Meet the Team
Core faculty
Director
Expertise:
Behavioral health promotion interventions, cultural adaptation, qualitative methods, clinical trials and health disparities
Focus areas:
Culturally responsive smoking cessation treatments among indigenous populations; promoting access to evidence-based smoking cessation treatments among populations underserved; family and social network approaches to health promotion; cancer prevention; rural access to health care; and digital equity
Co-Investigator
Expertise:
Family medicine with obstetrical care
Focus areas:
Defining patient engagements in care; delivery of care and health care systems; disparities and opportunities within rural health care; and how technology can support and hinder care
Co-Investigator
Expertise:
Epidemiology and cancer population sciences
Focus areas:
Understanding multilevel factors hindering or facilitating the development and equitable implementation of evidence-based cancer prevention and control programs, guidelines, or policies
Co-Investigator
Expertise:
Translation of evidence-based care for patients with chronic conditions into practice; and qualitative and mixed-methods research
Focus areas:
Minimally disruptive medicine and patient capacity, under-cared-for chronic suffering, and professional development
Andrea L. Cheville, M.D.
Co-Investigator
Expertise:
Digital equity and enablement in health care delivery, electronic patient reported outcomes (ePROMs), telecare, assessment and management of disability and pain in vulnerable populations
Focus areas:
The development and validation of equitable, digitally enabled supportive care delivery approaches that neutralize geographical and financial access barriers, including enhanced assessment and management of disablement and adverse symptoms
Ming Huang, Ph.D.
Co-Investigator
Expertise:
Medical informatics
Focus areas:
Developing artificial intelligence and natural language processing methods for health care applications; mining various health data such as electronic health records, patient portal messages, and social media posts for patient-centered care; creating digital health tools and solutions to advance rural health, telehealth and mental health
Co-Investigator
Expertise:
General internist and endocrinologist
Focus areas:
Leveraging real-world evidence to improve the quality, equity and accessibility of diabetes care; developing patient-centered care delivery models to improve diabetes care and health outcomes
Co-Investigator
Expertise:
Epidemiology and study design
Focus areas:
Impact and outcomes of chronic conditions in the upper Midwest
Core staff
Tabetha A. Brockman, M.A.
Program Manager
Expertise:
Management of behavioral health promotion interventions for clinical trials, qualitative methods and community-based participatory research (CBPR) strategies to evaluate behavioral interventions for clinical trials
Focus areas:
Addressing health disparities among diverse populations through research program management and coordination; training faculty and staff to facilitate behavioral health interventions
Emily J. Brunstad, M.P.H.
Community Engagement Coordinator — Research
Expertise:
Public health, community health needs assessment, community engagement and outreach, and public health program development and evaluation
Focus areas:
Community-based outreach and engagement activities aimed at improving health of underserved communities
Collaborators
Expertise:
Chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, health disparities, observational studies and clinical trials
Focus areas:
Evaluating role of observational data and interventions to reduce rural-urban disparities for chronic conditions; impact of social determinants of health on rural diabetes care; and individual versus community-level interventions for diabetes prevention in rural areas
Expertise:
Physical medicine and rehabilitation, and brain injury rehabilitation medicine
Focus areas:
Connecting brain rehabilitation care to individuals in remote areas of the Midwest through partnering with community organizations and state-based agencies; testing complex behavioral interventions to better improve rehabilitation care; reducing traumatic brain injury-related health disparities experienced by American Indian and Alaska Native communities in the upper Great Lakes region
Expertise:
Clinical trials, cancer care delivery, digital health, telemedicine and virtual care
Focus areas:
Transformation of cancer care delivery with digital health technologies and virtual care, transformation of clinical trials with decentralized capabilities
Expertise:
Pediatrics, asthma epidemiology, artificial intelligence, health equity
Focus areas:
Asthma epidemiology and immune phenotyping — specifically, asthma-associated infectious and inflammatory multimorbidities; artificial intelligence research on timely asthma diagnosis, management and prognosis; health equity — social and economic inequity, also known as socioeconomic disparities, in health outcomes; strategies for improving health equity
Expertise:
Implementation science applications to increase uptake, reach and sustainment of health care interventions; qualitative methods; health disparities and digital equity research; shared decision-making to address costs of health care
Focus areas:
Understanding digital access, uptake and disparities from both patient and provider perspectives; interventions to address substance use disorders in primary care and similar settings; area-based health disparities, including rural-based experiences and disparities; financial toxicity and cost conversations in health care encounters
Carolyn Petersen, M.S.
Expertise:
Health information technology and health literacy
Focus areas:
Patient engagement, person-generated health data and health communication
Joshua C. Pritchett, M.D.
Expertise:
Hematology and oncology, cancer care delivery, rural health, digital health, remote patient monitoring, telehealth, digital health economics
Focus areas:
The design and implementation of innovative, patient-centered models of cancer care delivery, including a Mayo Clinic remote patient monitoring program for the ambulatory management of cancer patients with neutropenic fever
Pravesh Sharma, M.D.
Expertise:
Substance use disorders, addiction treatment disparities, health care delivery and community engagement research
Focus areas:
Inhaled drug use including tobacco, cannabis and vaping, and associated medical and psychiatric conditions, digital health equity