ABOUT
Lee Anne Roman, PhD, MSN, RN is a Professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Biology, College of Human Medicine, Michigan State University and is the Director and Co-Founder of the Maternal Health Equity Lab. Dr. Roman, building on her health professional training, uses the tools of science to develop, implement, and test health care strategies and interventions designed to reduce maternal and infant socio-economic and racial/ethnic health disparities. She partners with providers, communities, and policymakers to create new knowledge that drives innovation to improve health care—and ultimately the health and life chances of vulnerable women and infants.
RESEARCH
Health care and policy innovations through partnerships with “real world” community providers, health systems and public health agencies.
Dr. Roman has decades of experience conducting community and state-based, policy relevant, partnered research to improve population maternal and infant health outcomes and reduce maternal and infant disparities. Her research partners include health systems, clinical practices, FQHC’s, health departments, community social service agencies, and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS). Dr Roman’s research is developed and shaped by clinical and public health colleagues. Through these longstanding partnerships, state and local data sources, linking administrative claims, vital records, and program data (from 2009), are used to conduct research, inform public policy, and develop and evaluate quality improvement efforts.
Research on enhanced prenatal/postnatal care (EPC) to address perinatal socio-economic and racial/ethnic health disparities among Medicaid-insured women.
Dr. Roman has led a community-based, randomized trial to test two different approaches to the provision of EPC home visiting delivered by Community Health Workers (CHW),similar in race/ethnicity with their clients, with significant mental health improvements for program participants. She has conducted health services and birth outcomes studies for state Medicaid-insured women and the Healthy Start participants, with documented reduction of adverse birth outcomes and improved service utilization, especially for African American women. The Medicaid research qualified the Michigan program to be federally designated as an evidence-based home visiting program. Dr. Roman led a five year Agency for Health Care Research and Quality (AHRQ) county-wide research demonstration project to develop and test population perinatal system of care strategies. The AHRQ findings supported selected population improvements in EPC and other health services, particularly in practice sites with community clinical linkages and for African American women.
Dr. Roman leads a five year evaluation of Michigan’s first Pay for Success program (Strong Beginnings/Healthy Start), with an annual opportunity for the Healthy Start program to achieve Medicaid success payments for reduction in preterm birth. She also leads a Michigan Medicaid-sponsored maternal care improvement project focused on African-American and Latina women that addresses provider bias, patient-provider communication, care for medically high risk women, and examines telehealth applications for home visiting programs. Dr. Roman is a co-investigator on a 5-year NIH-funded R01 project to develop, implement, and test a multilevel intervention to address disparities in maternal morbidity and mortality among African American Medicaid-insured women. She is a collaborator on the National HRSA AIM-Community Care Initiative and the further development and pilot-testing of AMI Maternal Safety Bundles for out-patient and community-based providers and agencies to reduce Severe Maternal Morbidity/Mortality.
Publications
Contact
lroman@msu.edu
Office: 517-432-3990