Social Determinants of Health in Surgery Research Methods and Clinical Review

Steven A. Toms, MD, MPH: Dr. Steven A. Toms is the Vice Chair and Director of the Brain Tumor and Stereotactic Radiosurgery Program at the Rhode Island Hospital Department of Neurosurgery. He has held several nationwide and institutional leadership positions in health policy and management, including as the American Association of Neurological Surgeons Liaison to Council of State Neurosurgical Societies and the Associate Chief Medical Officer and Co-Director of the Neuroscience Institute at the Geisinger Health System. He has been the principal investigator of basic and clinical research studies, such as the use of tumor-treating fields for glioblastoma, and has published in over eighty medical journals. As a Professor of Health Services, Policy and Practice at Brown, Dr. Toms also has a research and educational interest in social determinants of health, health policy, and disparities. He has previously edited the textbook Nanoproteomics: Methods in Molecular Biology and serves on the editorial board for several journals.

Paris D. Butler, MD, MPH: Dr. Paris D. Butler is the incoming inaugural Vice Chair for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Yale Surgery as well as the outgoing Director of Underrepresented in Medicine (UIM) Affairs, Plastic Surgery Clerkship Director, and Assistant Professor of Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania. As a plastic and reconstructive surgeon, his research interests include keloid pathophysiology and treatment, surgical health care disparities, health care policy, and provision of care to the underserved. Most recently, he was appointed to the ten-member Committee on Surgical Health Care Disparities of the American College of Surgeons. Dr. Butler has previously served as a policy fellow in the US Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Minority Health as well as on the Accreditation Council for Graduation Medical Education’s Surgical Residency Review Committee responsible for the oversight of all surgical training programs in the country.

Marielle Collins, PhD, is a clinical health psychologist at Cleveland Clinic in the Center for Adult Behavioral Health. She specializes in consultation-liaison psychology with a focus on caring for patients recovering from significant medical illness within the inpatient hospital setting and providing expert psychological services through consultation with patients and members of interdisciplinary teams. Dr. Collins earned her doctorate in clinical psychology at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and then completed fellowship in clinical health psychology at Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Collins’ research focuses on developing mindfulness interventions that can be integrated into medical settings to address pain, mood disorders, and psychological factors affecting medical conditions. Dr. Collins has led mindfulness workshops, education groups and training programs for medical students, residents, faculty, and community organizations. She is a member of the American Psychological Association, the Society for Health Psychology, and the Ohio Psychological Association.

Krissia M. Rivera Perla, MD, MPH, MS: Krissia Rivera Perla is a Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery resident at Johns Hopkins University. Krissia’s long withstanding interest in the intersection of public health, quantitative analyses, and surgery has led her to author several manuscripts on the topic from Neurosurgery to Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. She completed her Master’s in Public Health in Quantitative Methods at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Her research interests include healthcare delivery and surgical outcomes.

Oliver Y. Tang, BS: Oliver Y. Tang is a medical student at Brown University (MD ’23 – will complete degree prior to publication of book). He has authored over 40 peer-reviewed articles — with his primary focus being social determinants of health in surgical care — and has won national conference awards for his socioeconomics research from physician organizations including the AANS and CNS. Other research topics Oliver has focused on include the use of big data for clinical applications like risk stratification, education-oriented manuscripts on good practices for big data research, cost variation and drivers in the US health care system, medical education, and global surgery. Oliver has also previously worked in health policy in the form of think tank work under a former US Assistant Surgeon General and co-leadership of a public health lecture series course (with speakers from the AMA, NIH, IHI) serving as the most widely attended preclinical elective among Brown medical students.