John Billimek, PhD

Associate Professor and Vice Chair for Academic Affairs
Department of Family Medicine
School of Medicine

Co-Director, Program in Medical Education for the Latino Community (PRIME-LC) Residency Track
www.familymed.uci.edu/residency/primelc.asp

Principal Investigator, the HELIOS lab
theHELIOSlab.org  | twitter: @theHELIOSlab

Curriculum Vitae 

Professional Bio

Research

Expansion of health insurance coverage alone may not improve health outcomes for low income patients if care is not delivered in a way that is responsive to their needs. My research aims to understand why wide racial and socioeconomic disparities in health outcomes exist among patients with chronic diseases for which there are accepted guidelines for prevention and treatment, even among individuals who can access affordable health care.

As a health equity researcher with the HELIOS lab in the UC Irvine Department of Family Medicine, I do research addressing two overarching questions: What are the barriers, in terms of social determinants of health, cultural preferences, and patient characteristics, that prevent underserved patients from realizing the full benefit of effective medical therapies? And, can healthcare be delivered in a way that is more responsive to these barriers?

Teaching

As Co-Director of the Program in Medical Eduation for the Latino Community (PRIME-LC) Track in the UCI Family Medicine Residency Program, I provide mentorship in community engagement, advocacy and leadership and help guide our Health Equity, Social Justice and Advocacy (HSA) curriculum–co-developed by our residents and community leaders and experts from outside of academic medicine. I also serve as the Director of Research for our department, and lead the Scholarly Activities curriculum for Family Medicine residents to help our trainees apply rigorous methods to answer the important questions they uncover in their clinical and community work.  

In 2017, we established the HELIOS lab, a mentored health disparities also mentor a team of student researchers designing and conducting health disparities research studies in several clinic and community sites.

NIH/NLM MyBibliography |   Google Scholar Profile  |  Academia.edu Profile

Contact Information

Department of Family Medicine
200 S. Manchester Ave., Suite 835
Orange, CA 92868
Phone: 949-824-3065

Email: john.billimek@uci.edu
Twitter: @johnbillimek

Key Research Areas

Medication adherence, diabetes, health disparities, social determinants of health, doctor-patient communication, and chronic disease management

Education

Ph.D., University of California, Irvine, 2007, Psychology and Social Behavior