Defining the Need for Causal Inference to Understand the Impact of Social Determinants of Health: A Primer on Behalf of the Consortium for the Holistic Assessment of Risk in Transplantation (CHART).

I am a surgeon with interest in immune management of transplant recipients. I am particularly interested in therapies that influence T cell costimulation pathways and adjuvant therapies that facilitate costimulation blockade to prevent the rejection of transplanted organs without undue suppression of protective immunity. I am also interested in understanding how injury, such as that occurring during trauma or in elective surgery, influences immune responses and subsequent healing following injury.

I am an abdominal transplant surgeon with a health services research lab focused on understanding how complex health care processes and large multidisciplinary teams affect outcomes of high cost, high acuity patients.  I have a master's degree in health services and outcomes research methodology with supplemental training in health disparities research methods, engineering methods for healthcare system and process assessment, organizational behavior theory and change management, and implementation science.

As my research has progressed, an emerging theme has been the interplay between biologic and social risk, which each contribute to a patient’s ultimate success but receive disproportionate consideration in anticipation of and in response to subpar outcomes. I am currently involved in several efforts that build on this concept and employ an approach to health equity research that accounts for center and organizational-level characteristics when examining differences in care based on social determinants of health.