Findings from Drs. Salter, Mendez, Jarlenski, and their team can assist Medicaid agencies in understanding how MCOs interpret and implement equity-based policy to ensure intended populations are benefiting from the planned outcomes.
Drs. Dara D. Méndez, Mehret Birru Talabi, and Hyagriv Simhan received the Maternal Health Research Center of Excellence from the NIH to lead a new effort to develop and evaluate innovative approaches to advance maternal and reproductive health and justice among Black people in Allegheny County.
In-depth interviews with organizational partners revealed that racial equity was of concern and as a result, coalition members developed a racial equity statement and theory of change focused on implementation and an equity audit.
Drs. Jarlenski and Mendez's mixed methods research evaluating Pennsylvania Medicaid's equity payment program and equity focused obstetric bundle show how Medicaid policy interventions can promote racial equity in pregnancy and child health.
Congratulations to Drs. Mendez, Talabi, Simhan, and their team for being awarded NIH funding to support the EMBRACE maternal health center of excellence. We're so excited to see this work move forward
Congratulations to Dr. Dara Méndez for being honored with the 2024 Ascending Star Award! Dr. Méndez's efforts in promoting racial and socioeconomic equity and justice in pregnancy, birth, and reproductive and women’s health deserves this recognition!
Join out team members Drs. Dara Mendez, Sonya Borrero, Mehret Birru Talabi, and Greer Donley as they speak at the Let’s Talk about Reproductive Justice happening next week, April 17th.
Drs. Jill Demirci and Dara Mendez's study looked at 24-hour recall assessing exclusive breastfeeding was higher than the since birth rates across all ages and maternal characteristics. The difference between the two methods at 3 months was 25.7% and at 6 months was a 17.2%. Findings highlight the importance of specificity in measuring and reporting exclusive breastfeeding.
Read more about their findings here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37675868/
Drs. Mendez, Jarlenski, Chang, and their team measured racial inequities in drug testing among pregnant people and found that clinicians were more likely to order urine drug testing for Black patients compared with their White counterparts.
Read more of their findings here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37769307/
Drs. Cynthia Salter, Judy Chang, and Dara Mendez collaborated on a qualitative analysis exploring American clinician perspectives on patient birth experiences looking at birth trauma and mistreatment. This study contributes new insight into maternity clinicians' conceptualization of patient trauma and how their descriptions of birth trauma overlap with mistreatment. Clinicians implicitly connected mistreatment with some patient experiences of birth trauma, even when they were not specifically asked about mistreatment.
