The Division's research has had a longstanding focus on understanding health disparities across the continuum of care. The Division's portfolio includes work that identifies groups at risk for health disparities and studies that try to understand the mechanisms that underlie these disparities. This work has focused on underserved groups such as racial and ethnic minorities, immigrant populations, persons who are obese or disabled, and the socio-economically disadvantaged.
Dr. Todd Pollack has conducted research on health disparities in Southeast Asia, with a focus on HIV, viral hepatitis, and primary health care systems. His work has examined inequities in access to testing, treatment, and prevention services, as well as stigma and discrimination within healthcare settings in Vietnam. He has also studied patient and family empowerment strategies to improve quality of care, including interventions to strengthen health literacy among people living with HIV. Currently, he co-leads the Lancet Global Health Commission on People-Centered Care for Universal Health Coverage, which is generating new evidence on how to center patients, families, and communities in health system design to reduce disparities and advance equity.
Dr. Stephen Juraschek has examined the role of healthcare disparities in access to healthy diets and control of hypertension. He currently directs a trial funded by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities to provide healthy food to African-Americans with hypertension living in Boston food deserts.
Dr. Mingyu Zhang studies how social and structural determinants contribute to the racial and ethnic disparities in environmental pollutant exposures and cardiometabolic disease risk across the life course. He has collaborated with some of the most diverse cohorts in the United States, including the Boston Birth Cohort, Nurture, and cohorts within the NIH Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Consortium. Dr. Zhang's research sheds light on the effects of air pollutants, toxic heavy metals, and PFAS on the cardiometabolic health of pregnant individuals and their children, particularly within Black and Hispanic communities who face a disproportionate burden of such pollutants but have historically been underrepresented or excluded from research. Currently, Dr. Zhang is a co-investigator of the ongoing ECHO Boston cohort, and he examines how factors such as food insecurity, diet quality, and environmental pollutants contribute to inequities in pregnancy conditions that can lead to later obesity and cardiovascular disease risk.
Dr. Ken Mukamal has collaborated with Dr. John Danziger to study racial and ethnic disparities in critical and nephrology care and, most recently, in toxicity from lead contamination of drinking water nationwide. Their work has shown that even permissible levels of lead contamination by EPA standards are associated with hematological toxicity in vulnerable populations like children and patients with chronic kidney disease.