Lisa A. Cooper, MD
Internal Medicine
- Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Faculty
About Lisa A. Cooper
Physician’s Office Phone
410-614-3659
Professional Titles
- Bloomberg Distinguished Professor, Equity in Health and Healthcare
- James F. Fries Professor of Medicine
- Director, Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity
- Director, Johns Hopkins Urban Health Institute
- Core Faculty, Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology, and Clinical Research
Primary Academic Title
Professor of Medicine
Background
Dr. Lisa A. Cooper is a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor at Johns Hopkins University Schools of Medicine, Nursing, and Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is also the James F. Fries Professor of Medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine and a core faculty member in the Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology, and Clinical Research. Dr. Cooper was born in Liberia, West Africa, where she witnessed the effects of social deprivation on the health of many of her fellow citizens and developed the passion for her career in medicine and public health.
A general internist, social epidemiologist, and health services researcher, Dr. Cooper was one of the first scientists to document disparities in the quality of relationships between physicians and patients from socially at-risk groups. She then designed innovative interventions to improve physicians’ communication skills, patients’ self-management skills, and healthcare organizations’ ability to address needs of populations experiencing health disparities. She has authored more than 300 highly cited and influential peer-reviewed publications and several book chapters—one of which was featured in the Institute of Medicine's 2003 Report, Unequal Treatment. She is also the author of the book Why Are Health Disparities Everyone's Problem (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2021).
Dr. Cooper is the founding director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity, where she and her transdisciplinary teamwork collaborate with multi-sector partners to implement rigorous clinical trials, identifying interventions that alleviate racial and income disparities in social determinants and health outcomes. The Center also provides training to a new generation of health equity scholars and advocates for social change with policymakers.
A compassionate physician, prolific researcher, and devoted mentor, Dr. Cooper has received several honors for her pioneering work. These include a prestigious 2007 MacArthur Fellowship, elected membership in the National Academy of Medicine, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, and Delta Omega Public Health Honor Society. She has also received numerous awards, including the 2014 Herbert Nickens Award from the American Association of Medical Colleges for outstanding contributions to promoting justice in medical education and health care equity, the 2017 Helen Rodriguez-Trias Social Justice Award from the American Public Health Association, a 2022 Distinguished Scientist Award from the American Heart Association, the 2023 John M. Eisenberg Award for career achievement in research from the Society of General Internal Medicine, and Mastership in the American College of Physicians (2023- 2024).
With regard to mentoring at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Cooper has received the David M. Levine Excellence in Mentoring Award from the Department of Medicine, The Sponsorship Award from the Women's Task Force of the Department of Medicine, the Vice-Dean’s Award for the Advancement of Women in Science, the Provost’s Inaugural Award for Excellence in Faculty Mentoring, and the Provost’s Inaugural Award for Excellence in Diversity.
Dr. Cooper has provided advice regarding policy development, implementation, and evaluation to local, state, and national policymakers on the topics of health disparities, diversity in the healthcare workforce, training of health professionals, and funding for biomedical and social science research. In 2021, Dr. Cooper was appointed to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, where she advised policymakers on crucial scientific and technological developments during the Biden Administration.
Dr. Cooper received her B.A. in Chemistry from Emory University and her M.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She completed her internship and residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Maryland Medical Center. She received her M.P.H. from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health while completing a postdoctoral fellowship in general internal medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
Centers and Institutes
X (Twitter)
Clinical Trial Keywords
hypertension, cardiovascular disease, healthcare disparities, health equity, global health, quality improvement, patient-physician communication, patient-centered care, cultural competence, community-based participatory research, pragmatic trials, comparative effectiveness trials
Clinical Trials Summary
The Rich Life Project
The Five Plus Nuts and Beans for Kidneys Trial
The ADHINCRA Study
Project ReD CHiP
ACT Study
The Five Plus Nuts and Beans Trial
The Bridge Study
The Patient-Physician Partnership Study
Videos
Recent News Articles and Media Coverage
- Employers Can Do More to Advance Health Equity,Harvard Business Review (January-February 2023)
- Data shows massive disparities in excess deaths among African Americans, PBS NewsHour(May 17, 2023).
