The focus on Health Disparities acknowledges that there are individuals, families, and communities who are not equally treated in the quest for health. Many do not have equal access to quality health care nor the means to achieve an equal level of desired health outcomes. The emphasis will be to examine these health disparities among diverse populations who encounter differences in treatment and outcomes. Students choosing this focus will have an opportunity to work with diverse community members in Orange County and beyond, and they will be mentored by researchers who study the experiences of these community members.
Faculty Experts in This Area
Nakia Best
PhD, RN, Assistant Professor
School Health, Data Analytics, Social Determinants Of Health, Health Disparities, Mixed-Methods
Recent Studies/Projects
Websites
Dawn Bounds
PhD, PMHNP-BC, FAAN, Associate Professor
Marginalized Youth, Adolescence, Risk, Resilience, Commercial Sexual Exploitation, Social Media, Mental Health, Integrative Health, Wearable And Biofeedback Technology
Recent Studies/Projects
The THRIVE Study
Project REVIVE
Websites
The THRIVE Study
Project REVIVE
Christopher Cleary
DNP, PMHNP-BC, Assistant Clinical Professor
Care Collaboration, Shared Decision Making in Mental Health, LGBTQ Health Care Disparities, Neurodiversity, Psychotherapy, and Health Care Systems
Recent Studies/Projects
Websites
Michelle Fortier
PhD, Professor
Pediatric Pain, Pediatric Oncology, Healthcare Disparities, mHealth
Recent Studies/Projects
Pain Buddy Treating Pain in Children with Cancer: A 21st Century Innovative Approach – This multi-site randomized controlled trial is aimed to examine the effectiveness of Pain Buddy, a mobile health (mHealth) application designed to improve pain and symptom management in children undergoing treatment for cancer. Pain Buddy allows for real time reporting and management of pain and symptoms as well as training in evidence-based pain management strategies. The long-term goal of Pain Buddy is to improve the quality of life for children facing a cancer diagnosis.
Children Impacted by Cancer in the Latinx Community – The purpose of this study is to conduct community based participatory research (CBPR) with Spanish-speaking families with a child with cancer in order to develop a culturally grounded palliative care model for Latinx families.
Intervention Development and Evaluation to Reduce Disparities in Quality of Life for Latinx Families Impacted by Cancer – The purpose of this study is to develop and validate an innovative culturally grounded intervention to improve quality of life and well-being for Spanish-speaking families impacted by childhood cancer. This intervention, Corazones, includes a focus on health literacy, culturally responsive care, and family well-being and incorporates complementary and alternative medicine (acupressure, massage), culinary medicine, and gardening to improve quality of life during cancer treatment.
Palliative Care in Oncology – The purpose of this study is to understand general palliative care knowledge, beliefs, use, and needs among children and families in the oncology setting. We are also interested in learning about symptoms experienced by children and family beliefs about medication and complementary and alternative approaches to pain and symptom management.
Transition of Care: Assessing for Readiness – About half of young adults do not transition to adult providers to receive follow-up care during cancer survivorship. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to better understand the experiences of adolescent cancer survivors as they prepare to transition from pediatric oncology care to adult care and to identify and address gaps that may improve the transition process.
