Tell us about your time at Brown. What did you enjoy most about being a doctoral student here?
As a doctoral student at Brown, I really enjoyed and appreciated the close mentorship that I received from Dr. Mor and other faculty members. They were very devoted to my training and success. This included giving me opportunities to participate in research projects that led to multiple publications while I was in the program. Since I graduated in 2013, they have continued to give me advice and have maintained a keen interest in my career development.
Tell us what you are doing now and how it relates to your experiences at Brown.
I joined the Division of Health Policy and Economics in the Department of Healthcare Policy and Research at Weill Cornell as an assistant professor five years ago. During this time, I have continued to work with Dr. Mor and his team at Brown on the role of Medicare Advantage plans in nursing home care. I have also been working with a team of investigators at Cornell as the principal investigator of an award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to examine the impact of higher reimbursements to primary care providers on the cost and quality of care for dual-eligibles with multiple chronic conditions. Most recently, I received a (K01) career development award from the National Institute of Aging to study the quality of physician care for nursing home residents with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD).
Comment on your K-award, what that means to you and your research and what it will mean for you long-term.
The career development award will fund a substantial amount of my effort over the next five years. I will use this time to develop expertise in physician-level determinants that affect the quality and cost of care for nursing home residents with ADRD. The skills and knowledge that I acquire through the award will provide an overarching theme for my future research agenda as my career progresses. I plan to specialize in health services research that generates much-needed evidence to inform policies and clinical guidelines to optimize the role of physicians in the care provided to this population.
If you had any advice for our current students, what would that be?
The Department of Health Services, Policy and Practice at Brown has an abundance of resources for graduate students. Be proactive and take advantage of them. Take courses on new topics and methods, seek out projects where you can apply them, and use what you learn to carve out a unique niche that sets you apart from other researchers in the field.
- July 30, 2018