- PBS. org. Public Health Saved Your Life Today and You Don’t Even Know It, The Invisible Shield (March 26, 2024)
- Health care must diversify workforce to get rid of racial inequalities, according to new report, PBS News (June 26, 2024)
- The important gap community health workers and care managers can fill in high blood pressure care, American Heart Association News (8/5/24)
- Black people, women in general less likely to survive after CPR for cardiac arrest, USA Today (8/9/24)
- Tackling ethnic health disparities: Lisa Cooper at TEDxBaltimore 2014, TEDx Talks
- Comparing Ways to Reduce High Blood Pressure in Disadvantaged Populations, Vimeo (Jun 11, 2019)
- Public Health Physician Lisa Cooper: 2007 MacArthur Fellow | MacArthur Foundation, macfound
- Lisa Cooper - JHU Researcher - United for Medical Research, UMRcoalition
Contact for Research Inquiries
2024 E. Monument Street
Suite 2-500
Baltimore, MD 21287
Phone: (410) 614-3659
healthequity@jhmi.edu
Research Interests
Global health, Health equity, Patient-centered care, Patient-Physician relationships and communication, Race/ethnic health disparities
Lab Website
Lisa Cooper Lab - Lab Website
- The Lisa Cooper Lab is dedicated to researching patient-centered interventions for improving health outcomes and overcoming racial and ethnic disparities in health care. Our primary focus is on the factors of physician communication skills and cultural competence training, patient shared decision-making and self-management skills training. Recently, we have explored patient-centered depression care for African Americans, tactics for improving patient-physician communication about management of hypertension, and reducing ethnic and social disparities in health. In addition, we are currently researching racial disparities in cardiovascular health outcomes for patients living in Baltimore.
Google Scholar
Research Gate
Selected Publications
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Cooper LA, Marsteller JA, Carson KA, Dietz KB, Boonyasai RT, Alvarez C, Crews DC, Dennison Himmelfarb CR, Ibe CA, Lubomski L, Miller ER 3rd, Wang NY, Avornu GD, Brown D, Hickman D, Simmons M, Apfel Stein A, Yeh HC; RICH LIFE Project Investigators. Equitable Care for Hypertension: Blood Pressure and Patient-Reported Outcomes of the RICH LIFE Cluster Randomized Trial. Circulation. 2024 Jul 16;150(3):230-242. doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.124.069622. Epub 2024 Jul 15. PMID: 39008556; PMCID: PMC11254328
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Cooper LA, Roter DL, Carson KA, Beach MC, Sabin JA, Greenwald AG, Inui TS. The associations of clinicians' implicit attitudes about race with medical visit communication and patient ratings of interpersonal care. Am J Public Health. 2012 May;102(5):979-87. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2011.300558. PubMed PMID: 22420787; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3483913
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Cooper LA, Roter DL, Johnson RL, Ford DE, Steinwachs DM, Powe NR. Patient-centered communication, ratings of care, and concordance of patient and physician race. Ann Intern Med. 2003 Dec 2;139(11):907-15. PubMed PMID: 14644893
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Cooper-Patrick L, Gallo JJ, Gonzales JJ, Vu HT, Powe NR, Nelson C, Ford DE. Race, gender, and partnership in the patient-physician relationship. JAMA. 1999 Aug 11;282(6):583-9. PubMed PMID: 10450723
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Johnson RL, Roter D, Powe NR, Cooper LA. Patient race/ethnicity and quality of patient-physician communication during medical visits. Am J Public Health. 2004 Dec;94(12):2084-90. PubMed PMID: 15569958; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC1448596.
Courses & Syllabi
- Applications of Innovative Methods in Health Equity Research, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 410.635.11
- Healthcare Disparities TIME Course, JHU School of Medicine
Honors
- Member, American Society for Clinical investigation
- Member, Association of American Physicians
- Member, Delta Omega Honorary Society in Public Health
- 2007 Fellow, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
- Member, National Academy of Medicine
- Master, American College of Physicians (ACP)
- 2014 Herbert W. Nickens Award, Association of American Medical Colleges
- 2016 Provost's Inaugural Award for Excellence in Faculty Mentoring, Johns Hopkins University
- 2016 Provost's Inaugural Prize for Excellence in Diversity, Johns Hopkins University
- 2017 Helen Rodriguez-Trias Social Justice Award, American Public Health Association
- 2022 Distinguished Scientist Award, American Heart Association
- 2023 John M. Eisenberg National Award for Career Achievement in Research, Society of General Internal Medicine
- 2023 Baxter International William B. Graham Prize for Health Services Research
Memberships
- American College of Physicians
- Society of General Internal Medicine
Professional Activities
- Picker/Commonwealth Scholars Program in Patient-Centered Care Research, The Commonwealth Fund, Fellow
- The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program Scholar
Additional Training
- B.A, Chemistry, Emory College, Atlanta, Georgia, (1984)
- M.P.H, Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, (1993)
- General Internal Medicine Fellowship, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (1994)
Expertise
Education
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Fellowship, Internal Medicine, 1994University of Maryland Medical Center
Residency, Internal Medicine, 1991University of North Carolina School of Medicine
Medical Education, MD, 1988Board Certifications
Internal Medicine
American Board of Internal Medicine, 1991Insurance
- Aetna
- CareFirst
- Cigna
- First Health
- Geisinger Health Plan
- HealthSmart/Accel
- Humana
- Johns Hopkins Health Plans
- MultiPlan
- Pennsylvania's Preferred Health Networks (PPHN)
- Point Comfort Underwriters
- Private Healthcare Systems (PHCS)
- UnitedHealthcare
- Veteran Affairs Community Care Network (Optum-VACCN)