Women in Health Innovation Spotlight: Dr. Adrienne Poon
Dr. Adrienne Poon, Associate Professor of Medicine at The George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences (GW SMHS), brings a wealth of experience in public health and global health. She's an Assistant Program Director for GW's Internal Medicine Residency and Co-Director of the GW Graduate Medical Education Community Health and Advocacy Track. She is also a visiting faculty member at the University of Global Health Equity in Rwanda. Her current research includes studying racial/ethnic health disparities, particularly among Asian Americans.
Previously, Dr. Poon supported the global HIV/AIDS response as a US Centers for Disease Control (CDC)/Association of Schools of Public Health fellow in Beijing and was an HIV/AIDS epidemiologist with the World Health Organization’s Vietnam Office. She was previously a global health research fellow with the Usher Institute at the University of Edinburgh.
Beyond her academic roles, Dr. Poon actively advocates for Asian American health equity. She's the past president of OCA-Greater Washington DC Chapter, where she addressed anti-Asian racism during the pandemic and co-chaired OCA's 50th Anniversary National Convention. Her research has been published in prominent journals such as JAMA Network Online and Health Affairs. Dr. Poon holds a BS from Tufts, MPH from Drexel University, and a MD from Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. She completed her internal medicine residency at GW SMHS.
What inspired you to pursue a career in medicine? Can you share any mentorship experience that influenced you and your career?
I had wanted to pursue a career in medicine since I was a child and I love the process of clinical problem-solving and working with patients. During my undergraduate studies, I became greatly interested in both global health as well as Asian American immigrant and community issues. Dr. Grace Ma, Director of the Center for Asian Health at Temple University, was one of my earliest mentors and taught me so much about the field of Asian American health, and gave me foundational training in research that supported my growth and development as a researcher. This experience greatly inspired me to incorporate public health practice into my medical career. After graduation from my MPH program, I moved to Beijing, China, to work under the PEPFAR, US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief program, and am highly appreciative of all that I learned about the role of health diplomacy to improve population health globally. These opportunities further shaped my research interests in global health and the Chinese healthcare system. Together, these experiences and the mentorship I received were all foundational for my career path in global health and local population health equity, my current research, and my teaching responsibilities in clinical public health.
Can you share experiences from your time working with the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) China program? What is it like traveling to other countries and working on healthcare in a new way?
One of my formative experiences in public health was as an ASPH/CDC Rosenfield Global Health Management Fellow, where I was placed with the US CDC Global AIDS Program in Beijing, China, for two years and supported the management of the PEPFAR program. I learned so much about international collaboration in global health and about the public health system infrastructure in China. A large focus on the work of our team was to support improvements in the HIV/AIDS prevention, diagnosis, management, and treatment in China and help formulate innovative models of care. I found that being an Asian American was an asset because I was able to serve as a bridge between colleagues from the US and China. During that time, I also developed a special interest in HIV and sexually transmitted infections among female sex workers and traveled to various under-resourced regions in China to better understand the health risks experienced by the most at-risk members of this community.
You’ve done lots of work surrounding healthcare for under-resourced communities as well as studied health disparities. What do you think are some of the biggest challenges in addressing health disparities among under-resourced populations, and how has your research worked to overcome them?
I have always been interested in how the social and structural determinants of health and their impact on health equity lead to health disparities. I am especially interested in understanding both global and local contexts that shape the health of populations in Asia and Asian Americans, including immigrant communities. The healthcare system that a person lives in, access to health resources, and socioeconomic factors all strongly impact the health of these populations. This has been something that I have been long interested in exploring both globally and in the US. The more that we understand the barriers to healthcare, the more opportunities there are to design and implement interventions or policy changes to address the underlying structural gaps that may contribute to poor health.
You’ve been involved in many domestic and international health initiatives to understand unmet needs in the health system. Can you share one example you’re currently working on that excites you?
One of the global health projects that I have been engaged with in the last few years is to be a part of the internal medicine curriculum development committee for the University of Global Health Equity (UGHE) in Rwanda. This team includes medical faculty from both Africa and the United States working together to develop and implement the internal medicine clinical clerkship curriculum for junior and senior medical school students at UGHE. One of the goals of this medical school has been to train high-quality physicians to help address healthcare provider shortages across Rwanda, including in under-resourced rural regions. Over the last several years, I have been able to travel there multiple times to participate in teaching clinical internal medicine both at the District Hospital, partnering with UGHE, as well as a tertiary care hospital in the capital. It has been a really rewarding opportunity to meet the students and learn about their passion for improving healthcare in Rwanda through medicine and public health, and see the students growing in their clinical skills from junior to senior students. The first medical school class that has been trained at UGHE is now practicing in internships across the Rwandan healthcare system. I am especially excited to see how the students trained at the school developed into their medical careers and the impacts on healthcare and the health system in Rwanda over time.
With all the changes in public health, how are you addressing current challenges, and what are the next steps for your research?
My work in Asian American population health originated from my involvement with OCA-DC. During the COVID-19 pandemic, I began speaking out against the anti-Asian hate experienced by Asian Americans and highlighting the direct link between discrimination and health outcomes. This led me to establish OCA-DC's first community health outreach internships, focusing on COVID-19 vaccine outreach for Asian Americans, especially immigrant populations.
This foundational work paved the way for creating our health equity team at OCA-DC. Through strategic planning, we identified a critical gap in addressing the health needs of our local communities: the lack of disaggregated data, particularly by ethnicity. Despite the current uncertainties in health equity research, there has been significant interest from the local Asian American community in our findings. Our team is incredibly excited to continue this research, building a stronger foundation for our partners and us to advance Asian American population health equity through interventions, programs, and policy changes. The widespread local enthusiasm, support, and willingness to collaborate for positive change within Asian American communities are truly inspiring.
