Mihoko Tanabe, DO, MPH, MIA

Mihoko Tanabe, DO, MPH, MIA, is a board-certified primary care and family medicine physician at Boston Medical Center (BMC) and an Assistant Professor of Family Medicine at the Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine.

Before to transitioning to medicine, Dr. Tanabe worked for almost a decade with a New York–based humanitarian research and advocacy organization that aimed to enhance health access for refugees and internally displaced persons affected by conflicts and natural disasters worldwide. She holds a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health in New York as well as a Master of International Affairs (MIA) degree from the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs.

Dr. Tanabe subsequently earned her Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) degree from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and completed her family medicine residency training at Boston University Medical Center.

In the course of her career, Dr. Tanabe has conducted research on reproductive health–related issues in Haiti, Kenya, Nepal, the Thailand–Burma border, South Sudan, and Uganda, and has overseen projects in Bangladesh, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Jordan, Malaysia, and Pakistan. Some of her projects included piloting community-based approaches to providing sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services in conflict settings; identifying good practice programming for adolescent reproductive health; and addressing the intersections between sexual and reproductive health and disability in humanitarian contexts. She further advocated for good-quality SRH services in conflict and natural disaster settings through reviewing and developing global policy and technical guidance; conducting interagency assessments on minimum SRH services at the onset of emergencies; and organizing and presenting at meetings and fora. She also sat on the steering committee of the Inter-agency Working Group on Reproductive Health in Crises, a global network of SRH in crises practitioners.

Now as a family medicine physician at BMC, Dr. Tanabe’s patients include newly arriving refugees. She also rounds with the Family Medicine Inpatient Unit and the Observation Unit.