Qualitative research of health policy and addressing the upstream drivers of health

Na’amah Razon is a family physician and medical anthropologist who brings a unique lens to understanding how social and structural factors shape health outcomes. Her research group focuses on how healthcare systems can better address social risk, including factors like transportation, housing, language access, and insurance coverage that deeply influence a person’s health and wellbeing. Rather than treating these issues as peripheral, Razon’s research places them at the center of research and clinical care.

She is the director of the Addressing Transportation or Mobility (ATOM) in Health lab which focuses on studying the impact of transportation insecurity on health and how patients and caregivers navigate the healthcare system. Her key projects investigate how dialysis centers and primary care clinics screen for and respond to patients’ social needs. Her most recently project, MOBILIZE (Mobility and Transportation Solutions to Improve Hemodialysis Access), is a four-year NIDDK grant focused on studying the impact of transportation insecurity on individuals with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) treated with in-center hemodialysis. This is an extension of her prior work on this population that found that patients with ESKD experiencing transportation insecurity were more likely to miss dialysis appointments and had higher mortality in a year of follow up (Razon et al, CJASN 2025).

MOBILIZE will be examining the links between transportation and other social risks, validating a novel transportation screening tool, and investigating the role of home dialysis modalities as a component of robust support to address transportation needs for patients with chronic illnesses such as kidney disease. Her future work plans to examine the impact of transportation insecurity across the kidney care cascade, from prevention to transplant, and engage in policy changes to improve transportation interventions for patients. 

Through qualitative methods and community partnerships, Razon’s work not only diagnoses systemic problems—it also helps design solutions. Her research is a powerful example of how medicine can be reimagined to serve not just individuals, but entire communities

Major Awards FY 2024-2025:

  • MOBILIZE: Mobility & Transportation Solutions to improve Hemodialysis Access
  • BUILD-PC: Building Primary Care Workforce Capacity in the Dementia Diagnostic Process
  • Understanding the Health and Long-Term Supports and Services Needs of People with Dementia and their Caregivers from Diverse Migration Experiences