Shawna Hudson Is Elected to National Academy of Medicine

For more than two decades, Shawna Hudson has been making inroads – through research and work in the community – to improve the health of underserved populations.

This week, the Rutgers Health medical sociologist joins the ranks of 100 new members invited to join the National Academy of Medicine. Considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine, membership in the academy recognizes individuals who have made major contributions to the advancement of the medical sciences, health care and public health.

The academy selected Hudson, the vice chancellor for dissemination and implementation science for Rutgers Health and senior associate dean for population health research at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, for her “seminal work to address vital U.S. health system implementation challenges for vulnerable populations.”

“Her research shapes policy and practice to integrate care of cancer and other chronic illnesses for patients and families in the context of their communities during the critical transitions between specialty and primary care, and long-term cancer survivorship,” academy officials said in a statement.

A medical sociologist, Hudson is a community-engaged, primary care researcher working with vulnerable populations at the intersections of community health, primary care and specialty care. With over 130 publications and $20 million in current National Institutes for Health and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) funding, Hudson has published extensively on the role of primary care in long-term follow-up care for cancer survivors and is currently focused on enhancing the quality of care provided in our healthcare systems using implementation science approaches. 

“It is a distinct honor to be elected into the National Academy of Medicine. I am thankful for their recognition of the importance of scholarship focused on person-centered care, whole health and health equity,” said Hudson. “I am looking forward to the opportunity to work with this group and continue to move the needle on how we can work in primary and specialty care to implement high quality system and care solutions that make patient care better for people in our communities.”

Through her research, Hudson aims to increase the capacity of patients, community stakeholders and health care organizations to understand and use evidence-based guidelines for preventive health care and chronic disease management. She leads the New Jersey–based AHRQ Learning Health System Embedded Scientist Training and Research (LHS E-STaR) Center, which trains the next generation of scientists to evaluate and improve patient-centered care.

As a member of the academy, Hudson will have a national platform and network to continue her work in addressing these critical issues in health and will work alongside the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering to provide independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation and inform public policy decisions.

“We are extraordinarily proud of Shawna Hudson’s election to the National Academy of Medicine, which reflects the high esteem of her peers,” said Brian Strom, chancellor of Rutgers Health. “Her expertise will further advance the academy’s mission of tackling today’s urgent health challenges, inform policy and reduce health inequities by uniting strategies in patient care delivery with public health policy initiatives.”

Hudson is the associate director of the New Jersey Alliance for Clinical and Translational Science, a Clinical and Translational Science Award consortium of Rutgers University, Princeton University and the New Jersey Institute of Technology. She led its $5 million NIH-funded Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics for Underserved Populations initiative to improve outreach and access to COVID-19 testing within New Jersey’s vulnerable and underserved communities.

Hudson is the founding director of Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School’s Center Advancing Research and Evaluation for Person-Centered Care and a research member of the Rutgers Cancer Institute in the Cancer Prevention and Control Program. A member of the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research, Hudson has a secondary faculty appointment in the  Rutgers School of Public Health.

A gubernatorial appointed member of the  New Jersey Commission on Cancer Research, Hudson served as a member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s Committee on Implementing High-Quality Primary Care and Committee on Transforming Health Care to Create Whole Health: Strategies to Assess, Scale, and Spread the Whole Person Approach to Health. She is also an elected fellow of the Society of Behavioral Medicine and serves as a member of the Stand Up to Cancer Health Equity Committee.