Jaya Aysola, MD, MPH is the Assistant Dean of Inclusion and Diversity at the Perelman School of Medicine and Founder and Executive Director of Penn Medicine’s Center for Health Equity Advancement (CHEA) and Chair of the Health Equity Alliance. An Associate Professor of Medicine and of Pediatrics, her research centers on evaluating system, provider, and patient level strategies to improve the uptake and quality of health care and health for marginalized populations. Her research stems from her prior clinical, administrative, and policy experiences in resource-constrained settings. Dr. Aysola’s work has focused on how health systems and medical schools can operationalize equity and inclusion and dismantle structural bias and racism in medicine. She currently serves on several national and regional committees related health equity, anti-racism, and social determinants of health and currently co-leads an AAMC working group to provide educators and administrators at AAMC-member medical schools and teaching institutions with the tools and resources needed to address and eliminate racist practices in the learning environment.
Dr. Aysola has extensive education and experience in anthropology, public health, and health services research and spent significant time in Cambodia, Thailand, India, and post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans developing and implementing care delivery models in resource-constrained settings. She founded and served as Section Chief of the Division of Community Pediatrics and Global Health at Tulane School of Medicine and as Medical Director of an integrated behavioral health and primary care clinic serving communities devastated by Hurricane Katrina.
Dr. Aysola received her MD from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. She is board certified in Internal Medicine and Pediatric. She received her diplomate from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, her Master’s of Public Health in Health Care Policy and Management from the Harvard School of Public Health, and completed a two-year general medicine research fellowship at the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School.
Areas of Expertise | Health equity, Social and structural determinants of health, Anti-racism and bias, Population health with a specific focus on historically and contemporary marginalized populations, Global health and care delivery in resource-constrained settings
Clinical Areas | General Internal Medicine, General Pediatrics
Selected Publications:
Fricke J, Siddique SM, Aysola J, Cohen ME, Mull NK. Healthcare Worker Implicit Bias Training and Education: Rapid Review. 2024 Jan. In: Making Healthcare Safer IV: A Continuous Updating of Patient Safety Harms and Practices [Internet]. Rockville (MD): Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (US); 2023 Jul–. PMID: 38330158.
Tipton K, Leas BF, Flores E, Jepson C, Aysola J, Cohen J, Harhay M, Schmidt H, Weissman G, Treadwell J, Mull NK, Siddique SM. Impact of Healthcare Algorithms on Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health and Healthcare [Internet]. Rockville (MD): Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (US); 2023 Dec. Report No.: 24-EHC004. PMID: 38147523.
Siddique SM, Evans CV, Harhay M, Johnson ES, Aysola J, Weissman GE, Mull NK, Flores E, Schmidt H, Tipton K, Leas B, Lin JS. Critical Appraisal for Racial and Ethnic Equity in Clinical Prediction Models Extension: Development of a Critical Appraisal Tool Extension to Assess Racial and Ethnic Equity-Related Risk of Bias for Clinical Prediction Models. Health Equity. 2023 Nov 30;7(1):773-781. doi: 10.1089/heq.2023.0035. PMID: 38076212; PMCID: PMC10698767.
Dean LT, Chung SE, Gross AL, Clay OJ, Willis SL, Crowe M, McDonough IM, Thomas KR, Marsiske M, Aysola J, Thorpe RJ Jr, Felix C, Berkowitz M, Coe NB. Does Consumer Credit Precede or Follow Changes in Cognitive Impairment Among Older Adults? An Investigation in the Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly (ACTIVE) Trial. J Aging Health. 2023 Oct;35(9_suppl):84S-94S. doi: 10.1177/08982643221113715. PMID: 37994853.
Dean LT, Chung SE, Gross AL, Clay OJ, Willis SL, Crowe M, McDonough IM, Thomas KR, Marsiske M, Aysola J, Thorpe RJ Jr, Felix C, Berkowitz M, Coe NB. Does Consumer Credit Precede or Follow Changes in Cognitive Impairment Among Older Adults? An Investigation in the Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly (ACTIVE) Trial. J Aging Health. 2023 Oct;35(9_suppl):84S-94S. doi: 10.1177/08982643221113715. PMID: 37994853.
Visit Dr. Aysola's Google Scholar page to view more publications