- Home
- Population Health and Equity Research Institute
- News and Events
News and Events
2025
April
The 12th Annual Thomas R. Ten Have Symposium on Statistics in Mental Health will take place at Case Western Reserve University on Thursday, June 5 and Friday, June 6, 2025.
This symposium honors the memory of Dr. Thomas R. Ten Have and is jointly sponsored by Columbia-Cornell-NYU-Penn-Yale and the Mental Health Statistics Section of the American Statistical Association. The 2025 symposium is co-hosted by the Mental Health Statistics Section of the American Statistical Association, CTSC of Northern Ohio, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and Population Health and Equity Research Institute, Center for Health Care Research and Policy, MetroHealth Medical Center.
Dr. Shelia Malone Study on Trends in Obesity Published
PHERI Post-Doctoral Fellow, Dr. Shelia Malone, recently published a study in the journal “Obesities” which analyzed obesity trends among Mississippi adults from 2017 to 2023, focusing on gender, education, age, race, and socioeconomic status. Obesity prevalence significantly increased among men, college-educated individuals, and African Americans, while rates remained stable for most age groups. Hispanics saw a decrease in obesity prevalence from 2022 to 2023, and Whites experienced an annual increase that was not statistically significant. The findings highlight obesity as a critical public health issue, calling for research on long-term impacts and improved interventions to guide prevention strategies.
Dr. Malone is part of the CTSC T32 post-doctoral fellowship program under the mentorship of Dr. Shari Bolen.
February
MetroHealth physician, Dr. Shanail Berry Lampkin, featured in recent Cardi-OH podcast episode
Dr. Shanail Berry Lampkin (MetroHealth, Internal Medicine/Pediatrics Department) along with Dr. Sarah Tyler Plummer (Case Western Reserve University) recently joined Cardi-OH Radio for a discussion on cardiovascular risk factors for children and adolescents. The Podcast Episode 51 looked at how hypertension and hyperlipidemia contribute to cardiometabolic disease, shared strategies for diagnosis and management including in-office and ambulatory blood pressure monitoring—and discussed the importance of family-centered lifestyle interventions. The episode was featured on the CWRU Daily and you can listen to the podcast here.
MetroHealth Receives Outstanding Partner Award from TriNetX Research Data Network
The MetroHealth System recently received TriNetX’s 2024 Outstanding Partner award for its sophisticated use of the organization’s network of aggregated electronic health record platform for retrospective research.
In fact, MetroHealth is the largest use of TriNetX in the world, according to David Kaelber, MD, PhD, MPH, Vice President, Chief Health Informatics Officer. MetroHealth has more than 500 TriNetX accounts and our users conducted about 100,000 queries using the tool in 2024. MetroHealth first partnered with TriNetX in 2019. MetroHealth researchers had published more then 100 peer-reviewed manuscripts using TriNetX over the last 5 years.
“TriNetX is a total game changer for certain types of retrospective clinical research,” Dr. Kaelber said. “This is just another example of MetroHealth’s commitment to innovation and use of electronic health data to push the boundaries of medicine and discovery.” TriNetX is one of a handful data platforms used by MetroHealth for research purposes.
The largest data aggregated electronic health record platform belongs to the electronic healthcare technology company Epic and its Cosmos project, with data from 289 million patients. MetroHealth was the first health system to sign up for Cosmos and contribute patient data to it. It also was the first to publish research using Cosmos.
Dr. Kaelber and others recently published a peer-reviewed article in Clinical and Translational Science on how to use TriNetX and other aggregated electronic health record platform for research – With big data comes big responsibility: Strategies for utilizing aggregated, standardized, de-identified electronic health record data for research”.
If you have any questions about how to use TriNetX or Cosmos or you would like access to either of these platforms, please contact MetroHealth Research Informatics team – Dr. David Kaelber ([email protected]), Dr. Yasir Tarabichi ([email protected]), or Janeen Leon ([email protected]).
2024
December
New Book Shares and Shows How to Recognize and Eliminate Racist and Sexist Microaggressions in Health Care Workplaces
Ifeolorunbode (Bode) Adebambo, MD and Adam Perzynski, PhD have published an edited collection of real experiences and strategies for promoting health equity. “Racism, Microaggressions, and Allyship in Health Care: A Narrative Approach to Learning” provides students and health care professionals an opportunity to hear from doctors, nurses, health care administrators about how they can create a healthier more egalitarian workplace.
