Children's Hospital and Boston Medical Center) and subsequently completed dual fellowships in pediatric palliative care and pediatric hematology/oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Boston Children's Hospital. Dr. Umaretiya has additionally completed a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in the Department of Psychosocial Oncology and Palliative Care and a Master of Science in Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. While at Dana-Farber, she conducted her postdoctoral research training under the mentorship of Dr. Kira Bona and Dr. Joanne Wolfe. Dr. Umaretiya's research focuses on identifying and addressing social determinants of health that drive racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic inequities experienced by children and parents during childhood cancer treatment. She has a particular interest in the advanced cancer population and clinical trial decision-making. Dr. Umaretiya ultimately aims to develop social needs-targeted interventions that enhance the well-being of historically marginalized children and their families. She has received extramural funding to support her research, including an American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Young Investigator Award, ASCO Career Development Award, Palliative Care Research Cooperative Group Pilot Award, and the National Palliative Care Research Center Kornfeld Scholars Award. Education Medical School Mayo Medical School (2015) Residency Boston Medical Center/Boston Children's Hospital (2018), Pediatrics Fellowship Massachusetts General Hospital/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (2019), Hospice & Palliative Medicine Fellowship Boston Children's Hospital/ Boston Medical Center (2022), Pediatric Hematology/oncology Other Post Graduate Training Harvard School of Public Health (2022) Research Interest racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities in pediatric oncology; patient and family-reported outcomes; social needs interventions Publications Patient-parent perspectives in designing pediatric venous thromboembolism research: A qualitative study Fuksman A, Shliakhtsitsava K, Nguyen G, Umaretiya PJ, Stutzman S, Sida D, Rajpurkar M, Khurram F, Edwards H, Zia A Thrombosis research 2026 Apr 260 Understanding Fellowship Leaders’ Efforts to Recruit Diverse Fellows to Pediatric Subspecialties Streater BA, Chiel L, Umaretiya PJ, Schwartz A, Mink R, Greenzang KA, Kesselheim JC Academic Pediatrics 2026 Apr 26 Sociodemographics and Attrition in Children With Osteosarcoma Enrolled in the AOST0331 Clinical Trial Zheng DJ, DelRocco N, Han R, Krailo M, Aziz-Bose R, Karvonen KA, Kelly CA, Newman H, Umaretiya PJ, Ilcisin L, Reed DR, Gorlick R, Janeway K, Bona K JAMA Network Open 2026 Mar 9 e263666 Pediatric RISE: Development of a Poverty-Targeted Cash Support Intervention for Pediatric Cancer Kelly CA, Paul MA, Kellett J, Kang S, Revette A, Aziz-Bose R, Duhaney L, Umaretiya PJ, Lin A, Hanson E, Bona K Pediatric Blood and Cancer 2026 Jan 73 Prevalence and Trajectory of Household Material Hardship Among Children With Advanced Cancer Wright S, Paul MA, Mendez SM, Jones E, Lokko L, Heneghan C, Purol N, Arnold M, Aziz-Bose R, Kelly CA, Pruitt S, Wolfe J, Bona K, Umaretiya PJ Pediatric Blood and Cancer 2026 Collecting Social Determinants of Health in a Children’s Oncology Group Trial for High-Risk Neuroblastoma Jones E, Naranjo A, Winestone LE, Umaretiya PJ, Aziz-Bose R, Kelly CA, Newman H, Zheng DJ, Greengard E, Bagatell R, DuBois SG, Bona K JAMA Network Open 2026 9 Partnering With Caregivers in Bereavement Research: Why It Matters and Best Practices Mccarthy SB, Snaman JM, Umaretiya PJ, Johnston EE Pediatrics 2025 Dec 156 Prospective Study of Annual Whole-Body Magnetic Resonance Imaging as Part of a Multimodality Screening Program for Individuals With Li-Fraumeni Syndrome Maoz A, Chen N, Umaretiya P, Cahill SR, Schwartz-Levine A, Jagannathan J, Voss SD, Friedman DN, Walsh M, Robson ME, Nehoray B, Frone MN, Schneider KA, Schienda JM, Hamilton KV, Onufrychuk A, Diller LR, Kamihara J, Rana HQ, Garber JE, London WB, O'Neill AF JCO Precision Oncology 2025 Oct 9 Contemporary Characteristics and Outcomes of Pediatric Oncology Patients Participating in Early Phase Clinical Trials Rami A, Bona K, Shusterman S, Wright K, Place AE, Umaretiya PJ, Bhushan K, DuBois SG, Campbell K Cancer Medicine 2025 Sep 14 Parental Financial Support Needs After the Death of a Child From Cancer Snaman JM, Herold B, Umaretiya PJ, Johnston EE Pediatric Blood and Cancer 2025 Sep 72 Results 1-10 of 46 1 2 3 4 5 Next Last Honors & Awards ASCO Career Development Award (2024) UTSW Dean's Clinical Scholar Award (2024) National Palliative Care Research Center Kornfeld Scholars Award (2023) ASCO Young Investigator Award (2022-2023)
