Research

Our team has extensive research experience on topics related to diversity, equity and inclusion in healthcare and health professions education, as well as training in quantitative and qualitative methods, evaluation, program and policy analylsis.

Our goal is to advance research on Asian American healthcare workforce diversity and inclusion, anti-Asian racism in healthcare, and building solidarity networks within healthcare with the goal of transformation for justice.

Our current projects include:

  1. Describing the diversity of Asian Americans in healthcare and their experiences.

  2. Connecting Asian American diversity in the healthcare workforce to histories of American imperialism, colonialism and immigration policy

  3. Examining the history of organized medicine and its treatment of Asian Americans over time.

  4. Testing Asian American health curriculum modules for different sets of learners.

Our present work has been weighted towards Asian Americans in medicine, due to the backgrounds of our founding members. We are actively seeking research partners whose expertise and interests involve explorations of multiple health professions, inclusive of one or more Asian American groups. If you feel your work would benefit from our expertise, please contact us!

Research Publications

Michelle Ko, Kevin Dinh, Sarah Iv. Monica Hahn. Asian American Diversity and Representation in the Health Care Workforce, 2007 to 2022. JAMA Netw Open. 2024;7(10):e2440071. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2824975

Sreepada S, Ko M. Federal Policy Changes and Online Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Content Among US Medical Schools. JAMA Netw Open. 2026;9(6):e2616661. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2026.16661

Essays and Commentaries

Michelle Ko, Victoria Ngo, Monica Hahn. Ending DEI programs will not help Asian Americans in Health Care. Health Affairs Forefront. June 6, 2025. 10.1377/forefront.20250604.722512

Michelle Ko,Victoria Ngo, Angela Y. Zhang, Russyan M. Mabeza, and Monica Hahn, Asian Americans and Racial Justice in Medicine. N Engl J Med 390.4 (2024):372-378

Russyan M Mabeza. Dear Tatay. J Surg Res. 2024 Dec;304:287-288. doi: 10.1016/j.jss.2024.10.032

Russyan M Mabeza. Equity and a Perpetual Foreigner's Professional Exclusion. AMA J Ethics. 2021 Feb 1;23(2):E208-211. doi: 10.1001/amajethics.2021.208. PMID: 33635206.

Michelle Ko. Naming the anti-Asian racism of U.S. COVID-19 policy.' KevinMD. May 5, 2022. https://www.kevinmd.com/2022/05/naming-the-anti-asian-racism-of-u-s-covid-19-policy.html

Angela Zhang, Paul Park, Russyan Mark Mabeza, Rohan Khazanchi, Ryan Huerto. Asian Americans for Cross-racial Solidarity in Medicine. KevinMD. October 23, 2020. https://kevinmd.com/2020/10/asian-americans-for-cross-racial-solidarity-in-medicine.html

Michelle Ko and Hendry Ton. The not underrepresented minorities: Asian Americans, diversity, and admissions. Academic Medicine 95.2 (2020): 184-189.https://journals.lww.com/academicmedicine/fulltext/2020/02000/The_Not_Underrepresented_Minorities__Asian.12.aspx

Michelle Ko. Racism in my Medical Education. Health Affairs 39.6 (2020): 1087-1091.https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.2019.00743