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Contact Information: Select Publications Altman S, Reinhardt U, Shields AE, eds. The Future U.S. Health Care System: Who Will Care for the Poor and Uninsured? Chicago, IL: Health Administration Press; 1998. Altman S, Reinhardt U, Shields AE. Health care for the poor and uninsured: an uncertain future. In Altman S, Reinhardt U, Shields AE, eds. The Future U.S. Health Care System: Who Will Care for the Poor and Uninsured? Chicago, IL: Health Administration Press; 1998. Shields AE , Finkelstein J, Comstock C, Weiss KB. Process of care for Medicaid-enrolled children with asthma served by community health centers and other providers. Medical Care. 2002; 40(4): 303-314. Wilfond BS, Geller G, Lerman C, Audrain-McGovern J, Shields AE. Ethical issues in conducting behavioral genetics research: the case of smoking prevention trials among adolescents. Journal of Health Care, Law & Policy. 2002; 6(1): 73-88. Audrain J, Tercyak KP, Shields AE, Bush A, Espinel CF, Lerman C. Which adolescents are most receptive to tobacco industry marketing? Implications for counter-advertising campaigns.Health Communication. 2003; 15(4): 499-513. Baker TB, Hatsukami DK, Lerman C, O’Malley SS, Shields AE, Fiore MC. Transdisciplinary science applied to the evaluation of treatments for tobacco use. Nicotine and Tobacco Research. 2003; 5(Suppl 1): 589-599. Lerman C, Patterson F, Shields AE. Genetic basis of substance use and dependence: implications for prevention in high-risk youth. In Romer D., ed. Reducing Adolescent Risk: Toward an Integrated Approach. Sage Publications; 2003: 149-170. Shields AE , Comstock C, Finkelstein JA, Weiss KB. Comparing asthma care provided to Medicaid-enrolled children in a primary care case manager plan and a staff model HMO. Ambulatory Pediatrics. 2003; 3(5): 253-262. Unger JB, Cruz T, Shakib S, Mock J, Shields AE, Baezconde-Garbanati L, Palmer P, Cruz JD, Edsall EW, Gritz ER, Glynn T, Johnson CA. Exploring the cultural context of tobacco use: a transdisciplinary framework. Nicotine and Tobacco Research. 2003; 5(Suppl 1): S101-S117. Lerman C, Shields AE. Genetic testing for cancer susceptibility: the promise and the pitfalls. Nature Reviews Cancer. 2004; 4(3): 235-241. Shields AE , Comstock C, Weiss KB. Variations in asthma care by race/ethnicity among children enrolled in a state Medicaid program. Pediatrics. 2004; 113(3): 496-504. Shields AE , Lerman C, Sullivan P. Integrating genetics into smoking treatment: emerging ethical, social and legal issues. Nicotine and Tobacco Research. 2004; 6(4): 675-688. Shields, A.E., Fortun, M., Hammonds, E., King, P.A., Lerman, C., Rapp R., Sullivan, P.F. The use of race variables in genetic studies of complex traits and the goal of reducing health disparities: A transdisciplinary perspective. American Psychologist. 2005; 6(1):77-103. Shields AE , Blumenthal D, Weiss KB, Comstock CB, Currivan D, Lerman C. Barriers to translating emerging genetic research on smoking into clinical practice: perspectives of primary care physicians. Journal of General Internal Medicine. 2005; 20(2):131-138. Munafo MR, Lerman C, Niaura R, Shields AE, Swan GE. Smoking cessation treatment: Pharmacogenetic assessment. Current Opinion in Molecular Therapeutics. 2005; 7:202-208. Munafo MR, Shields, AE, Berrettini, WH, Patterson, F, Lerman, C. Pharmacogenetics and nicotine addiction. Pharmacogenomics. 2005; 6(3):211-223. Lerman C, Shields AE, Munafo M. Pharmacogenetic approaches to the treatment of nicotine dependence. In George TP, ed. Medications Treatments for Nicotine Dependence. In press. Shields AE . Trends in private insurance, Medicaid/SCHIP, and the health care safety net: Implications for asthma disparities. Chest. (in press). Park E, Kleimann S, Pelan J, Shields AE. Anticipating clinical integration of genetically-tailored tobacco dependence treatment: Perspectives of primary care physicians. Nicotine and Tobacco Research. (in press). Schnoll R.A., Rukstalis M., Wileyto P., Shields AE. Practice of smoking cessation treatment by primary care physicians: an update and renewed call for physician training. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. (in press).
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Alexandra E. Shields, PhD
Alexandra E. Shields, PhD is Director of the newly formed Harvard/MGH Center on Genomics, Vulnerable Populations and Health Disparities. She holds faculty appointments in Medicine (Health Policy) at the Harvard Medical School and at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Prior to joining the Harvard faculty, Dr. Shields was Associate Research Professor in Public Policy at Georgetown University. Dr. Shields received her PhD in Social Policy from the Heller School, Brandeis University, where she was a Pew Health Policy Scholar and an AHCPR Fellow.
While at Brandeis, she also served as staff researcher for the national Council on the Economic Impact of Health System Change. Prior to her doctoral work, Dr. Shields held several senior positions in state government, including Director of the Bureau of Ambulatory Care for the Massachusetts Rate Setting Commission (now the Division for Health Care Finance and Policy), where she set reimbursement policy for all publicly purchased ambulatory services in the state.
She also holds a B.A., summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, in Sociology and Theology, and a Master’s degree, with distinction, in Systematic Theology from Boston College, where she was the Bernard J. Lonergan Scholar in Theology.
Dr. Shields has more than 15 years experience working on issues related to access to health care for low-income and uninsured individuals, in both government and academic settings. Dr. Shields’ principal research interests include issues related to the quality of care provided to underserved populations, strategies to reduce health disparities, and challenges associated with clinical integration of new genetic technologies.
Dr. Shields has been a PI on studies assessing provider performance and racial disparities in the quality of asthma care provided to Medicaid-enrolled children, as well as the adequacy of the health care safety net in the U.S. She served as a senior consultant and staff writer for the IOM study, America’s Health Care Safety Net: Intact but Endangered. She is also co-editor, with Stuart Altman and Uwe Reinhardt, of the volume, The Future U.S. Healthcare System: Who Will Care for the Poor and Uninsured?
Over the past 6 years, Dr. Shields has focused her attention on challenges in translating genetics research into clinical practice, with a particular focus on the impact on vulnerable populations. She is cur rently PI on a 5-year grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to study clinical and ethical issues related to tailoring smoking cessation treatment by genotype.
Dr. Shields also recently received a P20 planning grant from NHGRI/ELSI to develop a Center of Excellence in ELSI Research on the theme of “Genomics, Vulnerable Populations and Health Disparities.”
This Center will examine the complex intersection of emerging genetics research and the persistent problem of health disparities through in-depth analyses of three key clinical areas: tobacco dependence, asthma, and diabetes, as well as a range of health services research and health policy analyses addressing the impact of genomic medicine on public health and underserved populations more broadly.
Most recently, Dr. Shields is PI of a new NHGRI R01 project investigating attitudes and beliefs of Black and white Americans regarding the role of genetics in addiction, and among a subset of smokers, their willingness to undergo genetic testing in order to be matched to optimal treatment.
Dr. Shields is also founder and director of the Consortium on Complex Chronic Illness, Quality and Equity, a unique public-private partnership involving Harvard University, Northwestern University, the VA, Medstat and Ingenix.
In this capacity, she currently leads a research program under a federal contract with HHS examining health outcomes for patients with highly prevalent chronic conditions enrolled in private health plans, Medicaid, TRICARE, and the VA.
