< Back to Alumni List


Virginia W. Chang, M.D., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Medicine
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
vwchang@mail.med.upenn.edu
2007-2010 Cohort
Project Title:  "Weight Status and Quality of Care among Older Adults in the U.S."




About the Project:

This study considered whether quality of care differs by patient weight status for a variety of common, outpatient services and examined the role of potential mediating factors such as the complexity of overall clinical care.
  
Biosketch:

Virginia W. Chang, M.D., Ph.D. is Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine and Assistant Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania.  She is also a Staff Physician at the Philadelphia VAMC.  Dr. Chang is a graduate of the Inteflex Program at the University of Michigan, where she received her B.S. (Biomedical Sciences and Philosophy) and M.D. degrees.  After completing a residency in internal medicine at the University of Chicago, she received post-graduate training as a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar and completed a Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of Chicago.

Dr. Chang’s research integrates perspectives from medicine and sociology to study relationships between health and various aspects of socio-cultural life. Much of her research has focused on obesity, engaging topics such as historical shifts in the medical conceptualization of obesity; the role of health in class stratification; secular trends in the relationship between obesity and poverty; and the relationship between weight status and key features of the residential environment (e.g., racial segregation, income inequality, and neighborhood disorder). Current work examines the reciprocal relationship between weight status and SES over the life cycle; how obesity and poverty cycle across generations; and the influence of weight status on the quality of medical care.  Dr. Chang’s Physician Faculty Scholars Program project, entitled "Weight Status and Quality of Care among Older Adults in the U.S.," considered whether quality of care differs by patient weight status for a variety of common, outpatient services and examined the role of potential mediating factors such as the complexity of overall clinical care.

Dr. Chang is also the recipient of a Career Development Award from the NICHD, a Measy Foundation Award, a New Investigator Award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, an R01 from the NHLBI, and a Merit Award from the Veterans Health Administration.

In 2008 Dr. Chang received the Award for Outstanding Junior Investigator of the Year from the Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM).

< Back to Alumni List