Research

The questions that drive my research live at the intersection of the Global Health and the Life and Social Sciences. I prioritize the study of vector-borne infectious diseases, particularly their dynamics over multiple temporal and spatial scales, and across levels of organization. At center of my research, I explore the following:

  • The impact of social behavioral changes on disease evolution
  • The role of environmental and social structures on the dynamics of infection
  • The identification of mechanisms that facilitate the spread of diseases across levels of organization over different scales
  • The impact of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) on health disparities

My methodology includes population and environmental modeling approaches, computational and statistical methodology, and the tools developed over the past century in the fields of Mathematics, Epidemiology, and Health Economics.

Assessing the resilience and uncertainty associated with the dynamics of epi-socio-economic systems is of paramount importance to those who are responsible for the development of public global health policies.

NTDs Modeling Framework

  • Identify cost-effective intervention policies for resource-scarce regions
  • Assess the dynamics of human-pathogenic parasite strains as they move across regional and national borders
  • Study the economic impact of disease interventions on national public health policies

Epidemiology

Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), such as Leishmaniasis (India and Colombia), Chagas disease (US-Mexico), Dengue (Thailand), and Soil Transmitted Helminthes are of utmost interest to me. The dynamics, prevalence and expansion of health disparities are, at a global scale, intimately connected to NTDs prevalence in tropical regions throughout the world. I work continuously on the development, via the characterization of tipping points, of the tools and models needed to ameliorate or eliminate the impact of these NTDs. The quantification of threshold quantities or `tipping’ points has been central to the design, and development of public health policy scenarios and their implementation.

Social sciences

Studying Health-risk behaviors, the role of social contextual mechanisms on the dynamics of substance abuse including alcohol drinking, has been of extreme interest to me and have carried long-term collaborations on these topics.

health economics

My current research in health economics involves understanding how treatments perform in the real-world using evidence-based modeling and research methods and to evaluate how it can be used to better delineate the best choices for patients, populations and health systems, while optimizing available resources and budget. I provide the improvement in statistical computing and wider development of economic models to practical health sciences problems. Health economic decision models that I develop and analyze compare costs and health effects of different interventions over the long term and usually incorporate survival, clinical and testing data.

Publications