Claudia Uribe, MD, MHA

After graduating from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana’s Medical School in Bogotá-Colombia, Dr. Uribe became involved with research primarily related to chronic conditions and contributing risk factors on a collaborative project between the Colombian National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  Soon, she became increasingly interested on how these chronic conditions could impact a country’s health care system, and how the system could be intervened to improve the incidence and prevalence of these and other diseases, as well as health outcomes and healthcare efficiency in general.

With this interest in mind, she enrolled in the Master’s Program in Health Policy and Administration at The Ohio State University, focusing her dissertation around the topic of medical error reporting.

She then returned to her home country and worked for several years with a managed care organization around the areas of quality, efficiency, and innovations within the medical division.  She relocated to the U.S. in 2005 to work at Florida International University’s Stempel School of Public Health on a CDC funded HIV primary prevention research project.

Now as part of the HSRC team, Uribe says “this is exactly where I want to be.  There’s so many cutting-edge research being conducted here, and so much potential for studies that can result in a positive impact for the patient and the healthcare system overall; it’s very exciting!  The HSRC is the perfect environment for applying my medical background and experience in healthcare policy and administration, as well as my developing knowledge in epidemiology.”

Dr. Uribe is currently enrolled in the PhD program in Epidemiology at Florida International University, and expects to graduate in 2009.