Past Fellows List

Physician Advocacy

Between 1999 and 2007, the IMAP Physician Advocacy Fellowship program supported the following doctors as they developed or enhanced their advocacy skills by implementing a project in partnership with an advocacy organization. Their diverse projects addressed issues including Medicaid coverage and enrollment, health care access, pediatric oral health, prison health care, and more.

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Scott A Allen MD, Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University

Specialty:

Internal Medicine

Grant Year:

2005

Organization:

Physicians for Human Rights

Dr. Allen is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at Brown University and an attending physician for a locked psycho-geriatric ward at the Eleanor Slater State Hospital in Rhode Island. Previously, he was the Medical Director for the Rhode Island Department of Corrections. During his years in corrections, he helped to establish a standard for hepatitis C evaluation and treatment in prisons. He continues to be involved as a court expert in litigation involving hepatitis care for the incarcerated population.

For his fellowship project, Dr. Allen worked with Physicians for Human Rights to mobilize the medical community to speak out against the practice of torture by US forces and to help the define the limits of medical professionals' role in and around such acts. Since concluding his fellowship, he has continued to work with PHR on the Campaign against Torture, focusing on rallying the medical community against both torture in general and medical complicity in particular.

Since concluding his fellowship, Dr. Allen co-founded and now co-directs the Center for Prisoner Health and Human Rights at The Miriam Hospital, Brown University. He has also been the lead medical author of two reports by Physicians for Human Rights dealing with torture: "Leave No Marks: Enhanced Interrogations and the Risk of Criminality," and "Aiding Torture: Health Professionals’ Ethics and Human Rights Violations Demonstrated in the May 2004 CIA Inspector General’s Report." He also co-authored a chapter on hunger strikes in Interrogations, Forced Feedings, and the Role of Health Professionals.

George L Askew MD, President and CEO, Jumpstart for Kids

Specialty:

Pediatrics

Grant Year:

2000

Organization:

ZERO TO THREE: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families

Dr. Askew is Deputy CEO of Voices for America’s Children, Founder of Docs For Tots and an Assistant Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at George Washington University School of Medicine in Washington, DC. For his fellowship project, Dr. Askew worked ZERO to THREE, Voices for America’s national center for infants, toddlers, and families, in order to build the capacity to meet the needs of policy makers and shapers on behalf of infants, toddlers and families and to further develop his skills as an advocate for young, poor, disenfranchised children and their families.

After completing his fellowship, Dr. Askew was named one of Ashoka International’s 2005 Fellows. He was recognized as a national and global leader for his efforts to link health professionals with child advocacy, embodying the ideals of civic engagement and creative solution-building nurtured by the international fellowship program. In 2005-06, George was a consultant to the Center for American Progress serving as a Senior Fellow in their Health Policy Group. In June 2006, he was honored with the Salute to Excellence Award for significant contributions in Health from the Xi Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. Finally, he was invited by the Secretaries of Health and Human Services and Labor to serve on the Children's Health Insurance Program Working Group in December of 2009.

Oxiris Barbot MD,Commissioner of Health, Baltimore City Health Department

Specialty:

Pediatrics

Grant Year:

2000

Organization:

National Hispanic Medical Association

Oxiris Barbot, M.D., was appointed Commissioner of Health for Baltimore City on July 7, 2010, by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. As Commissioner, her priorities include maximizing community engagement, promoting health equity and fostering innovation. She has streamlined the Department’s organizational structure to support work addressing social determinants of health. She has testified before City Council on health disparities, as well as the importance of expanding physical education in Baltimore schools to help address the explosion of childhood obesity. Under her leadership, the Department has expanded the Virtual Supermarket, one of its innovative strategies for increasing access to healthy foods for those living in food deserts. Dr. Barbot also banned the sale of caffeinated alcoholic beverages within Baltimore City limits. In the spring of 2011, she unveiled Healthy Baltimore 2015, a comprehensive health policy agenda that articulates 10 priority areas and leading indicators for action. This plan highlights areas where the largest impact can be made on reducing morbidity and mortality while improving quality of life for all Baltimoreans. Dr. Barbot chairs Baltimore City’s Cross-Agency Health Taskforce.

Dr. Barbot received her bachelor’s from Yale University and holds a medical degree from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. She completed her residency at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C.. Dr. Barbot has published several articles and has presented on topics including H1N1 response, school health and health coverage for Latinos. Dr. Barbot previously served as medical director of the Office of School Health at the New York City (NYC) Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and Department of Education where she implemented an electronic health record for the City’s 1.1 million public school students. In 2010, Dr. Barbot received the Hispanic Health Leadership Award from the National Hispanic Medical Association.

