Masha Slavin, Harita Shah, and Sarah Kimball, experts in immigrant and refugee health, share powerful insights from their diverse backgrounds in medicine. They discuss the impact of racism on healthcare access, highlighting systemic barriers like language and immigration policies. The conversation covers the multifaceted challenges immigrant populations face, emphasizing the importance of culturally sensitive care. They also advocate for community-engaged research and collaboration, aiming to build sustainable partnerships that improve health outcomes for underserved groups.
43:00
forum Ask episode
web_stories AI Snips
view_agenda Chapters
menu_book Books
auto_awesome Transcript
info_circle Episode notes
question_answer ANECDOTE
Early Roots Shaping A Career
Harita Shah describes growing up as a child of immigrants and learning Spanish which drew her to Latino patient care.
Her mentorship with Kapline Page led to community-engaged research and PrEP access work in Chicago.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Journeys That Inspired Clinical Focus
Masha Slavin recounts studying abroad and living in Guatemala which solidified her interest in primary care for underserved populations.
Joining Bellevue's Program for Survivors of Torture expanded her clinical and scholarly work in immigrant health.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Building Systems To Bridge Gaps
Sarah Kimball describes choosing primary care to combine human rights interests with continuity care and system-building.
She built Boston Medical Center's Immigrant and Refugee Health Center to operationalize responsive systems.
Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode
Episode 25 – Immigrant and Refugee Health: Live from SGIM 2025: Best of Antiracism Research at the Society of General Internal Medicine’s Annual Meeting
Show Notes by Alec J. Calac
September 15, 2025
Summary: This episode highlights a selection of antiracism research presentations at a live recording of the podcast at the 2025 Society for General Internal Medicine (SGIM) Annual Meeting. This year’s episode, our fifth conducted at SGIM, is focused on immigrant and refugee health. During this episode, we speak with experts Dr. Harita Shah, an internal medicine/pediatrics specialist at the University of Chicago who has conducted extensive community-engaged participatory research, Dr. Masha Slavin, an internist and Director of Primary Care for Bellevue’s Program for Survivors of Torture, and Dr. Sarah Kimball, an Associate Professor at Boston University Chobonian and Avedisian School of Medicine and Director of the Immigrant and Refugee Health Center (IRHC) at Boston Medical Center. This episode is hosted by Asya Pitre and Ashley Cooper. The show notes for this episode were written by Alec Calac.
Important Note: This episode represents the views of the podcast participants and is not necessarily representative of the institutions at which they work and practice.
Episode Learning Objectives
After listening to this episode, learners will be able to…
Understand how xenophobia and racism (at the interpersonal, institutional, and structural levels) impact the health experiences of immigrant and refugee populations.
Evaluate how community-based participatory research plays a pivotal role in providing comprehensive care to immigrant and refugee populations.
Identify critical points of intervention (including decreasing linguistic barriers, utilizing a trauma-informed approach, and promoting an inclusive environment) to bolster health outcomes amongst immigrant and refugee communities.
Credits
Written and produced by: Ashley Cooper, MS, MPhil; Asya Pitre, DO; Alec Calac, PhD
Hosts: Asya Pitre, Ashley Cooper
Infographic: Ashley Cooper
Audio Edits: Ashley Cooper
Show Notes: Alec Calac
Guests: Dr. Harita Shah, MD, Dr. Sarah Kimball, MD & Dr. Masha Slavin, MD
Speaker Biographies:
Dr. Masha Slavin, MD, is a primary care physician at Bellevue Hospital, a large public hospital in New York City, and a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine. In her role as the director of primary care for Bellevue’s Program for Survivors of Torture, she works with a multidisciplinary team of behavioral health, legal, and social work colleagues in caring for people who have experienced human rights violations. Her particular interests are in medical education on immigrant health, with the goal of improving clinicians’ comfort level in caring for this patient population and in improving workflows that facilitate care. She also enjoys working with medical students as an advisor to the NYU Grossman School of Medicine’s Asylum Clinic.
Dr. Harita Shah, MD, is a med-peds primary care physician and an Assistant Professor in General Internal Medicine at the University of Chicago. Dr. Shah trained at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the Urban Health Medicine-Pediatrics residency program. Her research focuses on the combination of community-based participatory research (CBPR) and implementation science to improve access to preventive care for underserved populations. She has directed 3 community-engaged public health campaigns, including most recently the PrEPárate campaign promoting access to PrEP among Latino/a/e sexual and gender minority individuals in Chicago (preparate.info). Her current research includes a community-driven project to understand best practices for serving Latinx populations, with a goal of informing health equity initiatives.
Dr. Sarah Kimball, MD, is a board-certified internist and is an Associate Professor at Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine. She completed her medical school training at Harvard University Medical School and did residency training in Internal Medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Residency Program. Dr. Kimball has expertise in immigration-informed medical care, where she has helped to research and build health systems that are responsive to the needs of im/migrant patients. She is currently the Director of the Immigrant & Refugee Health Center (IRHC) at Boston Medical Center, a comprehensive medical home that addresses the barriers that immigrants face to being holistically healthy.
Radl-Karimi, C., Nielsen, D. S., Sodemann, M., Batalden, P., & von Plessen, C. (2022). “When I feel safe, I dare to open up”: Immigrant and refugee patients’ experiences with coproducing healthcare. Patient Education and Counseling, 105(7), 2338–2345.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2021.11.009
Shah, H. S., Serrano, P. A., Rodriguez-Diaz, C. E., Page, K. R., Ross, J., Wilson, S. M., & Cantos, V. D. (2025). Not a Monolith: Regional HIV Implementation Science Lessons With Latino/a/x Populations. JAIDS: Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, 98(5 Suppl), e98–e103.https://doi.org/10.1097/QAI.0000000000003611
The PrEPárate Campaign. (n.d.). PrEP for You & Me. The PrEPárate Campaign. Retrieved August 1, 2025, fromhttps://www.preparate.info/
Disclosures
The hosts and guests report no relevant financial disclosures.
Citation
Kimball S, Shah H, Slavin M, Pitre A, Cooper A, Krishnamurthy S, Calac A. “Episode 28: Live from SGIM 2025: Best of Antiracism Research at the Society of General Internal Medicine’s 2025 Annual Meeting” The Clinical Problem Solvers Podcast – Antiracism in Medicine Series. https://clinicalproblemsolving.com/antiracism-in-medicine/. September 15, 2025.
The Clinical Problem Solvers 