Each of the cases in the book sheds light on how even small negative interactions can be opportunities for learning, growth and improvement. The book also includes a chapter full of lessons and reflections from the lifelong experiences of a group of racial and ethnic minoritized health care executives.
Everyone in health care can read this book and learn about how to be a better ally and coworker. Contributors, including MetroHealth CEO, Dr. Christine Alexander-Rager, and dozens of doctors, nurses, trainees and other health care workers, locally and nationally, have written about deeply personal experiences with the hope that by listening to one another we can all be better advocates for equity.
The case narratives look closely at how people interact and feel and do not shy away from hard topics and difficult interactions. Many of the authors highlight how they themselves could have handled situations differently. The book maintains a hopeful outlook on how we can all act to build a more kind and equitable care environment. Chapters on “Discrimination”; “Silent Suffering”; “Pronouns”; “Identity”; Patriarchal “Culture”; and “Team Dynamics” give voice to adverse experiences and the chapters include thoughtful questions for reflection from Dr. Adebambo and Dr. Perzynski. Discussions written by Dr. Adebambo and several contributors after each narrative are springboards to begin exploring individual reactions and effective local solutions.
“Racism, Microaggressions, and Allyship in Health Care: A Narrative Approach to Learning”, will be an important resource for teachers, undergraduates, graduate students, residents, fellows and postgraduate trainees in medicine, nursing, population health, related fields such as sociology and social work. The diversity of perspectives and interactions shared makes it useful on its own as a textbook or for selected chapters as a complement to small training sessions and seminars.
The editors are associated with The MetroHealth System in Cleveland, OH. Ifeolorunbode (Bode) Adebambo, MD, is the Interim Chair of MetroHealth’s Department of Family Medicine and is an Associate Professor at the Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) School of Medicine. Adam Perzynski, PhD, a sociologist, is at MetroHealth’s Population Health Equity Research Institute, the Center for Health Care Research and Policy and is a tenured Professor of Medicine and Sociology at CWRU.
“Racism, Microaggressions, and Allyship in Health Care: A Narrative Approach to Learning,” was published by Springer Nature Switzerland AG, Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland. It is available wherever books are sold, including:
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-68070-0
https://www.amazon.com/Racism-Microaggressions-Allyship-Health-Care/dp/3031680693/
November
Dr. Shari Bolen Named Better Health Partnership Collaborative Champion
Dr. Shari Bolen was recognized as Better Health Partnership’s 2024 Collaborative Champion for advancing regional health improvement for adults with chronic disease – specifically those with diabetes and hypertension.
The instrumental role Dr. Bolen has played in securing multi-year funding to support multi-stakeholder collaboration, her innovative thinking, and unwavering partnership and support of Better Health Partnership's vision and mission were elevated.
September
Population Health and Equity Research Institute (PHERI) faculty, Dr. Susan De Luca, and USC colleague, Dr. John Blosnich, awarded new grant to study the roles of parental mental health on suicide prevention for sexual minority youth
Before leaving high school, approximately 25% of sexual minority adolescents will attempt to end their own life (nearly four times higher than their heterosexual peers). Despite progress in social acceptance of sexual minorities, roughly 40% of parents reported they would be upset or somewhat upset if their child came out as sexual minority. Parental acceptance is a crucial upstream determinant for sexual minority adolescents’ wellness, but remarkably scant research has focused on how parents get to acceptance; a vital unanswered question impeding intervention development. “The stall in research is partially due to the hard-to-reach nature of the hidden population of parents of sexual minorities”, Dr. Susan De Luca, associate professor of psychiatry, and PHERI faculty at MetroHealth. The goals of this R21 study is to explore parents’ mental health and help-seeking behaviors after their child comes out as sexual minority by 1) learning the most effective ways to recruit parents of sexual minorities, 2) describe parents’ mental health after their child’s coming out and the help-seeking resources parents sought for their mental health to navigate their child’s coming out, and 3) explore pathways, facilitators, and barriers to parents’ help-seeking for individual-level and family- level health needs after their child came out, including resources they wished they had and suggestions to improve help-seeking resources. “Our mixed-methods study uses a family systems perspective to explore the help-seeking needs of parents of sexual minorities. We hope that this will open new avenues for upstream prevention and implementation studies to address health disparities for sexual minorities”, Dr. John Blosnich, associate professor of Social Work at the University of Southern California.
The grant for $269,438 is funded through the National Institute on Minority Health And Health Disparities (NIMHD) and will last from 8/20/2024 – 8/19/2026.
