General Internal Medicine & Primary Care Clinical Expertise Education & Training Faculty Research Research Division of General Internal Medicine & Primary Care, Department of Medicine Home About Campus & Community Resources Medicine: General Internal Medicine & Primary Care > Research Advancing Research in Internal Medicine & Primary Care The Division of General Internal Medicine & Primary Care serves as the home for many research faculty members, who offer a variety of courses and research opportunities for both undergraduate and graduate students. Our Research Our research faculty are national leaders in studying and publishing on many topics related to healthcare disparities, quality of care and care delivery patterns. Several division faculty members currently serve as important leaders for the All of US National Precision Medicine study for which UCI School of Medicine is one of many important research locations. Dara H. Sorkin, PhD Dara H. Sorkin, PhD, is a health services researcher trained in sociology and psychology with extensive experience in developing and testing community-informed health promotion interventions for diverse populations, particularly ethnic/racially diverse adults, using social networks, innovative incentives and interventions, and the use of mobile technologies. CalMHSA Project: A large component of Dr. Sorkin’s research includes incorporating dissemination and implementation science into the study of translation of evidence-based interventions for healthcare and community settings. She is currently the principal investigator (PI) of a three-year demonstration project that the State of California funds and directs. The primary purpose of the project is to increase access to mental healthcare and support, and to promote early detection of mental health symptoms, or even predict the onset of mental illness through the utilization of multiform-factor devices (e.g., smartphones and tablets) as a mode of connection and treatment to reach people who are likely to go either unserved or underserved by traditional mental healthcare. Dr. Sorkin and Dana Mukamel, PhD, direct the iTEQC Research Program, which focuses on translational technologies and practices enhancing quality of care. Recent research programs funded by large grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the State of California include the following: CalMHSA. Investigations of the impact of telehealth on health outcomes for patients with dementia receiving home care. Studies of rural/urban disparities in the care of cancer patients. Considerations of ways to leverage technology to improve the provider-patient relationship and integrate patient and family preferences. Christine McLaren, PhD Christine McLaren, PhD, is a faculty member in the Biostatistics Shared Resource of the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center (CFCCC). She provides collaboration and service to CFCCC investigators regarding statistical methods. Currently, Dr. McLaren is the principal investigator of the Hemochromatosis and Iron Overload Screening Study (HEIRS). Her team has screened primary care patients for iron overload and hereditary hemochromatosis at UCI’s ambulatory clinics. Hoda Anton-Culver, PhD Hoda Anton-Culver, PhD, is director of the Genetic Epidemiology Research Institute (GERI) at UCI. She has more than 30 years of experience conducting population-based studies with a focus on genetic and environmental interaction in the causation of chronic diseases, particularly cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Since 2017, she has been a multiple PI for the California Precision Medicine Consortium (CAPMC) funded by the NIH through the All of Us Research Program, and starting in 2024, she will continue to be involved in the All of Us Research Program as the consortium PI for the All of Us Southern California Consortium (AoUSCC). Dr. Anton-Culver has conducted population-based studies in cancer epidemiology, control and prevention, and large cohort studies such as the California Teachers Study, the Women’s Health Initiative, the Athena mammography study, and the Wisdom breast health study. She served as PI or co-PI on many multi-investigator/multi-institutional projects and large bioinformatics centers with multi-institutional databases with biorepositories with complex genomics, biomarkers and pathology studies. Dr. Anton-Culver has designed and implemented protocols for recruitment of thousands of participants — particularly those who are unrepresented in biomedical research — as well as implemented methods to improve research data, biospecimen collection and participant retention. Her work has also involved the development of laboratory-based biomarkers, as well as assessment of modifiable risk factors for chronic disease. She has mentored many graduate students at the MS and PhD levels, MD fellows, and junior faculty, including many K07 awards. In 2022, Dr. Anton-Culver was named one of the top 1,000 Best Female Scientists in the World by Research.com. As a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics, Argyrios Ziogas, PhD, has more than 20 years of experience in epidemiology and statistical genetics research methodology. He has participated in the design and data analysis of several large cohort studies funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and has worked on the development of databases that can incorporate large data for several NCI projects, including the California Teachers Cohort, breast and colon family history registries, and several national and international consortia. His main research is the development of statistical methodology and data analysis in a number of key areas, including the development of methods that arise in analyzing correlated data, statistical models for analysis of cohort studies, statistical analysis and design of clinical trials, and the development and validation of prediction models for cancer or other medical conditions. Since 2017, Dr. Ziogas has been a co-investigator for the UCI All of Us Research Program, first with the California Precision Medicine Consortium (CAPMC) and now with the AoUSCC. His role as a co-investigator for UCI All of Us involves the design and analysis of all phases of the project that include the development of databases, implementation and generation of data elements and procedures, study design and implementation of procedures and statistical analyses. His work is to evaluate strategies based on data and design efficient study procedures to aid in recruitment, retention and engagement. Danh Nguyen, PhD Danh Nguyen, PhD, conducts research primarily focused on the development of innovative statistical methods for analyzing complex biomedical data, including large high-dimensional datasets and population databases, with applications to chronic kidney disease and end-stage kidney disease populations. Examples include development and validation of risk prediction models; methods for monitoring/profiling performance of dialysis facilities; joint modeling of hospitalization and mortality after transitioning to dialysis; spatiotemporal models; and self-controlled case series methods for examining cardiovascular events after infection-related hospitalizations in patients with end-stage kidney disease. This program of research has been funded by the NIH/NIDDK since 2011. View Dr. Nguyen’s Research