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Elizabeth A. Howell

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR  Health Evidence and Policy
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR  Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Science

Overview

Specialty Obstetrics and Gynecology
Gender Female
E-mail elizabeth.howell@mountsinai.org
Education and Training MD, Harvard Medical School
  Residency, Obs/ Gyn, New York Presbyterian Hospital

Elizabeth A. Howell, M.D., M.P.P. is an Assistant Professor with a joint appointment in the Departments of Health Policy and Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Science at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.  Her research interests include understanding and narrowing racial disparities in health and healthcare and addressing the health needs of low-income women of color, especially as they relate to antepartum and postpartum care.  Dr. Howell's primary research foci are postpartum depression and infant mortality disparities.

As a faculty member at Mount Sinai, Dr. Howell received the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Minority Faculty Development Award and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) funding to conduct a series of studies investigating the association between personal, environmental, and contextual factors with postpartum depressive symptoms in minority and majority women.  She currently receives NIH (NCMHD) funding to conduct a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to evaluate the effectiveness of a patient education intervention aimed at reducing the frequency of depressive symptoms among postpartum Black and Hispanic mothers.  She was recently awarded funding by NIMH to expand this trial to include women from all racial and ethnic backgrounds.  Dr. Howell was recently named a Committee Member, for the Committee on Depression, Parenting Practices, and the Healthy Development of Young Children of the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine.

In addition to her research on postpartum depression, Dr. Howell has conducted studies on infant mortality disparities.  She received funding from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to conduct a series of studies on infant mortality disparities. She recently published a landmark manuscript in Pediatrics that highlights Black/White disparities in very low birth weight mortality in New York City.  Her research on infant mortality disparities has received both local and national attention.  She has presented this work to the NYC Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene, the National Disparities Summit in Washington D.C. and to the National Center for Health Statistics. She has also conducted research on postpartum women's satisfaction with care, racial disparities in other areas in women's health, and treatment appropriateness. She has expertise with both qualitative and quantitative research methods.

Dr. Howell received her undergraduate degree from Stanford University and received her medical and public policy degrees at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She received her residency training at Cornell /New York Hospital and is a board certified obstetrician gynecologist. Dr. Howell received her training in clinical epidemiology as a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at Yale Medical School.

Training

Education and Training MD, Harvard Medical School
  Residency, Obs/ Gyn, New York Presbyterian Hospital
Board Certification Obstetrics and Gynecology

Clinical Practice

Specialty Obstetrics and Gynecology
Board Certification Obstetrics and Gynecology

Research

Research
Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Health, Women's Health, Infant Mortality, Postpartum Depression, Quality of Care, Vulnerable Populations

Publications

Howell EA, Stone J, Inamdar S, Matseoane S, Kleinman L, Chassin MR. Approaching Guideline Recommended Care for Maternal-Infant Health: Clinical failures to use recommended antenatal corticosteroids. Maternal Child Health Journal In Press;.


Howell EA, Mora PA, DiBonaventura MD, Leventhal H. Modifiable Factors Associated with Changes in Postpartum Depressive Symptoms. Archives of Women's Mental Health 2009 Apr; 12(2): 113-120.


Hebert P, Sisk J, Howell EA. When Does a Difference Become a Disparity? . Conceptualizing Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health and Health Care, Health Aff (Millwood) 2008 Mar-Apr; 27(2): 374-382.


Howell EA, Hebert P, Chatterjee S, Kleinman L, Chassin MR. Black-White Differences in Very Low Birthweight Neonatal Mortality Among New York City Hospitals. Pediatrics 2008 Mar; 121(3): e407-415.


Howell EA. Racial Differences in Infant Mortality: A Quality of Care Perspective. Mt Sinai J Med 2008 Jan; 75(1): 31-35.


Howell EA, Mora PA, Leventhal H. Correlates of Early Postpartum Depressive Symptoms. Maternal and Child Health Journal 2006 Mar; 10(2): 149-157.


Howell EA, Mora PA, Horowtiz C, Leventhal H. Racial and Ethnic Differences in Factors Associated with Early Postpartum Depressive Symptoms. Obstetrics & Gynecology 2005 Jun; 105(6): 1442-1450.


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