Home Institution: Yale School of Medicine
Field: Internal Medicine
Current Positions:
- Professor of Medicine, Yale School of Medicine
- Professor of Epidemiology, Yale School of Public Health
- Director of Population Health, Yale Medicine
My Driving Question
How can we develop measures to identify drivers and inequities of well-being to inform smart policies and healthcare for all?
Fellow Project
As defined by the World Health Organization in 1948, health is “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” Until recently, however, we have lacked the necessary data to study the well-being of the nation and how it varies geographically, over time, and across subpopulations. Instead, for decades, researchers have studied variations and trends in mortality, disease states, and healthcare utilization as proxies for the health of our nation. Now, with access to ten years of national data, there is the potential to describe the well-being of the U.S. population over a decade and for various subpopulations.
As Nova Institute Fellows, Carley Riley, MD, MPP, MHS and her research partner at Yale University, Brita Roy, MD, MPH, MHS, are examining the current state of well-being in the U.S. and trends and geographic variation in well-being over a ten-year period, and the state of well-being (and inequities in well-being) for various subpopulations. These results will provide healthcare providers and systems, public health organizations, policymakers, and other stakeholders with an understanding of the true health of our nation.
Biography
Brita Roy, MD, MPH, MHS is an Assistant Professor at the Yale Schools of Medicine and Public Health and Director of Population Health for Yale Medicine and the Center for Research Engagement.
Dr. Roy is Assistant Professor in the Section of General Internal Medicine at the Yale School of Medicine and in the Department of Chronic Disease Epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health, as well as Director of Population Health for Yale Medicine, the Yale University multi-specialty faculty practice. Her scholarly work focuses on assessing the relative contribution of positive psychosocial factors to population health outcomes and health equity at the individual and community levels. Dr. Roy is also interested in the implementation of multi-disciplinary, assets-based, effective community-healthcare collaborative interventions to improve population health and well-being. She co-leads the Yale-Gallup Well-being Research Team and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s (IHI) 100 Million Healthier Lives measurement team and is faculty for the IHI Pathways to Population Health Action Community.
Dr. Roy pursued Bachelors and Master’s degrees in Biomedical Engineering at Vanderbilt University and Wayne State University, respectively. She then went on to the University of Michigan to pursue a combined MD/MPH in Health Behavior and Health Education. Dr. Roy subsequently completed residency training in internal medicine and served as Chief Medical Resident at the University of Alabama at Birmingham prior to completing the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program at Yale University.
Education and Training
- Scholar, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program, Yale University, New Haven, CT
- Clinical Fellow, Division of Critical Care Medicine, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH
- Chief Resident, Department of General Pediatrics, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
- Resident, Department of General Pediatrics, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
- Intern, Department of General Pediatrics, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
- MHS, Yale University, School of Medicine, New Haven, CT
- MPP, UCLA, School of Public Affairs, Los Angeles, CA
- MD, Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL
- BA, English Literature, Northwestern University, College of Arts & Sciences, Evanston, IL
Selected Honors
- Co-author, Editor in Chief Review Article of the Year, American Journal of Health Promotion, 2019
- Research Team Award, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, 2018
- Best Abstract Award, Co-Production Conference, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Med Center, 2017
- Quality Improvement Poster Award, CCTST, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, 2016
- Presidential Citation for Outstanding Contributions, Society of Critical Care Medicine, 2015
- AcademyHealth Presidential Scholarship in Child Health Policy, Washington DC, 2014
- Presidential Citation for Outstanding Contributions, Society of Critical Care Medicine, 2014
- Fellow Teacher of the Year, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH, 2012
- General Pediatric Service Award, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, 2008
- Community Pediatrics & Advocacy Award, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, 2008
- Frances Nunnally Winzer Scholar Award, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, 2007
- American Academy of Pediatrics Resident Scholarship, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, 2007
- Phi Rho Sigma Dennis Award for Outstanding Jr. Year Performance, Northwestern Univ., Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, 2004
- Atlantic Philanthropies Foundation Fellowship in Non-Profit Leadership & Management, Los Angeles, CA, 2003
- Alpha Omega Alpha, 2003
- Julius Conn Award, Outstanding Performance, Dept. of Surgery, Northwestern Univ., Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, 2002
Selected Publications
- Trends and geographical variation in population thriving, struggling, and suffering across the USA, 2008-2017: a retrospective repeated cross-sectional study. BMJ Open. 2021.
- Association of the Overall Well-being of a Population With Health Care Spending for People 65 Years of Age or Older.
JAMA Netw Open. 2018 Sep 7;1(5):e182136. - Disease prevention & health promotion: what’s critical care got to do with it?
Transl Pediatr. 2018 Oct;7(4):262-266. Review. - Emotion regulation moderates the association between chronic stress and cardiovascular disease risk in humans: a cross-sectional study.
Stress. 2018 Aug 7:1-8. doi: 10.1080/10253890.2018.1490724. [Epub ahead of print] Collective Well-Being to Improve Population Health Outcomes: An Actionable Conceptual Model and Review of the Literature. Am J Health Promot. 2018 Nov;32(8):1800-1813
Identifying county characteristics associated with resident well-being: A population based study.
PLoS One. 2018 May 23;13(5):e0196720.Pervasive Income-Based Disparities In Inpatient Bed-Day Rates Across Conditions And Subspecialties.
Health Aff (Millwood). 2018 Apr;37(4):551-559.Population well-being and electoral shifts.
PLoS One. 2018 Mar 12;13(3):e0193401.The Child Opportunity Index and Disparities in Pediatric Asthma Hospitalizations Across One Ohio Metropolitan Area, 2011-2013.
J Pediatr. 2017 Nov;190:200-206.e1.Preparing for Disaster: a Cross-Sectional Study of Social Connection and Gun Violence.
J Urban Health. 2017 Oct;94(5):619-628.Population Well-Being Measures Help Explain Geographic Disparities In Life Expectancy At The County Level.
Health Aff (Millwood). 2016 Nov 1;35(11):2075-2082.Critical Violent Injury in the United States: A Review and Call to Action.
Crit Care Med. 2015 Nov;43(11):2460-7. Review.Moving into the neighborhood: thinking beyond individuals to improve cardiovascular health.
Circ Cardiovasc Qual Outcomes. 2014 Jul;7(4):505-7.
