Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion

Profile

Judith A. Long, MD is the Sol Katz Professor of Medicine and the Chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine, and an Attending Physician at the Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center. One of CHERP's original investigators, Dr. Long leads a career aligned with CHERP's overall mission of research, innovation and implementation focused on detecting, understanding, and reducing disparities in health and health care in vulnerable Veteran populations. Dr. Long has extensive experience conducting randomized controlled trials to address the social determinants of health and improve outcomes for vulnerable patients both inside and outside of the VA. Her work has tested, among others, the effectiveness of peer mentors, financial incentives, community health workers, and technology as a means of supporting patients and eliminating disparities.

Dr. Long's career-long commitment to eliminating racial and socioeconomic disparities in health care is reflected in her noteworthy research achievements. From her principal investigator roles in VA HSR merit review awards, QUERI programs, and operational initiatives, to her NIH and PCORI funded research, to her VA Shark Tank Gold Award for work with community health workers (CHWs), she has drawn on her clinical experience as a VA primary care provider and formal training in health services research to improve outcomes for vulnerable Veterans. Along the way, she has championed the careers of the next generation of health equity investigators, including undergraduates, medical students, residents, fellows, and early- and mid-career faculty. Her commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in the health sciences is evident within CHERP and in her leadership role at the University of Pennsylvania, where she works with senior leaders to foster inclusive excellence in academic medicine.

To maximize the benefits to Veterans managed within a learning health care system, Dr. Long has consistently leveraged her research and clinical expertise to inform local and regional operational initiatives to improve the quality and equity of care in VA. As Co-Director of the VISN 4 Center for the Evaluation of Patient Aligned Care Teams (CePACT) from 2009 to 2020, Dr. Long and her colleagues focused on improving Veteran engagement with a focus on racial and ethnic minority individuals. She and her colleagues enlisted clinical primary care champions at 42 VA facilities (33 CBOCs & 9 VAMCs) across VISN 4 to implement activities aimed at engaging patients in their own healthcare using a variety of strategies and developed and widely disseminated a toolkit for patient engagement in VA. Currently, Dr. Long is a Multiple Principal Investigator on the SAGE Age-Friendly Health System QUERI Center implementing evidence-based practices to improve patient safety for older adults across all 9 VAMCs and 45 outpatient clinics in VISN 4 using a type III hybrid effectiveness-implementation stepped-wedge trial design. She is also collaborating on CHERP's Equity and Quality Aligned (EQuAl) Research to Impact for Veterans (RIVR) program - in partnership with the VA Office of Health Equity and VISN 4 - to integrate equity into evidence-based quality improvement (QI) efforts in VISN 4 using an interactive equity dashboard and population-specific interventions to drive QI. And until 2024, the CMCVAMC had an IMPaCT CHW program that was a direct result of her VA-based research.

To help build the next generation of health services researchers, Dr. Long has been a leader in academic health services research training programs and is a highly sought mentor by VA and non-VA trainees. She co-directed the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program at UPenn (2013-2016) and co-founded the National Clinician Scholars Program at the University of Pennsylvania and CMCVAMC in 2016. For the past decade, she has been a leader and/or mentor in the University of Pennsylvania/CHERP Summer Undergraduate Minority Research (SUMR) program designed to engage undergraduate students from underrepresented minority groups in the field of health services research. As a mentor, she has guided numerous undergraduate, graduate and medical students, postdoctoral researchers, and early- and mid-career faculty at the University of Pennsylvania and CMCVAMC, many of whom have achieved their own distinguished careers, published dozens of high-impact papers, and obtained faculty positions after their postdoctoral or doctoral training ended. Currently, Dr. Long is an active mentor of several CDA and K-Award recipients.