Websites
Center on Stress and Health
Yuqing Guo
PhD, RN, FAAN, Associate Professor
Reduction of Maternal And Child Health Disparities, Mind-Body Intervention, Technology-Based Intervention, Health Promotion, Infant Mental Health, Family Dynamics, Community-Based Participatory Research, Mixed Methods
Recent Studies/Projects>
SHERO: A Tech-Enabled Community Based Perinatal Initiative to Advance Equity in New Orleans, LA
The Black PEARL (Promoting Equity Anti-Racism and Love) Model: Systemic Integration of Community Maternal Support Services to Achieve Birthing Justice, Equity, and Joy for BIPOC Families
UCLA-UCI Center for Eliminating Cardio-Metabolic Disparities in Multi-Ethnic Populations (UC END-DISPARITIES) – Investigator Development Core
SCH: Individualized learning and prediction for heterogeneous multimodal data from wearable devices
Irvine Summer Institute for Biostatistics and Undergraduate Data Science
Websites
Paola German
DNP, FNP-C, Clinical Instructor
Vaccinations, Healthcare Education and Awareness, Preventative Healthcare, Underserved Communities, Healthcare Access, Efficiency
Recent Studies/Projects
Beyond 4-VAX
Co-leaders: Paola German DNP, FNP-C, Albert Chang MD, MPH, Suellen Hopfer, PhD
Websites
E. Alison Holman
PhD, APRN, FNP, FAAN, Professor
Acute Stress; Health Effects of Individual & Collective Trauma; Media Exposure; Intergenerational Transmission of Trauma in Minoritized Communities; Race and Discrimination in Nursing; Temporal Disintegration; Time Perception
Recent Studies/Projects
Websites
Jung-Ah Lee
PhD, RN, FGSA, FAAN Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging, Professor and PhD Program Director
Adults/Older Adults and Caregivers, Health Equity/Disparity, Health Technology, Self-Management, Integrative Health, Transition Care, Venous Thromboembolism, Patient Safety, Clinical and Systems Outcomes, Cost-Effectiveness in Healthcare, Mixed Methods
Recent Studies/Projects
UCI Dementia Family Caregiver Study
Adey Nyamathi
PhD, ANP, FAAN, Distinguished Professor, Founding Dean Emerita
HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, Hepatitis, Vulnerable Populations Including Previously Incarcerated, Homeless, Rural Women of India and Gay/Bisexual Youth
Recent Studies/Projects
2023-2025 Establishing the Foundations of Emotional Intelligence of Care Companion Robots to Mitigate Agitation among High Risk Dementia Patients via Empathic Patient-Robot Interface, Principal Investigator: A. Nyamathi, ANP, PhD., FAAN; Dutt, N., Ph.D, A, Rahmani, PhD., et al. . UC Noyce Award, $300,000
2023-2028 Secondary Cervical Cancer Prevention of Vulnerable Women with HPV and HIV Co-Infections in India, Principal Investigator: A. Nyamathi, ANP, PhD., V. Satyanarayana, PhD., C. Carpenter, C., PhD. Et al. . R01CA285063. $2,868,674
Websites
Jung In Park
PhD, RN, FAMIA , Assistant Professor
Health Informatics, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Predictive Modeling, Hospital-acquired Conditions, Cancer Research, Health Disparities
Recent Studies/Projects
Exploring Sleep Quality Among Cancer Survivors Using AI and Big Data Analytics
Sleep and Health Disparities among Asian Americans: Roles of Stressors and Protective Factors
Harnessing AI for Early Detection and Prevention of Catheter-associated Urinary Tract Infections (CAUTIs) in Healthcare Settings
Websites
Jung In Park
Amir Rahmani
PhD, Professor
AI/ML in Healthcare, Wearable Computing, mHealth, Health Informatics
Recent Studies/Projects
ZotCare: A Flexible and Personalizable SaaS-based Digital Health Platform-From Human Studdy Trials to Care Delivery
Safeguarding Privacy of Cardiovascular Waveforms through Reinforcement Learning- Guided Generative Models
An LLM-based interactive and Personalized Coaching for Chronic Health Management
Websites
Sanghyuk Shin
PhD, Associate Professor
Infectious Disease Epidemiology, COVID-19, Tuberculosis, TB/HIV Co-Infection, Genomic Epidemiology, Molecular Diagnostics, Community-Based Intervention Trials, Social Determinants, Global Health
Recent Studies/Projects
Improved Understanding of TB Transmission by Accounting for Within-Host Heterogeneity of M. Tuberculosis
The Effect of HIV on SARS-Cov-2 Transmission and Emergence of Variants of Concern
Websites
