Dennis Andrulis, PhD
Associate Professor, Management, Policy & Community Health
[email protected]
Dr. Andrulis has over 30 years experience in health care research and policy focusing on vulnerable populations, their providers, and their communities. As an associate professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston School of Public Health, and with an affiliation with the Texas Health Institute, his recent and current work has led to numerous grant funded awards to advance health equity for racially and ethnically diverse and other vulnerable populations in three major areas: implementation of the Affordable Care Act and its equity implications related to the health care workforce, marketplaces, safety net, public health and prevention, and quality health care; prompting policies and building community resilience to the consequences of climate change; and working with community based organizations to build accountable care communities. Related to this work is the creation of a Health Equity Assessment Protocol to measure marketplace progress and developing a survey on the impact social determinants in accessing care.
From July 2015 until its completion in 2021, Dr. Andrulis served as co-investigator on a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation project to create a National Health Equity Index as part of their Culture of Health initiative. This project was a continuation of a track record that has included research on the suburbanization of poverty, emergency preparedness, the future of the safety net, AIDS cost, and financing and improving cultural and linguistic competence in healthcare.
Dr. Andrulis comes to this work from a distinct academic perspective having earned a PhD in Educational Psychology — with a focus on community — from the University of Texas at Austin and a Masters of Public Health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with postdoctoral work in Community Psychiatry.
Dr. Andrulis, in summarizing this work, has stressed how essential it is to listen to voices in communities and to recognize how closely linked their lives are to ours: “Health care is such a vital but such a small part of so many lives. To be good at what we do we must fit within the world where people live, work, play and pray. This by definition means recognizing, respecting, and working to improve the lives of others, using health care in concert with all that makes up that world.”
Additional Projects:
Toward Building Accountable Care Communities: Assessing the Influence of Social Determinants in Seeking Health Care for Newly Insured Populations
Creating a Health Equity Report Card for California, Connecticut and other Marketplaces Across the Nation
Recent Publications
In the Wake of the Affordable Care Act: Understanding Barriers and Facilitators to Health Care Access
This research uses a community based participatory model to create a survey on the health care access experiences and challenges of newly insured and remaining uninsured living in South Sacramento CA.
Safety-Net Hospital Systems Transformation in the Era of Health Care Reform
2/1/15 - This report provides a review of safety-net systems across the country, identifying their experiences, lessons, and successes in adapting and responding to health care reform.
Snapshot of Medicaid 1115 Waiver and Other State-Based Delivery System Transformations
1/1/15 - The purpose of this review is to provide a snapshot of programs incentivizing delivery system transformation as part of Medicaid 1115 waivers to inform California as well as other states as they work to renew their waivers and related systems transformation programs.
Climate Change, Environmental Challenges and Vulnerable Populations: Assessing Legacies of the Past, Building Opportunities for the Future
(Andrulis D, Siddiqui N, Cooper M; Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies , 2012)
Health reform holds both risks and rewards for safety-net providers and racially and ethnically diverse patients
(Andrulis D, Siddiqui N. ; Health Affairs, 2011)
Integrating racially and ethnically diverse communities into planning for disasters: The California experience
(Andrulis D, Siddiqui N, Purtle J. ; Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness; 2011)
Recent News
‘Money before lives.’ Lifting of mask mandate worries minority workers in Fort Worth
Jenber Abeb hasn’t allowed customers inside of her Ethiopian restaurant in a year, and she’s afraid the removal of mask mandates will just drag her reopening date further away.
Covid-19 Vaccine Is a Struggle for Those With No Hospital Connection
As Covid-19 vaccines continue to roll out across the country, many hospitals and clinics are giving priority to their own patients, leaving people who lack a primary-care doctor or a doctor affiliated with the right hospital struggling to find doses.
Black Austinites have been hit hard by the pandemic, and the 'fight' continues for equitable vaccine distribution
Black Austinites are overrepresented among confirmed COVID-19 cases, related hospitalizations and deaths relative to their share of the local population.
Advocates worry vaccines will be out of reach for Black and Hispanic neighborhoods devastated by COVID-19
COVID-19 has been disproportionately deadly for communities of color in Texas.
Would A Coronavirus Vaccine Be Free For All Americans? It’s Complicated
Although a coronavirus vaccine has yet to be approved for the masses, experts are looking to the future, and talking details.
How Does A Town With 37 Languages Prepare For Emergencies?
Gala Soe and his family sit on their living room floor, watching his infant daughter play with bright plastic balls on a colorful mat. Portraits of family members line the walls of their trailer.