NIH Awards $3.5 Million to Dr. Daryl Thornton for Sleep Apnea Research
The National Institutes of Health has awarded a five-year, $3.5 million grant to support the sleep apnea research of J. Daryl Thornton, MD, MPH, Director of the Center for Health Equity, Engagement, Education, and Research (CHEEER) at MetroHealth. Along with researchers at the University of Pittsburgh, they have launched the "Improving Sleep in African American Couples" (ISAAC) study.
Obstructive sleep apnea, a condition when breathing stops or becomes shallow during sleep, affects over 25% of adults in the U.S. over age 30, Dr. Thornton said. Worldwide, close to 1 billion people have the condition. Untreated, the condition can lead to excessive sleepiness, motor vehicle accidents, high blood pressure and heart disease.
"Providers who care for patients with sleep apnea often find that the patients are say there's no problem. Instead, it's the bed partner who makes them seek help," he said.
The bed partner may be kept awake at night by the patient's snoring, or may worry that the patient will stop breathing in their sleep. And the bed partner may be more concerned about the excessive sleepiness of the patient, who may brush off their tiredness as what happens after a big meal or while watching TV.
"There can be a lack of awareness that something more serious could going on with their sleepiness, and also a lack of appreciation of the side effects and other conditions that are associated with sleepiness," Dr. Thornton said.
The results of interviews with people with sleep apnea and their bed partners led the researchers to develop an intervention – focusing on the couple, not just the patient – that boosts the use of the most common and effective treatment for sleep apnea: continuous positive airway pressure or CPAP.
Black Americans tend to develop a more severe form of sleep apnea and it may appear at a younger age, Dr. Thornton said. Sleep apnea in Black Americans is under-recognized and under-diagnosed, and clinical trials in that population are very rare. Hence the focus of the research to looked at interventions to improve the care that is delivered.
"We wanted to make the interventions very specific and tailored to that group," he said. "Not to say that those interventions aren't going to work in other groups, but once we prove they work we will be able to replicate it in other groups and see how they respond."
Those tested through MetroHealth or the University of Pittsburgh who are diagnosed with moderate to severe sleep apnea will get a letter in the mail within 48 hours of the test inviting them to join the research project. Starting in early 2025, the trial will enroll a total of 220 couples – patients and their bed partners.
CPAP machines are costly which may be a barrier to optimal treatment. All participants in the study will receive a free CPAP machine and mask that use the same technology as cell phones to help the study team understand how often they are being used. For couples who receive the intervention, the team will provide feedback via text messages to the couple to encourage the patient to use the machine. Intervention couples will also undergo cognitive behavioral (talk) therapy with a trained psychologist to help them overcome barriers to using CPAP. The third part of the intervention will include meetings with peers couples who have had long standing sleep apnea to discuss effective ways to care and cope with it.
"For those that do not participate in the study I hope this study increases their awareness about sleep apnea and encourages them to get checked out to see if they have it," Dr. Thornton said.
August
Susan De Luca, Darerian Schueller, Kari O’Donnell and team Publish New Article on Exploring Adolescent Suicide Trajectories
Dr. De Luca’s team recently had an article published in the Journal of Adolescence that looked at adolescent suicidal trajectories to try to understand the intersection of race/ethnicity, gender, and social connectedness. They found that those most at-risk disclosed suicidal ideation and some attempt risk in early adolescence and mostly identified as female. As the United States becomes more diverse, understanding the unique ideation and attempt disparities are crucial.
Dr. Ashwini Sehgal Awarded Grant for Improving Air Quality in Homes of People With Asthma
Dr. Ashwini Sehgal, CHEEER and PHERI faculty member, has been awarded $17.2 million by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for MetroHealth and multiple community partners to lead a program aimed at improving air quality in the homes of people with asthma in Greater Cleveland. Dr. Ther Aung, also CHEEER faculty, will be a Co-Investigator on the project. Knowing the connection between asthma complications and the use of gas ranges, MetroHealth will work with community partners to replace gas ranges with electric ones in 1,200 homes where at least one resident has the respiratory condition. The work also will include upgrades to improve homes' electrical systems and ventilation and the installation of electric vehicle chargers. Seven community partners, led by Community Housing Solutions, will partner in the outreach to residents.
In Cleveland, one in five people have asthma. The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America ranks Cleveland as one of the most challenging places to live with the condition because of high levels of air pollution as well as inadequate access to healthcare.
MetroHealth's "Asthma, Indoor Pollution and Greenhouse Gases" project, among the first round of 21 projects throughout the nation to be funded through the federal Community Change Grant, is one of the largest of the $325 million allocation.
