Based in the Department of Pediatrics at Boston Medical Center and the Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, the Division of Health Services Research (HSR) brings together faculty, fellows, students, and clinicians dedicated to advancing child and family wellbeing through collaborative, equity-focused research.
Our work spans:
- Health equity, policy, innovative care, and payment models
- Health informatics
- Maternal and child mental health
- Health impacts of the criminal legal system on families
- Social determinants of health (housing, food insecurity, economic mobility, etc.)
- Substance use, asthma, sickle cell, and breastfeeding
We prioritize patient-centered, community-engaged approaches and collaborate across BMC, the BU School of Public Health, and national networks. Our work is funded by NIH, PCORI, AHRQ, MCHB, and leading foundations.
Location
801 Albany St.
Boston, MA 02119
Contact
Alison Galbraith, MD, MPH
Director, Health Services Research
Director, General Academic Pediatrics Fellowship
Professor of Pediatrics, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine
Email: Alison.Galbraith@bmc.org
Naomi Lin, MS, CLHP
Senior Administrative Coordinator
Email: Naomi.Lin@bmc.org
Research Groups
BOS Collaborative/PLUS Pediatric Housing Assistance
The Boston Opportunity System Collaborative (BOS Collaborative or BOSC), a cross-sector collaborative led by Boston Medical Center, was formed with a $5 million JPMorganChase AdvancingCities systems-change grant active from 2020–2024. It focused on economic mobility and neighborhood revitalization in the Roxbury, Dorchester, and Mattapan neighborhoods of Boston. Work included establishing neighborhood-based training strategies for 1,100 residents of color and funding 250 new and preserved affordable housing units in historically underinvested Boston neighborhoods, including Black and Latinx communities.
In 2024, the BOS Collaborative received funding from the Barr Foundation to complete and implement a strategic plan to expand work and focus in the areas of childcare, small business, and climate resilience.
Boston Birth Cohort
The Boston Birth Cohort (BBC) research study, initiated in 1998, is a large-scale epidemiological study funded by the National Institutes of Health, with a particular focus on environment factors, genetic variants, epigenomic alterations, and their interactions in adverse reproductive outcomes, food allergy and related conditions, and obesity and metabolic syndrome in children.
CATALYST
BMC’s CATALYST (Center for Addiction Treatment for AdoLescent/Young adults who use SubsTances) Clinic is a medical home for adolescents and young adults ages 13 to 25 who use substances. CATALYST welcomes patients in any stage of substance use and offers nonjudgmental, developmentally appropriate services—including primary care, assessment and treatment of substance use disorders, harm reduction counseling and supplies, psychiatry, short-term psychotherapy, case management, and parent support.
CHEER
The Center for Health Equity, Education, & Research (CHEER) has its roots in The Breastfeeding Center at BMC. Under BMC’s Department of General Pediatrics, the Breastfeeding Center initially supported the development of the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) at BMC. CHEER has now become one of the leading maternity care research, teaching, and advocacy centers in the United States.
Children’s HealthWatch
Formerly known as the Children’s Sentinel Nutrition Assessment Program, this project monitors the impact of economic conditions and public policies on the health and wellbeing of very young children.
Project SOLVE
Project SOLVE aims to mitigate the impact of mental illness on vulnerable families by developing, testing, and disseminating strategies through novel care delivery systems.
StreetCred
StreetCred is an innovation hub that envisions nurturing healthy, thriving children and families by leveraging trust in and access to healthcare to increase economic inclusion and rectify structural racism. One of the nation’s first medical–financial partnerships, StreetCred integrates evidence-based, underutilized economic resources and services into routine prenatal and infant health care.
Vital Village
Vital Village Networks invests in and sustains networks of residents, organizations, and institutions working together to strengthen child, family, and community wellbeing. The program builds on community strengths by cultivating leadership, investing in partnerships, and advancing systems change that creates the conditions for children and families to thrive.
Faculty
William G Adams, MD – Bill.Adams@bmc.org
Director of Child Health Informatics
Professor
Dr. Adams research focuses on developing and evaluating translational informatics tools designed to improve the health and health equity of special populations like the ones served by Boston Medical Center and our affiliated Community Health Centers.
Sarah Bagley, MD, MSc – Sarah.Bagley@bmc.org
Medical Director, CATALYST
Associate Professor
Dr. Bagley’s research focuses on addressing youth opioid use.
Renee Boynton-Jarrett, MD, ScD – Renee.Boynton-Jarrett@bmc.org
Founding Director, Vital Village Community Engagement Network
Associate Professor
Dr. Boynton-Jarrett’s research focuses on the role of early-life adversities as life course social determinants of health.
Jeff Campbell, MD, MPH – Jeffrey.Campbell@bmc.org
Assistant Professor
Dr. Campbell’s research focuses on health services delivery and access to care for children with tuberculosis infection.
Robyn Cohen, MD, MPH – Robyn.Cohen@bmc.org
Associate Professor
Dr. Cohen’s research focuses on pulmonary complications of sickle cell anemia; asthma health disparities, pediatric asthma clinical research; asthma in Latino communities; social determinants of health.