Heidi Behforouz MD, Attending Physician, Brigham and Women's Hospital

Specialty:

Internal Medicine

Grant Year:

2001

Organization:

Partners in Health

Dr. Behforouz is an attending internist at the Brigham and Women's Hospital and Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School. She is currently Executive Director of the Prevention and Access to Care and Treatment (PACT) project in Boston, Massachusetts. Sponsored by Partners in Health and the Division of Global Health Equity at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, this program employs community health workers (CHWs) to advocate for the health and well-being of inner city residents infected with HIV and other chronic diseases, such as diabetes, cardiovascular and pulmonary disease, and mental illness.

During her IMAP fellowship, Dr. Behforouz developed the PACT care model that has since been cited as an innovative "best practice" by both Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and Health Resources and Service Administration (HRSA). Early data demonstrated improved patient outcomes at reduced cost to Medicaid, suggesting a role for CHWs in primary care transformation. As Medical Director of the Network Health Alliance, Dr. Behforouz has partnered with Bob Master's Commonwealth Care Alliance program to create a community-based intervention to complement the work of clinic-based providers and improve health outcomes and utilization patterns among high-risk Medicaid patients across the state of Massachusetts. The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has adopted the PACT model of care and is hiring CHWs as care coordinators in more than twenty-five public clinics and hospitals serving HIV/AIDS patients in New York City. Dr. Behforouz is a strong advocate for the integration of CHWs into the health care delivery system and enjoys teaching and mentoring students in Social Medicine and health advocacy.

Abraham B. Bergman MD, Director, Department of Pediatrics, Harborview Medical Center

Specialty:

Pediatrics

Grant Year:

2001

Organization:

Washington Deparatment of Health and Social Services

Dr. Bergman is an attending physician at Harborview Medical Center, where he was Chief of Pediatrics from 1983-2002. He retired in 2010, but continues to serve as a volunteer teacher in the pediatric clinic.

He was awarded the IMAP fellowship to assist Washington's Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) make the systemic changes necessary to improve the access to and the quality of health care provided to children in foster care, and to insure that all 0–5 children in foster care have access to early learning/preschool programs. His specific goals were to a) improve access to quality health care by instituting a regionalized case management system; b) overcome the &"disconnect” between child welfare and medical care services by creating a coordinated foster care health unit; c) enable physicians to gain access to medical information about foster children under their care; d) carry out quality assurance audits; and e) increase the statewide percentage of 0–5 foster children in Head Start from 3% to 20% in 3 years.

As a result of being awarded an IMAP Fellowship, Dr. Bergman was able to undertake a campaign to improve health services for children in foster care, first in the State of Washington, and then in the United States. The IMAP fellowship served as initial &"seed money,” and support was subsequently obtained from the Paul Allen Foundation, the Seattle Foundation, the Norcliffe Foundation and Casey Family Programs. His advocacy efforts resulted in legislation in the State of Washington to create a discreet foster care health unit (2006), contact with Rep. Jim McDermott (D,WA) that led to the enactment of the federal Fostering Connections Act of 2008, and an initiative with Casey Family Programs from 2008-2010 to provide technical assistance to states wishing to improve their foster care health systems.

Gene Bishop MD,Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Physician consultant, Pennsylvania Health Law Project

Specialty:

Internal Medicine

Grant Year:

2001

Organization:

Pennsylvania Health Law Project

Dr. Bishop continues to teach internal medicine residents in the outpatient setting at Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia, and works as a physician consultant to the Pennsylvania Health Law Project, her fellowship advocacy organization. The goal of her fellowship project was to identify and reduce the limitations on access to effective health care imposed by the mandatory Medicaid managed care program in Pennsylvania, with a particular focus on the impediments which restricted formularies and prior authorization requirements pose to special needs populations. Her fellowship work was published by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, and is available at http://www.kff.org/medicaid/7297.cfm

Since completing her fellowship, she has collaborated with the Maternity Care Coalition of Philadelphia (MCC) to produce a report “Childbirth at the Crossroads,” which is available at http://www.momobile.org/MaternityCareinSoutheasternPA.html. This has become a blueprint for their advocacy work with local health departments, and the state Department of Public Welfare. She also worked with the MCC to research opportunities to expand Medicaid/health care coverage for maternity care to low income women in Pennsylvania. This report, “Insuring Healthy Births” is available at http://www.momobile.org/MaternityCareinSoutheasternPA.html. Dr. Bishop has also served as physician consultant to the Pennsylvania Health Law Project (PHLP), a statewide legal services organization working solely on issues of health care delivery where she conducted in-depth interviews with uninsured Pennsylvanians calling the PHLP helpline and produced a publication highlighting their stories.

