Dr. Purcell is board certified laparoscopic pediatric surgeon. She has a strong interest in both fetal and neonatal surgical technique. Dr. Purcell joined the Department of Pediatric Surgery as assistant professor. Her doctoral study of information science included projects in context-based searching, creation of annals extracts and analysis of peer review. Dr. Gretchen P Purcell did her residency at Duke University and served as an assistant professor of surgery and clinical informatics. She also served as associate director of the Duke Medical Informatics training program, 2001-2003.