Danielle Katz (Funding: Bertha Dagan Berman)
(faculty mentor: Ronny Drapkin, MD, PhD [Obstetrics and Gynecology])
Fellowship term, 6 months: To be determined

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Project: To be announced.

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Sarah Rowley (Funding: Bertha Dagan Berman)
(faculty mentor: Renee Betancourt, MD [Family Medicine and Community Health])
Fellowship term, 6 months: October 2023 - April 2024

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Project: Assessing an Academic-Community Clinical Partnership’s effect on access to perinatal care and maternal and infant outcomes

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Maternal and infant morbidity and mortality is a public health crisis that has been recognized for over two decades, but despite this recognition the crisis continues to worsen within the United States. This crisis also disparately impacts Black and Hispanic communities, which make up over 41% and 16% of the Philadelphia population, respectively. This issue has made it evident that medicine must rethink how we provide perinatal care to better address this issue and to improve the health and well-being of moms and infants. This project is examining the impact of an academic-community partnership program between Penn Family Medicine and Greater Philadelphia Health Alliance (GPHA), a community health center, on obstetric care and subsequent maternal and infant outcomes. The study will compare the outcomes for patients at GPHA who delivered at Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) in the 5 years prior to the partnership with the outcomes for patients 1 year after the partnership of Penn physicians providing care within the community at GPHA, with a preliminary analysis at 6 months. Many demographic factors and outcomes will be analyzed with my main focus on geographic analyses as well as one specific outcome of the proportion of growth scans in infants with low birth weight.

Rebecca (Becca) Schapiro (Funding: Bertha Dagan Berman)

(faculty mentor: Nia Madhura Bhadra-Heintz, MD, MS [Obstetrics and Gynecology])
Fellowship term, 6 months: To be determined.

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Project: To be announced.

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Yun Ke (Tracy) Du (Funding: The Edna G. Kynett Memorial Foundation)

(faculty mentors: Julia D. Glaser, MD [Surgery/Vascular Surgery] 
Fellowship term, 6 months: August  2023 - February 2024

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Project : Gender-based Disparities in Follow-up after Diagnosis of Peripheral Arterial Disease

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Prior research has elucidated that compared to their male counterparts, women with peripheral arterial disease (PAD) tend to be underdiagnosed, present later in the disease course, are less likely to be offered surgical options for revascularization, and experience greater psychosocial impacts such as loss o findependent mobility and comorbid depression. Further disparities in outcomes and treatment offerings have been identified in patients o f color. However, follow-up after an initial diagnosis of PAD has not been thoroughly explored in recent literature. Prompt and periodic follow-up with a trained specialist is critical in the treatment o f PAD and preservation o f mobility and limb salvage. Disease progression into tissue loss and critical ischemia can Progress quickly and requires frequent vascular monitoring. Therefore, this project aims to identify factors that contribute to differences in time to follow-up for future community-level interventions and to improve treatment o f patients with PAD. Througha single-institution chart review o f all patients with a laboratory diagnosis o f PAD (ankle-brachial index measurement o f < 0.90), we will: 1. Compare length o f time to follow-up with a trained provider in the treatment o f PAD by gender 2. Stratify this data by race, zip-code income, and other demographic factors to identify trends contributing to disparities in follow-up time.

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Thilan Tudor  (Funding: The Edna G. Kynett Memorial Foundation)

(faculty mentor: Visish M. Srinivasan, MD [Neurosurgery])
Fellowship term, 6 months: To be determined.

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Project:  Recurrent stroke is a critical concern in patients with cardiovascular and metabolic risk factors that predispose them to major adverse cardiac events.

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The incidence and prevalence of Type 2 Diabetes is growing amongst women in the United States 1 and globally, with projections indicating that underserved groups will be disproportionately affected 2,3 Sex differences in incident stroke risk has been identified in large registry based studies4. The INTERSTROKE case-control study demonstrated that specific markers of cardiovascular health, including pre-existing cardiac disease and waist-to-hip ratio were stronger markers of stroke risk in women compared to men5. A systematic review and meta-analysis of 12,359 fatal and non-fatal strokes indicated that diabetes was associated with a 27% elevated relative risk for women versus men6. While the literature has identified sex-differences in cardiovascular risk factors for incident stroke, our understanding of the specific risk of stroke recurrence for women with Type 2 diabetes is limited. Biochemical, clinical, and functional biomarkers of patients following first stroke event are critical determinants of recurrent risk following first stroke event. However, the pathophysiologic basis for elevated stroke risk in diabetic women compared to their male counterparts is unclear.