Karen B. DeSalvo, MD, MPH, MSc
Chief, Division of General Internal Medicine & Geriatrics
Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine
C. Thorpe Ray Chair in Internal Medicine
Contact Information
Tulane University Health Sciences Center
School of Medicine
Section of General Internal Medicine & Geriatrics, SL-16
1430 Tulane Avenue, SL-16
New Orleans, LA 70112
E-mail: kdesalv@tulane.edu
Phone: 504-988-7518
Fax: 504-988-8252
Education
MD, Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, Louisiana
MPH, Tulane University School of Public Health and TropicalMedicine, New Orleans, Louisiana
MSc in Clinical Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts
Biography
Karen DeSalvo, MD, MPH, MSc is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the Tulane School of Medicine and has adjunct appointments in the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in the both the Departments of Health Systems Management and Epidemiology. She is currently the Section Chief of General Internal Medicine and Geriatrics and holds the C. Thorpe Ray Chair in Internal Medicine. She also serves as the Co-director for the Center for Health Equality Research.
She received her Bachelor of Arts Degree, from Suffolk University in Boston, Massachusetts where she majored in Biology and Political Science. She matriculated to Tulane University Health Sciences Center where she simultaneously received her Medical Doctorate and Masters of Public Health. She remained at Tulane as a resident and Chief Resident in Internal Medicine. She completed a fellowship in General Internal Medicine at Tulane University Health Sciences Center and was a fellow in the Program in Clinical Effectiveness at Harvard University. She received a Masters in Clinical Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health in May of 2002.
She joined the faculty of the Department of Medicine in 1996 and served as the Director of the Medicine Clinic at Charity Hospital and as the Assistant Chief of the Tulane Medicine Service focusing her duties on performance improvement projects.
In July of 2002, she was selected as a Robert Wood Johnson Generalist Physician Faculty Scholar and was a recipient of the NIH sponsored, institutional K12 faculty development award (Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health). She is completing a mentored research award funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
Research
Dr. DeSalvo’s research interests include developing strategies to identifying high risk patients with chronic disease and developing patient-centered care delivery systems for them.
Selected Publications
1. DeSalvo KB. “Cultural Barriers to Wellness.” The Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 73:705, 1998.
2. Bollinger K et al. “Health Care for the Homeless: A Public Health Concern.” Journal of the Louisiana State Medical Society. 145(7), 321-3. July, 1993.
3. DeSalvo KB, Bowdish B, Alper A, Grossman D, Merrill W. “Physician Variation in Revisit Interval Assignment.” Archives of Internal Medicine. 160(2), 205-208, January 2000.
4. Butt A, Dascomb KK. DeSalvo KB, Bazzano L, Kissinger P, Szerlip HZ. “Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection in Elderly Patients.” Southern Medical Journal. 94(4), 397-400, 2001.
5. Block JP, DeSalvo KB, Fisher WP. “Are physicians equipped to address the obesity epidemic?” Preventive Medicine. Vol 36, 669-675. June 2003.
6. DeSalvo KB, Block JP, Muntner P, Merrill W. “Predictors of variation in office visit interval assignment.” International Journal for Quality in Health Care. Vol 15 (5), 399-405, October 2003.
7. Block JP, Schribner R, DeSalvo KB. “Fast food, race and income: a geographical analysis.” American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Vol. 27 (3), 211-217, October 2004.
8. Hartnett ME, Key IJ, Loyacano NM, Horswell RL, DeSalvo KB. “Perceived Barriers to Diabetic Eye Care: Qualitative study of patients and doctors.” Archives of Ophthalmology. Vol 123, 387-391, March 2005.
9. DeSalvo KB, Fan VS, McDonell M, Fihn SD. “Predicting Mortality and Health Care Utilization with a Single Question.” Health Services Research. 2005 Aug; Vol. 40(4):1234-46.
10. Muntner, Wildman, Reynolds, DeSalvo, Chen, Fonseca. “Glycosylated Hemoglobin Level and Peripheral Arterial Disease in Non-diabetic and Diabetic Adults.” Diabetes Care. 2005 Aug; Vol. 28 (8):1981-7.
11. Wood MK, Muntner P, Jannu A, DeSalvo KB, Reed R. “Reliability of a Medication Adherence Measure in an outpatient clinic setting.” Am J Med Sci, 2005 Sep; Vol. 330(3):128-133.
12. Muntner P, Menke A, DeSalvo KB Rabito F, Batuman V. “Continued Decline in Blood Lead Levels among Adults in the United States: The National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys.” Arch Intern Med. 2005 Oct 10; Vol. 165(18):2155-61.
13. DeSalvo KB, Muntner P, Fox E. “Community-Based Health Care for ‘The City that Care Forgot’”, J Urban Health. Dec; 82 (4):520-3, Dec 2005.
14. DeSalvo KB, Gregg JV, Kleinpeter M, Pederson B, Stepter A, Peabody, J Cardiac risk underestimation in urban, black women. J Gen Intern Med. 2005 Dec; Vol. 20(12):1127-31.
15. DeSalvo KB, “September 19th, A letter from New Orleans” Ann Intern Med, Vol. 143(12):905-6, December, 2005.
16. DeSalvo KB, Fisher WP, Tran K, Bloser N, Merrill W, Peabody JW. Assessing Measurement Properties of Two Single-item General Health Measures. Qual Life Res. 2006 Mar;15(2):191-201
17. DeSalvo KB, Bloser N, Reynolds K, He J, Muntner P. Mortality Prediction with a Single General Self-Rated Health Question. J Gen Intern Med. 2005 Dec 7
18. DeSalvo KB, Moises J, Uddo J. “The nine o'clock meeting.” Health Aff (Millwood). Vol. 25(2):483, Mar-Apr, 2006.
19. DeSalvo KB, “Now it is the when we need it meeting”. Updates and Photographs, an online supplement to "Witness to Disaster," Narrative Matters Special Edition, Health Affairs. 25 (2). 2006: 478-490, http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/full/25/2/478/DC1
20. Peabody JW, Nordyke RJ, Tozija F, Bertenthal DS, McCulloch CE, DeSalvo KB, Munoz JA, Luck J. Quality of care and its impact on population health: A cross-sectional study from Macedonia. Soc Sci Med. 2006 May; Vol. 62(9):2216-24.
21. Muntner P, DeSalvo KB, Wildman RP, Raggi P, He J, Whelton PK. “Trends in prevalence, awareness, treatment and control of cardiovascular disease risk factors among patients with a history of myocardial infarction and stroke.” Am J of Epidemiology. 2006 May 15; 163(10):913-20.
22. DeSalvo, KB, “New Orleans Health Care After Katrina – 1 Year Out”. Johns Hopkins Advanced Studies in Medicine. Vol. 6 (7). July/August 2006.
