I am a social behavioral scientist whose independent research focuses on using population health methodologies to explore how social determinants, particularly neighborhood level determinants, influence cardiometabolic abnormalities and disparities. Utilizing my training in applied epidemiologic methods, data management/analysis, and outcomes research, I am specifically interested in integrating clinical, social determinant and health behavior data to inform the prevention of cardiometabolic disease to reduce health disparities among socially vulnerable, low SES populations. This includes incorporating SDoH data into risk prediction models to aide in stratifying populations based on both social and clinical parameters as well as exploring how social risks cluster within individuals. The end goal is to use this information to inform clinical care and intervention targets. I am currently pursuing multiple cardiometabolic-related studies that include (1) evaluating adding SDoH measures to a validated diabetes risk prediction model to improve risk stratification; (2) examining associations between clinical markers, individual and neighborhood level SDoH and major cardiovascular events; (3) conducting a mixed methods study in emerging Latino communities to examine the influence of community-level factors and of the COVID-19 pandemic on diabetes-related behaviors; and (4) using patient reported electronic medical record (EMR) data to examine social risk clusters associated with diabetes and obesity.
