Job-Seeking 2024-2025 PhD Candidates
Andrew Jopson
Health Services Research and Policy
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Dissertation Title: Variations in Characteristics and Outcomes Among Older Dual-Enrollees Living in Areas with Medicaid Managed Long-term Services and Supports
Dissertation Summary: The research uses the National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS) to identify differences in the characteristics of Medicare beneficiaries with long-term services and supports (LTSS) needs living in areas with and without Medicaid managed long-term services and supports (MLTSS) program presence from 2011-2022. The work will assess whether MLTSS program presence affects care arrangements (e.g., care network size and intensity, receipt of paid help), and experiences of care among older dual-enrollees with LTSS needs.
Advisor(s): Chanee Fabius, PhD; Jennifer Wolff, PhD
Dissertation Committee Members: Katherine Ornstein, PhD; Antonio Trujillo, PhD; Qian-Li Xue, PhD
Job Type Preferences: Primarily research, program administration and management, consultation.
Workforce Sector Preference: Opportunities in government, non-profit or community-based organizations, private or for-profit organizations.
Geographical Preferences: Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area; Mid-Atlantic; Pacific region.
Odia Kane
Bioethics and Health Policy
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Dissertation Title: Exploring Provider and Patient Attitudes Towards Digital Therapeutics in Healthcare Delivery
Dissertation Summary: This study focuses on the ethical considerations that arise when artificial intelligence is used to treat diabetes and depression. Through three aims I: (1) survey primary care providers (n=600), (2) conduct interviews and, (3) prepare a normative analysis to generate practical, moral, and ethically sound suggestions for the incorporation of DTxs in health care. With the findings of this study, my goal is to provide creators of DTxs and policymakers with insights from end users to better develop digital health tools that are effective, equitable, and embraced.
Advisors: Kadija Ferryman, PhD; Nancy Kass, ScD
Dissertation Committee Members: Jeremy Green, MD, PhD; Elyse Lasser, DrPH; Maria Merritt, PhD
Job Type Preferences: Primarily research, research services and management, program administration and management, consultation.
Workforce Sector Preference: Opportunities in government, nonprofit or community-based organizations, private or for-profit organizations.
Geographical Preferences: Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area; remote
Jenny Markell
Health Services Research and Policy
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Dissertation Title: Medical Debt: Who is Affected and What is the Hospital's Role?
Dissertation Executive Summary: This dissertation uses RAND Medicare Cost Report data merged with American Hospital Association annual survey data to examine the hospital-level, market-level and state-level factors that predict how hospitals trade off spending between bad debt and financial assistance. It also uses the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) to explore the relationship between medical debt, financial circumstances, and psychological distress.
Advisor: Gerard Anderson, PhD
Dissertation Committee Members: Mark Meiselbach, PhD; Matthew Eisenberg, PhD; Ge Bai, PhD; Antonio Trujillo, PhD
Job Type Preferences: Primarily research, research services and management, program administration and management, consultation.
Workforce Sector Preference: Opportunities in academic, clinical, government, nonprofit or community-based organizations, and private or for-profit organizations.
Geographical Preferences: no preference.
Jeffrey Marr
Health Economics and Policy
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Dissertation Title: Algorithmic Decision-Making in Health Care: Evidence from Post-Acute Care in Medicare Advantage
Dissertation Executive Summary: Health insurers use predictive algorithms to determine the necessary level of care and deny services they deem unnecessary. I study the partnership of a large Medicare Advantage insurer with a firm that uses a predictive algorithm to aid post-acute care coverage decisions. Using a difference-in-differences design and administrative data, I examine the causal effect of algorithmic decision-making on health care use and patient outcomes.
Advisors: Daniel Polsky, PhD; Joseph Levy, PhD
Dissertation Committee Members: Karen Shen, PhD; Mark Meiselbach, PhD
Job Type Preferences: Primarily research and teaching
Workforce Sector Preference: Opportunities in academics, government, nonprofit or community-based organizations and private or for-profit organizations.
Geographical Preferences: New England, Mid-Atlantic, Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area
Jenni Seale Reiff
Health Services Research and Policy
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Dissertation Title: Characterizing and Assessing Prehabilitation for Lower Extremity Joint Replacement among Older Adults in Medicare Fee-for-Service
Dissertation Executive Summary: Recent Medicare policy changes have aligned incentives and increased feasibility of using preoperative rehabilitation ("prehabilitation") preventively to prepare older adults for elective surgery. This study seeks to characterize the use of prehabilitation among older adults undergoing lower extremity joint replacement and clarify the impact of prehabilitation on health and utilization outcoes, especially among frail older adults at risk of complicated and costly postoperative recovery.
Advisors: Lisa Reider, PhD; Jennifer Wolff, PhD
Dissertation Committee Members: Jennifer Schrack, PhD; John McGready, PhD; Tracy Mroz, PhD
Job Type Preferences: Primarily research, teaching, research services and management, consultation.
Workforce Sector Preference: Opportunities in academics, clinical, government, nonprofit or community-based organizations, private or for-profit organizations.
Geographical Preferences: Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan area, Southern Atlantic, South Eastern
Grecia B. Vargas Meléndez
Health Services Research and Policy
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Dissertation Title: United States Hispanics/Latinos & End-Stage Kidney Disease (ESKD): Longitudinal Trends, Health Care Disparities, and Place-Based Factors Relating to Kidney Transplantation Short-Term Outcomes
Dissertation Summary: My project examines the intersection between the Hispanic Epidemiological Health Paradox and kidney transplantation. The 1st Aim assesses post-transplantation outcomes among Hispanics and other racial/ethnic groups, across the evidence-based literature. Similarly, in the 2nd/3rd Aims (job market paper), I use the Healthcare Cost & Utilization Project's CA, NY, and FL State Inpatient Databases to conduct time-series and expenditure analyses of post-transplantation readmissions.
Advisor: Darrell J. Gaskin, PhD
Dissertation Committee Members: Tanjala S. Purnell, PhD; Deidra C. Crews, MD; Roland J. Thorpe, PhD; Keshia Pollack Porter, PhD
Job Type Preferences: Primarily research, research services and management, and consultation.
Workforce Sector Preference: Opportunities in government, consulting, and research & policy institutes.
Geographical Preferences: California
Aleksandra Wec
Health Services Research and Policy
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Dissertation Title: An Examination of Patient-initiated Secure Messaging Intensity among Older Adults
Dissertation Summary: The patient portal is increasingly a key tool in health care, enhancing patient engagement through features like secure messaging. Despite the growing use of secure messaging among older adults, how this population engages with secure messaging is not well understood. This research uses mixed methods to examine patient-level factors associated with higher messaging intensity and the reasons for increased messaging use among older adult patients in a large academic health system.
Advisor: Jennifer L. Wolff, PhD
Dissertation Committee Members: John McGready, PhD; Ariel Green, MD, PhD; Chanee Fabius, PhD; Kelly Gleason, PhD
Job Type Preferences: Primarily research, research services/management, and program administration/management.
Workforce Sector Preference: Opportunities in government, nonprofit or community-based organizations, private or for-profit organizations.
Geographical Preferences: New England, Mid-Atlantic