Medical Student
University of Miami Miller School of Medicine
Disclosure(s): No financial relationships to disclose
Jennie Vyas is a second-year student in the MD-MPH program at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. She has an educational background in public health, psychology, and chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania. She is passionate about investigating and working to reduce racial and cultural disparities in psychiatric care, especially as it pertains to mental health in chronic illness.
Jennie first engaged in psychiatry research with Dr. Stewart Anderson at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia on a study that explored therapeutic neuronal transplantation as a treatment for autism, epilepsy, and schizophrenia. After participating in the Penn Program for Public Service, she wrote a white paper assessing implications of the opioid epidemic and barriers to opioid knowledge. From this project, she developed an independent research study examining undergraduates’ knowledge of and interactions with opioids under the mentorship of Dr. Peggy Compton, which culminated in a first-author publication in 2021. Inspired to combat addiction stigma, Jennie collaborated with Dr. Rebecca Stewart to investigate ideological and practical barriers to medication-assisted treatment, which resulted in a publication in 2020. From 2021 to 2022, Jennie worked full-time as a Clinical Research Coordinator for Dr. Salimah Meghani at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing on a project investigating racial disparities among cancer patients using opioid medications for pain management and associated psychiatric outcomes. Currently at the Miller School of Medicine, she is engaged in research projects to improve diagnosis and treatment of delirium and assess PTSD in survivors of cancer in young adulthood.
