Mayo Clinic Center for Science of Health Care Delivery announces new Kern Scholars

The Mayo Clinic Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery is pleased to welcome three new scholars to the Kern Health Care Delivery Scholars Program. Their mentored training and research program will begin July 1.

Ali Duarte Garcia, M.D. (CTSA '19, RHEU '19)
Larry and Ruth Eaton Family Career Development Award in Innovative Arthritis Research
"Improving Care for Patients With Lupus and Multimorbidity"
Division of Rheumatology
Department of Medicine
Mayo Clinic in Rochester

Research focus: Multimorbidity and lupus — impact of multiple chronic conditions on outcomes. Dr. Duarte-Garcia’s research will use novel data-driven analytic methods, OptumLabs Data Warehouse and the Rochester Epidemiology Project to characterize the patterns and consequences of comorbidities, and explore if findings apply at the community level.

Primary mentor: Nilay Shah, Ph.D. (HSR ’05), chair, Division of Health Care Policy, Department of Health Sciences Research, associate professor of health sciences research

Christopher DeStephano, M.D. (MED '11, GYNM '17)
Department of Medical & Surgical Gynecology
Assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology
Mayo Clinic in Florida

Research focus: Patient perspectives of vaginal bleeding during the menopause transition and future innovations addressing changes in vaginal bleeding patterns. Dr. DeStephano especially hopes to determine whether new approaches to diagnosing abnormal uterine bleeding will improve outcomes among medically underserved populations.

Primary mentor: Aaron Spaulding, Ph.D. (HSR ’16), Department of Health Sciences Research

Research focus: Long-term opioid use after major spine surgery: the role of prescribing handoffs from surgical to primary care providers. Dr. Warner will examine patient and provider factors associated with variability in postoperative opioid prescribing practices for patients following spine surgery. Her research will use the Rochester Epidemiology Project and include piloting a prescribing procedure designed to eliminate overprescribing and promote opioid tapering.

Primary mentors: David Warner, M.D. (ANES ’87), Division of Pediatric Anesthesiology, Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine; Department of Physiology and Biomedical Engineering; professor of anesthesiology; and Elizabeth Habermann, Ph.D. (HSR ’12), Division of Health Care Policy and Research, Department of Health Sciences Research; Department of Surgery, professor of health sciences research