Thalia Porteny, PhD

I am a health policy scholar and applied ethicist. My interests are motivated by the needs I saw growing up in Mexico and working for four years in the Mexican Ministry of Health. Drawing from ethics, health services research, and implementation science, I employ normative, qualitative, and quantitative methods to my investigations. My research aims to better understand the health needs and experiences of vulnerable populations to advance fairer patient treatment, allocation and access to health resources. I follow three lines of scientific inquiry:1) Investigating how to improve policies and programs that can mitigate disparities in health access among vulnerable populations, especially those related to a person's legal status.2) Understanding how complex medical shared-decision making can improve patient autonomy to enhance patient-centered quality care 3) Applying normative frameworks to investigate the impact of resource allocation on health and telehealth access to develop actionable recommendations. Ultimately, my goal is to contribute to an evidence-base used to implement inclusive health policies and healthcare best practices that mitigate unjust disparities. While my interests spread across the spectrum of vulnerable populations, my work primarily focuses on addressing the needs of aging immigrant populations.