Brita Roy, MD, MPH

I am a clinical associate professor in the Department of Population Health, Section of Health Equity, and in the Department of Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine, at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. I am also the Director of Community Health and Clinical Outcomes for Beyond Bridges, a transformative initiative in Brooklyn, New York, that aims to improve population health outcomes through community-clinical partnerships.

The overall goal of my research is to mitigate health disparities using a “positive health” approach. I authored an award-winning, evidence-based, actionable, community-level theoretical framework defining and describing “collective well-being” and its drivers and outcomes. To systematically test this theoretical framework, my team and I use epidemiologic methods to identify health-promoting, positive psychosocial factors at the individual and community level. We then apply this knowledge to designing assets-based, community-driven interventions to improve health and well-being among disadvantaged communities. I also use participatory complex systems modeling to investigate the combined effect of multiple environmental and psychosocial promoters of health at the individual, community, and clinic/health system levels.

I was PI of a study using participatory group model building to understand the interplay of various community-level factors that influence rates of physical activity and gun violence. Together with community partners, I used this model to co-design a community-based intervention to reduce rates of gun violence, and I am MPI along with my community partner on an R01 from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) to fund its implementation and evaluation. I am also a co-investigator on a National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)-funded study that assesses psychosocial determinants of cardiovascular health outcomes among individuals who have recently been incarcerated. Finally, I am PI on a study exploring temporal associations between well-being and cardiovascular disease at the individual and population levels. Together, these studies will improve our understanding of the complex and interrelated relationships of psychosocial factors at the individual and community levels that influence health and well-being outcomes and inequities in these outcomes, with the ultimate goal of developing assets-based, community-driven interventions to mitigate these inequities and improve health and well-being for all.

In my role as Director of Community Health and Clinical Outcomes for Beyond Bridges, I work to foster community-clinical partnerships to design innovative programs and processes to create conditions that promote equitable health outcomes across diverse communities in Brooklyn. I work collaboratively across healthcare and community in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn to develop initiatives that increase access to and engagement in primary and preventive care, lower risk of cardiovascular disease, improve maternal and child health and well-being, and improve behavioral health outcomes. In addition, I serve on the faculty for the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, through which I have led projects and learning collaboratives aimed to improve health equity and population health among multiple healthcare organizations.

Finally, I enjoy teaching residents and students on the general medicine hospital services at NYU Langone Hospital—Brooklyn. I love caring for a diverse patient population with a wide array of clinical conditions. I also serve on Council for the Society of General Internal Medicine, which supports the multi-faceted careers of general internists in clinical, research, educational, and administrative realms.