Investigator Profile: Rhea Udyavar, MD

My interests are in health disparities research and how experiences with institutional, system-wide, and interpersonal racism is a risk factor for poor health outcomes. I became interested in this work well before I began medical school and carried this curiosity regarding the reasons underlying the persistence of racial disparities in healthcare despite attempts to broaden healthcare coverage and access to care. Understanding the intersections between health services research, critical race theory, history, and sociology is crucial to determining the root cause for ongoing racial disparities that have failed to resolve with the current interventions. I hope to build a research platform that develops new strategies for mitigating racial disparities through establishing a novel understanding of the effects of racism, rather than race, on health outcomes.