Monica Peek, MD, MPH

Dr. Monica Peek is an Associate Professor at the University of Chicago, where works as a clinician, bioethicist, and health services researcher.  Dr. Peek is the Director of Research (and Associate Director) at the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics, the Associate Director of the Chicago Center for Diabetes Translation Research, and the Executive Medical Director of Community Health Innovation. Her research pursues health equity and social justice, with a focus on promoting shared decision-making among marginalized patient populations, integrating the medical and social needs of patients, and addressing healthcare discrimination and structural racism that impact health outcomes (e.g., diabetes, COVID-19).

Dr. Peek has authored over 100 peer-reviewed research papers and publications, and has served as the principal investigator of multiple grants from institutions such as the Greenwall Foundation, NIH/NIDDK, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Merck Foundation.  Dr. Peek is a Senior Associate Editor for the journal Health Services Research and a recent member of the National Advisory Council (NAC) for the Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality (AHRQ) and the National Council for the Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM).

Dr. Peek was named one of the “Top 40 under 40” in Chicago and has been ranked among Chicago’s Top Female Physicians. She has been featured in national media outlets such as NPR, PRI/The World, CNN, Democracy Now, CBS, ABC, TIME Magazine, ESSENCE Magazine, the Melissa Harris Perry show, and The Huffington Post.

Shared Decision-Making among Vulnerable Populations: The Confluence of Bioethics, Health Disparities and Medical Decision-Making

Grant Cycle: 2014-2015

African Americans and other vulnerable populations suffer disproportionately from disparities in health care and health outcomes. Dr. Peek’s project combines bioethics, medical decision-making and health disparities empirical research to improve the health of vulnerable populations. Her aims are: 1) To explore physician beliefs, attitudes and behaviors regarding race and culture, and evaluate how it affects the patient/provider relationship, particularly with regard to shared decision-making and the balance of patient autonomy and physician beneficence, 2) To explore physician beliefs, attitudes and behaviors regarding the bioethical principle of distributive justice, particularly as a means to address health disparities, and the perceived role/responsibilities of individual physicians to address racial disparities in healthcare and health outcomes within the United States, and 3) To develop theory-driven, evidence-based strategies that improve how physicians interact with racial/ethnic minorities, encourage doctors to take a shared decision-making approach with patients, and ultimately reduce health disparities.