CAMBRIDGE HOSPITAL

The Cambridge Hospital
1493 Cambridge Street
Cambridge, MA 02139

​

The General Medicine Fellowship resides within the Cambridge Health Alliance’s in the Department of Medicine. The Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA) is a public integrated healthcare system and a primary teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School. The fellows’ research offices are sited at the Cambridge Hospital, located near Harvard Square in Cambridge, MA. Their clinical practices could be at either of CHA’s two hospitals or at one of its dozen community health centers.  

  

The Department of Medicine provides comprehensive primary care and specialty services in a model of community-based care. Its mission is to provide the finest medical care to all patients regardless of ability to pay, while addressing public health concerns and promoting health behaviors in Everett, Somerville and Cambridge communities. Led by Dr. Richard Pels, Chief of Medicine, the Department has a well-established reputation for excellence in its clinical, academic, and research programs. Fellows conduct their research as part of the Cambridge Health Justice Lab (CHJL), located within the Division of Social and Community Medicine of the Department of Medicine.

 

The CHJL is comprised of 8 independent investigators who have different areas of focus but who are united by a common goal to build an evidence base to improve equity in the US health care system. 

Areas of focus for lab investigators include health services research on: quality of care and access to care for marginalized populations (racial and ethnic minorities, immigrants, prisoners, the uninsured and those served by the health care safety-net); healthcare financing and health care reform; adverse impacts of health information technology; understanding the impacts of COVID-19 infection on high-risk populations; reproductive health and women’s access to care; and the consequences of commercial funding of research.  Specific methodologies employed in this work include epidemiologic study design, advanced biostatistical analysis including quasi-experimental techniques, econometric analysis, time-trend analysis, qualitative research and large database analysis.

  

Examples of recent Fellows' research projects include:  

  

·         Hypertension, diabetes, and elevated cholesterol among insured and the uninsured US adults  

·         Health insurance and mortality in US adults  

·         Health and healthcare of US prisoners: results from a nationwide survey  

·         Insurance and access to care of veterans  

·         Waits to see an emergency department physician: US trends and predictors  

·         Characteristics of recipients of free prescription drug samples

·         Health care utilization of immigrants in the United States: an analysis using the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey

          (MEPS) and National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) 

·         Racial disparities in access to psychiatric services  

·         Diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other associated risk factors in Asian Indians in the United States: a population- 

           based study  

·         Under-diagnosis and under-treatment of hypertension and hypercholesterolemia in immigrants 

·         Impact of limited English language proficiency on health care spending.

·         Trends in access to care and impact of copays on access among people in US prisons

·         Impact of LGBTQ status on medical debt and forgone care

·         Impact of the Affordable Care Act on access to care

•    Racial and ethnic disparities in access to specially care