Panel Discussion Session 2B
1:45 - 2:45 pm: Pursuing Health Equity: From Patients to Populations
Speakers:
Stephen Mein, MD
Pulmonary & Critical Care Physician, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Affiliated Faculty Investigator, Richard A. & Susan F. Smith Center for Outcomes Research, Harvard Medical School
Stephen Mein is a pulmonary and critical care physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and an Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He completed medical school at the University of Virginia, residency in Internal Medicine at BIDMC, fellowship in the Harvard Combined Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship, and postdoctoral research training at the Smith Center for Outcomes Research. Dr. Mein's research combines large surveys and administrative datasets and causal inference methods to understand how health policies and healthcare interventions affect access to care, health equity, and clinical outcomes among patients with pulmonary conditions, with a particular focus on asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). His work aims to generate evidence to inform future interventions that will improve health outcomes in pulmonary disease.
Ashley L. O'Donoghue, PhD
Instructor in Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Economist, Center for Healthcare Delivery Science, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Ashley L. O'Donoghue is an Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an Economist at the Center for Healthcare Delivery Science at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. She leads the Center's Data Analytics Team, which partners with clinical and operational leaders to conduct rigorous healthcare delivery research that informs system-level decisions and drives improvements in care. Her research focuses on building and evaluating healthcare innovations that not only solve local problems but also generate generalizable knowledge about who those innovations actually reach. This work has been featured in outlets such as National Geographic, NPR, Time, Forbes, and Freakonomics Radio. She serves as a Senior Associate Editor at Healthcare: The Journal of Delivery Science and Innovation and holds a PhD in economics with a specialization in econometric methods for causal inference. Outside her academic work, Dr. O'Donoghue serves as a Volunteer Case Reviewer for the Massachusetts Department of Children & Families Foster Care Review Unit, advocating and planning for children in foster care and group homes and connecting families with community services across Massachusetts.
Talya Salant, MD, PhD
Medical Director of Community Health Research and Equity, Bowdoin Street Health Center
Dr. Talya Salant is the Director of Community Health Research at Bowdoin Street Health Center. Her past and current research efforts have used mixed methods to study and improve disparities in cancer prevention and chronic disease, diagnostic safety in primary care, community resiliency, primary care burnout, and barriers to conducting research in community settings. She established Bowdoin Co-Create in 2025 (Community Center for Research, Access, and Teaching) to be a foundation for community-led research and community-academic collaborations. Co-Create is supported by a Community Advisory Board that ensures the voice of the community guides research done at Bowdoin St.
Moderators:
Yarden S. Fraiman, MD, MPH
Associate Director for Health Equity, Department of Neonatology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Neonatologist
Yarden S. Fraiman is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and a neonatologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He earned his undergraduate degree from Princeton University, his medical degree from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and an MPH from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Fraiman completed his pediatrics training through the Boston Combined Residency Program and his Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine fellowship through Harvard. His research focuses on health services and health equity, with a particular interest in understanding the macro-level drives of inequity, within and outside the healthcare system, which affect preterm infants across the life-course. He also serves as Associate Director for Health Equity in the Department of Neonatology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, leading initiatives to improve care and outcomes for infants and families in the NICU.
Mary B. Rice, MD, MPH
Director, Institute for Lung Health, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Co-Director, Research
Associate Professor of Medicine, Medicine-Beth Israel Deaconess, Harvard Medical School
Dr. Mary B. Rice's research focuses on preventable causes of chronic lung disease in children and adults, including environmental exposures such as air pollution, climate, aeroallergens and microbes. Dr. Rice is the Director of the BIDMC Institute for Lung Health, a multi-disciplinary respiratory research program that applies advanced statistical and sampling methodologies in clinical populations with chronic lung disease and multiple U.S.-based prospective cohort studies of children and adults. A core mission is to identify preventable causes of chronic lung disease, and to translate research findings into patient care and health policies that improve lung health. Dr. Rice's research is funded by the National Institutes of Health.
