Anne Walling and Arpan Patel

The goal of the Outreach Program is to engage with key patient, community and clinician stakeholders, to ensure that center research is aligned with community needs. This includes targeting research efforts in the screening, diagnosis and treatment of MASLD in diverse populations with unmet needs and ensuring a patient-centered approach to the recruitment and retention of novel research studies supported by the center. The program also provides a solid foundation for mentoring of early-career investigators interested in community-engaging research in the study of the MASLD spectrum. Both program directors have a long-standing interest in health services research.

  • Outreach Program Directors: Anne M. Walling, MD, PhD, UCLA; Arpan A. Patel, MD, PhD, UCLA

For more information, contact: awalling@mednet.ucla.edu and arpanpatel@mednet.ucla.edu 

Services of the Outreach Program

  1. Identify gaps and barriers to representation of diverse groups in chronic liver diseases research
  2. Support a Community Advisory Board (CAB) and its integration into community-engaged research
  3. Establish benchmarks for the recruitment of diverse populations for the CAB, biospecimen donation, and early-stage investigators in partnership with clinician leaders
  4. Support novel, high-impact research through community engagement
  5. Support early-stage investigators interested in supporting underrepresented communities and conducting community-engaged research
  6. Engage with clinical CAB members and additional stakeholders interested in community-engaged research