Gaby Cordova Ramos, MD – Gabriela.CordovaRamos@bmc.org
Assistant Professor
Dr. Ramos’s research focus is on adapting evidence-based interventions to be more culturally and linguistically appropriate for diverse populations.
Kelsey Egan, MD, MSc – Kelsey.Egan@bmc.org
Assistant Professor
Dr. Egan's research interests focus on improving clinical-community integration in order to decrease inequities in health outcomes for children and families. She is particularly interested in developing and implementing interventions to prevent food insecurity in early childhood, a critical time period of rapid growth and development that forms the foundation for future health and well-being. She is interested in the use of health information technology to improve clinical-community integration.
Mei Elansary, MD, MPhil – Mei.Elansary@bmc.org
Assistant Professor
Dr. Elansary’s research focuses on maternal mental health and child development.
Stephanie Ettinger de Cuba, PhD, MPH - sedc@bu.edu
Executive Director, Children’s HealthWatch
Research Associate Professor
Dr. Ettinger de Cuba’s research focuses on children and families, health, the intersections of race/ethnicity and nativity, and the structural and policy factors underpinning these relationships. In particular, her expertise is in health inequities experienced by families with very young children and immigrant families and their children.
Emily Feinberg, ScD, MSc – Emily.Feinberb@bmc.org
Adjunct Professor
Dr. Feinberg’s research focuses on addressing disparities in behavioral health outcomes experienced by low income children.
Alison Galbraith, MD, MPH – Alison.Galbraith@bmc.org
Director, Division of Health Services Research
Director, General Academic Pediatrics Fellowship
Professor
Dr. Galbraith conducts health services research focused on how health insurance policy affects health care access and affordability for families with children.
Heather Hsu, MD, MPH – Heather.Hsu@bmc.org
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Dr. Hsu conducts health services research focused on examining the impact of value-based care implementation on quality of care, health equity, and the financial well-being of the healthcare safety-net.
Patricia Kavanagh, MD – Patricia.Kavanagh@bmc.org
Associate Professor
Dr. Kavanagh’s research focuses on the impact of screening and referring families with unmet basic needs on health on outcomes for children with sickle cell disease, and serving as a subject matter expert in a multisite randomized trial comparing individualized pain plans with weight-based protocols.
Lucy Marcil, MD, MPH – Lucy.Marcil@bmc.org
Executive Director, StreetCred
Associate Director, Economic Mobility, Center for the Urban Child and Healthy Family
Interim Director, Urban Health and Advocacy Track (UHAT), Boston Combined Residency program
Assistant Professor
Dr. Marcil’s work focuses on redesigning pediatric care to include economic justice and to create a culture of anti-poverty medicine.
Neena McConnico, PhD – Neena.McConnico@bmc.org
Executive Director, Child Witness to Violence Project
Director, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Assistant Professor
Dr. McConnico’s work focuses on how the impacts of trauma interface with children’s academic and social development.
Anne Merewood, PhD, MPH – Anne.Merewood@bmc.org
Director, CHEER (Center for Health Equity, Education and Research)
Associate Professor
Dr. Merewood’s research focuses on Implementation science, QI, maternal child health, humanitarian, public health and equity work.
Ana Poblacion, PhD, MSC – Ana.Poblacion@bmc.org
Assistant Professor
Dr. Poblacion's research focuses on pediatric nutrition and ending food insecurity in households with children through the increase in access to healthy foods.
Megan Sandel, MD, MPH – Megan.Sandel@bmc.org
Professor
Dr. Sandel’s research focuses on housing and child health.
Richard Sheward, MPP - Richard.Sheward@bmc.org
Director of System Implementation Strategies, Children's HealthWatch
Assistant Professor
Dr. Sheward’s research focuses on the association between health-related social needs (i.e., unstable housing and food insecurity) and young children and caregivers’ health. His research has since expanded to understand which health-related social needs measures are most effective and for whom.
Colin Sox, MD – Colin.Sox@bmc.org
Clinical Associate Professor
Dr. Sox conducts medical education research, including multi-center randomized controlled trials.
Michelle Stransky, PhD – Michelle.Stransky@bmc.org
Assistant Professor
Dr. Stransky’s research focuses on recommending improvements to policy and clinical practice that will reduce disparities.
Destiny Tolliver, MD - Destiny.Tolliver@bmc.org
Assistant Professor
Dr. Tolliver’s research focuses on how criminal legal system involvement impacts children and families, and what policies and practices work to improve health outcomes for these children.
General Academic Pediatrics Fellowship
The Division of Health Services Research is home to the General Academic Pediatrics (GAP) Fellowship. This fellowship is part of the larger Academic Primary Care Fellowship program at BMC/BU and is administered in collaboration with the Division of General Internal Medicine (including Addiction Medicine), Department of Family Medicine, Department of Surgery, Preventive Medicine Training program, and the BU School of Public Health.
The mission of the fellowship is to train highly motivated investigators with a focus on topics relevant to medically underserved communities. We have an exciting mix of educational curricular choices in epidemiology and health services research, and experiential learning opportunities in public health.
Our trainees have gone on to hold leadership positions in academia and government.