David Buchanan MD, Chief Medical Officer, Erie Family Health Center

Specialty:

Internal Medicine

Grant Year:

2003

Organization:

Interfaith House

Dr. Buchanan is the Chief Medical Officer of the Erie Family Health, a Federally Qualified Health Center in Chicago with nine locations and over fifty providers. He is also an Assistant Professor at Northwestern University. The goal of his fellowship project was to establish Medicaid reimbursement for organizations providing respite services to ill or injured homeless people within Illinois.

Since completing his fellowship, Dr. Buchanan helped organize the Stroger Hospital of Cook County (formerly Cook County Hospital) Medical Staff in a campaign to stop funding cuts for the hospital. The end result was that Cook County raised their sales tax and also set up an independent board to manage the county health system. He has also published two articles, one in the Journal of the American Medical Association and one in The American Journal of Public Health, pertaining to a housing study with the AIDS Foundation of Chicago. Since the study’s publication, Dr. Buchanan’s findings have been mentioned repeatedly in the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary’s speeches.

Alice Huan-mei Chen MD MPH,Associate Professor of Clinical, UCSF School of Medicine

Specialty:

Internal Medicine

Grant Year:

2002

Organization:

Asian Pacific Islander American Health Forum

Dr. Chen is an Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine at UCSF. During her advocacy fellowship, Dr. Chen was a staff physician at Asian Health Services. For her project, she worked in partnership with the Asian Pacific Islander American Health Forum in San Francisco to improve access and quality of care for limited English proficient individuals and communities.

Since completing her fellowship, she has been awarded the Richard J. Haber Excellence in Teaching Award (2006), University of California San Francisco, San Francisco General Hospital Division of General Internal Medicine, the San Francisco Health Plan Award for Innovation in Health Care Service Delivery (2007) and the John F. Murray Award (2008) for academic excellence and humanitarian mission, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco General Hospital Department of Medicine.

Esther K. Chung MD MPH, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Jefferson Medical College

Specialty:

Pediatrics

Grant Year:

2007

Organization:

Maternity Care Coalition

Dr. Chung is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, PA, and in the Division of General Pediatrics at Jefferson and the Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children/Nemours in Wilmington, Delaware. She is also Director of Advocacy and Community Partnerships for the pediatric residency program, and the Director of JeffSTARS, an advocacy curriculum for medical students and residents. She is involved in a number of projects that include advocacy education, campus-community partnerships, and maternal-child health research focusing on families living in poverty. In addition, she is Editor-in-Chief for Visual Diagnosis and Treatment in Pediatrics, now in its second edition, and Associate Editor for The 5-Minute Pediatric Consult, with a sixth edition underway. As an academic generalist, she provides clinical care and teaches medical students and residents in a busy, primary care practice and in the newborn nursery and the pediatric ward at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.

The goal of Dr. Chung's fellowship project was to reduce barriers to breastfeeding for all women in Southeastern Pennsylvania, particularly low-income, working women. Propelled by the voices of the women in the community, she focused on developing, improving and increasing breastfeeding policies in hospitals, in workplaces, and related to Medicaid. Since completing her fellowship, Dr. Chung has received The Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (PA AAP) Special Achievement Award. She also received The Physician of the Year Award from the Professional Resource Organization for Lactation Consultants in recognition of the work that she did during her fellowship to promote and support breastfeeding in the workplace, in hospital settings and among low-income women. These awards signify the tireless efforts of advocates at Maternity Care Coalition who worked collaboratively to promote and support breastfeeding. In 2011, she delivered a Plenary Session, "Raising the Bar while Leveling the Playing Field: Perspectives of a Physician Advocate," at the International Lactation Consultants Association's annual meeting in San Diego, which was attended by over 1000 professionals.

Dr. Chung's areas of expertise include the following: maternal child health, maternal depression as it relates to parenting practices and health care delivery, adversity in childhood and its impact on outcomes, breastfeeding, immunizations, social determinants of childhood obesity and asthma, access to care, foster care children, and low-income families.

Theodore Corbin MD MPP, Assistant Professor, Drexel University School of Medicine

Specialty:

Emergency Medicine

Grant Year:

2005

Organization:

Philadelphia Physicians for Social Responsibility

Dr. Corbin is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Drexel University School of Medicine. For his fellowship, he partnered with the Philadelphia Chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility to develop and maintain a trauma-informed approach to youth violence prevention, and to improve access to quality care for victims of youth violence.

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