Monica Peek, MD, MPH, MSc is an Associate Professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the University of Chicago where she provides clinical care, teaches, and does health services research in the area of health disparities. She received her medical degree and master’s degree in public health from Johns Hopkins University and completed her residency training at Stanford University Hospital. She then worked for the National Health Service Corps for two years at a community health center for the medically underserved in Ohio before relocating to Chicago.
Dr. Peek’s main research interest involves patient/provider communication, with an emphasis on shared decision-making (SDM) among racial/ethnic minorities with diabetes. Her current research projects include research exploring patient and provider SDM behaviors among patients with chronic diseases (e.g. diabetes), qualitative and quantitative studies exploring racial differences in shared decision-making among Latinos with diabetes, and research exploring associations between self-reported healthcare discrimination and diabetes.
Dr. Peek is the Principal Investigator of a multi-site intervention funded by an NIDDK R18 grant and the Merck Foundation to improve diabetes care and outcomes on the South Side of Chicago, a primarily working-class African-American community with significant disparities in diabetes health outcomes such as lower extremity amputations. The intervention utilizes an integrated approach that includes culturally tailored patient activation training, a diabetes quality improvement collaborative (e.g. implementing care coordination), cultural competency/communication training for clinicians, and enhanced community partnerships (e.g. utilizing food prescription/vouchers redeemable at local farmer’s markets and grocers).
As a member of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) program office Finding Answers: Disparities Research for Change,ÿDr. Peek led the systematic review of healthcare interventions to reduce disparities in diabetes care and outcomes. She has also been funded by RWJF and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) to explore racial differences in patient/provider communication and to pilot patient-empowerment interventions to enhance such communication among blacks with diabetes. In addition, Dr. Peek was part of the NIDDK strategic planning committee whose 2010 report? Advances and Emerging Opportunities in Diabetes Research? set forth the diabetes research agenda for the next 5-10 years.
Dr. Peek also does research on the development and evaluation of community-based, culturally-tailored interventions to promote healthy behaviors and preventive care, including women’s health (i.e. breast cancer screening), physical activity, and diabetes self-management.
