Dr. Antoon is a pediatric, pharmacologist and pharmacoepidemiologist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. His research program focuses on medication safety and effectiveness in both children and adults, and is supported by funding from the NIH, CDC and PCORI. As a physician-scientist, Dr. Antoon designs and conducts clinical trials and population-based observational studies of medications, with a focus on the treatment of respiratory illnesses and other infections. He evaluates the relationship between serious adverse events and medication exposures, as well as determining the role of drug-drug interactions and underlying infections in the development of serious adverse events in children. Dr. Antoon’s studies have investigated medication-related neurologic and psychiatric adverse events, severe cutaneous adverse reactions (e.g, Stevens Johnson Syndrome), cardiac and thrombotic events, and anaphylactic allergic reactions, among others.

An expert on the safety and effectiveness of antivirals in the treatment of influenza and other respiratory viruses, Dr. Antoon was the recipient of a NIH Career Development Award focused on determining the association between influenza, oseltamivir, and serious neuropsychiatric events, such as suicide or self-harm, encephalopathy, and psychosis. He led a series of studies published in high impact journal such as JAMA Pediatrics and JAMA Neurology, concluding that influenza infection itself, rather than oseltamivir treatment, is associated with serious neuropsychiatric events.

Dr. Antoon has served a member of advisory committees and analytic groups for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, FDA Sentinel Initiative, American Dental Association, and Children’s Hospital Association and is the current Chair of the Children’s Hospital Association Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety (PEDS-Rx) Research Group. He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters in the fields of pediatrics, pharmacology, and drug safety. He is a member of the Society for Pediatric Research, the International Society for Influenza and Other Respiratory Virus Diseases, and the International Society for Pharmacoepidemiology. Dr. Antoon was a 2021 recipient of the Young Investigator Award from the Academic Pediatric Association.

Dr. Antoon is a practicing pediatric hospitalist at Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt. He is board certified in both General Pediatrics and Pediatric Hospital Medicine.

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