Joseph R. Betancourt, MD, MPH, Director, The Disparities Solutions Center; Senior Scientist, Institute for Health Policy; Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Program Director of Multicultural Education, Multicultural Affairs Office, New York (United States)

Dr. Betancourt's primary interests include racial and ethnic disparities in health care, cross-cultural medicine, minority recruitment into the health professions, and minority health/health policy research. He has served as Principal Investigator on grants from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Commonwealth Fund, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the California Endowment, in addition to being co-investigator on a project funded by the National Cancer Institute and the Health Resources and Services Administration.

Dr. Betancourt has served on several Institute of Medicine (IOM) Committees, including those that produced “Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Health Care”, “Guidance for a National Health Care Disparities Report”, and “In the Nation's Compelling Interest: Ensuring Diversity in the Health Care Workforce.” and served on the IOM Roundtable on Health Literacy. He was a member of the Massachusetts State Committee on Racial/Ethnic Disparities and served on the Boston Public Health Commission Committee on Racial/Ethnic Disparities. Dr. Betancourt currently co-chairs the Massachusetts General Hospital Committee on Racial/Ethnic Disparities and the Harvard Medical School Cross-Cultural Care Committee.

Dr. Betancourt has authored peer-reviewed articles on topics including racial/ethnic disparities in health and health care; public health; hypertension, diabetes, and cerebrovascular disease in minority communities; cross-cultural care and education; clinical decision making; ethics; workforce diversity; and the impact of language barriers on health care. Dr. Betancourt also teaches cross-cultural medicine, health disparities, and health policy to medical students and residents at MGH-Harvard Medical School and to students at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Dr. Betancourt received his Bachelor of Science from the University of Maryland, his medical degree from the UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School, and completed his residency in Internal Medicine at the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center. Following residency, he completed The Commonwealth Fund-Harvard University Fellowship in Minority Health Policy, and received his Masters in Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health.