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Research Overview

Snehal N. Shah, MD, MPH is a primary care pediatrician at the Boston Children’s Hospital Primary Care Center and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. She is also a Senior Faculty Advisor in the Office of Health Equity and Inclusion at Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH) and the Associate Medical Director for Community Integration in the Department of Accountable Care and Clinical Integration at BCH. Her current work is focused on identifying social needs among families in the primary care setting and addressing these needs through a community-oriented, integrated medical-social approach. In her various roles, she aims to promote health equity through action on social determinants of health by working at the family, community and policy-levels. She has expertise in health system approaches to health equity, integration of medical and social care, population health surveillance, measurement of health inequities, and program design and evaluation.

Dr. Shah’s research is focused on the design, implementation, and evaluation of programs to address health-related social needs among families served in pediatric primary care settings. She is currently leading the implementation and evaluation of the BCH Accountable Care Organization Flexible Services Program. This is a MassHealth funded initiative to integrate services for housing stability and food security supports into the primary care setting.

Research Background

Dr. Shah completed her pediatric residency training at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, received her Master of Public Health from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, and served as an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) Officer in the Malaria Branch at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Prior to coming to BCH, Dr. Shah was Director of the Research and Evaluation Office at the Boston Public Health Commission. In this role, she led the development of a population health surveillance infrastructure that linked multiple large data sources and allowed for geographic and sub-population analysis to monitor health disparities and social determinants of health.

Selected Publications:

 

  1. Dennis-Heyward EA, Shah SN. Pediatric COVID-19 Disparities and Prioritizing Equity—Children Are Not Spared. JAMA Pediatr. Published online June 21, 2021. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2021.1682
  2. Shah SN, Fossa A, Steiner AS, Kane J, Levy JI, Adamkiewicz G, Bennett-Fripp WM, and Reid M. Housing Quality and Mental Health: the association between pest infestation and depressive symptoms among public housing residents. J of Urban Health, 2018, DOI 10.1007/s11524-018-0298-7.
  3. Mehta AJ, Dooley DP, Kane J, Reid M, Shah SN. Subsidized housing and adult asthma: findings from a population-based health survey in Boston. AJPH. 2018 Aug; 10: 1059-1065.
  4. Russo ET, Reid M, Taher R, Sharifi M, and Shah SN. Reaching Populations of Color in Boston: Evaluation of Referral Strategies to a Tobacco Quitline. Pediatrics. 2018 Jan;141 (Supp 1):S30-S38.
  5. Russo ET, Reid M, Taher R, Sharifi M, and Shah SN. Reaching Populations of Color in Boston: Evaluation of Referral Strategies to a Tobacco Quitline. Pediatrics. 2018 Jan;141 (Supp 1):S30-S38.
  6. Wang Y, Holt JB, Zhang X, Lu H, Shah SN, Dooley DP, Matthews KA, and Croft JB. Comparison of Multilevel Regression and Post-stratification Estimation and Local Survey Estimates for Small Area Chronic Diseases and Health Behaviors: Boston Validation Study, 2013. Prev Chronic Dis. 2017 Oct 19;14:E99. PMID: 29049020
  7. Krieger, N, Waterman P, Batra N, Dooley DP, Murphy J, and Shah SN. Measures of local segregation for monitoring health inequities by local health departments. Am J of Public Health. 2017 Jun;107(6):903-906.
  8. Reid MR, Gunn J, Shah SN, Donovan N, Eggo R, Babin S, Stajner I, Rogers E, Ensor KB, Raun L, Levy JI, Painter I, Phipatanakul W, Yip F, Nath A, Streichert LC, Tong C, and Burkom H. Cross-Disciplinary Consultancy to Enhance Predictions of Asthma Exacerbation Risk in Boston. Online Journal of Public Health Informatics. 2016 Dec 28;8(3):e199. doi: 10.5210/ojphi.v8i3.6902.
  9. Shah SN, Russo ET, Earl TR, Kuo T. Measuring and Monitoring Progress toward Health Equity: Local Challenges for Public Health. Prev Chronic Dis 2014; 11:130440.
  10. Russo ET, Hulse TE, Adamkiewicz G, Levy DE, Bethune L, Kane J, Reid M and Shah SN. Comparison of Indoor Air Quality in Smoke-Permitted and Smoke-free Multiunit Housing: Findings from the Boston Housing Authority. Nicotine and Tobacco Research. 2015 Mar;17(3):316-22.

Publications