Ashwini Sehgal, MD, said the grant award is an acknowledgement of MetroHealth's role as a leader in addressing the impact of the environment and climate change on public health, particularly in disadvantaged communities.
June
Dr. Anne Gaglioti and other experts examine link between loneliness and diabetes
Loneliness and social isolation are related but different. Anne Gaglioti, MD, MS, FAAFP, and other panelists discussed loneliness, its link to diabetes, and the psychological toll it takes on patients living with diabetes at the Symposium “Loneliness Is a Real Heartbreaker” on Sunday, June 23.
“Older adults tend to have higher rates of social isolation, while younger adults tend to have much higher rates of loneliness,” Dr. Gaglioti said. “As far as how people perceive the experiences of loneliness and social isolation, only about 20 percent of people with these conditions actually view them as a problem.”
May
Dr. Anna Rybinska-Campbell Publishes Article on the Relation Between Short Birth Spacing and Child Maltreatment
Dr. Anna Rybinska-Campbell recently published an article in the journal Child Abuse Review titled “Understanding the Relation between Short Birth Spacing and Child Maltreatment: Are Associations Due to Parental History of Childhood Abuse and Neglect?”
Child maltreatment is a serious public health problem of common incidence. Understanding the predecessors of maltreatment constitute a pressing research topic because such studies can improve maltreatment prevention efforts.
In an observational study recently published in Child Abuse Review, Anna Rybińska-Campbell, a Research Data Scientist at the Population Health and Equity Research Institute, and her colleagues use longitudinal data for a cohort of infants born in two hospitals in a Southeastern city to examine connections between parental history of child maltreatment, their child’s birth spacing, and their child’s risk of abuse and neglect. The authors demonstrate that maternal history of childhood maltreatment and short birth spacing are independent predictors of a child’s abuse and neglect.
April
Dr. Susan De Luca of PHERI Discusses Black Suicide Rates With the Columbus Dispatch
Dr. Susan De Luca, Associate Professor in the Population Health and Equity Research Institute at MetroHealth, was featured in the Columbus Dispatch discussing increase in black suicide rates in Cleveland. Dr. De Luca points out, “Men tend to use firearms, but we are seeing more and more females using guns as well. But what we have found recently is that since 2022, Latina females have been the highest for 30 years, and now Black females have actually superseded them in terms of attempts.”
March
PHERI Grant Awardee team led by Dr. Del Rincon publishes paper examining quality of life in transmasculine and transfeminine individuals receiving gender-affirming hormone therapy
Saloni Lad, Dr. Juan P. Del Rincon, Dr. Brian Khong, Jacob Sinopoli, Dr. Britt Conroy, and Dr. Adam Perzynski have published their paper on quality of life and other indicators in a prospective cohort study of transmasculine and transfeminine patients receiving gender-affirming hormone therapy The paper is published in Social Science and Medicine, which is among the most prestigious publications in the field of population health.
The study aims to better understand the impact of depressive symptoms and quality of life among transmasculine and transfeminine by examining social and clinical characteristics. This paper is notable for being one of the largest-ever prospective cohort studies of social drivers of health among transgender individuals. Saloni Lad, a medical student at CCLCOM, programmed and conducted the statistical analysis, which included in-depth and impressive data visualizations.
The results from this study can be used by healthcare workers and policymakers to enhance clinical and social practices to better health equity for gender-diverse folks.
February
MetroHealth's Christina Randolph, DO, Creates Book Club for High School Students
Population Health and Equity Research Institute's Christina Randolph, DO, a population health research fellow and trained pediatrician, promotes literacy every day in clinical practice. Now, she's combining her love for reading into her research by creating a book club with students at Garrett Morgan High School. She received funding from the American Academy of Pediatrics and MetroHealth's Brittingham Memorial Library to study how a weekly book club with doctors could inspire students to pursue careers in medicine.
She's recruited fellow doctors, Toluwalope Odukoya, MD, and Amma Boakye, DO, along with aspiring medical student Ifey Mbanefo to join her in reading, "The Pact: Three Young Men Make a Promise and Fulfill a Dream," with students each week.
"If we want a more diverse workforce, then we need novel, creative ways to do it," Dr. Randolph said.
Dr. Randolph is looking for a diverse group of healthcare workers from various fields to help with this project. In particular, she's interested in recruiting people to help with future iterations of the book club or caregivers who can share short videos about their careers. She's also seeking individuals to serve on a panel when students visit MetroHealth. If interested, you can contact Dr. Randolph at [email protected].
