About

I’m a tenured professor at the University of Michigan and nationally recognized researcher focused on the real-world barriers that make it harder for people with chronic illnesses to get the care they need and deserve.

I specialize in Transforming How People Access and Experience Healthcare by Tackling Cost, Complexity, and Everyday Barriers

Scientific articles written and published

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Million in funding, awarded in external research funding

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Collaborators with policymakers and healthcare

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Years of experience in health sciences higher education

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My Story and Why this Work Matters

I’ve always been driven by a need to understand why healthcare feels so hard for the people who need it most—and what we can do to make it better.

Early in my career, I saw how financial strain, logistical barriers, and system complexity routinely disrupted people’s ability to manage chronic illness.
What looked like nonadherence was often the result of costs, logistics, or systems getting in the way.
That realization shaped everything I do.

Over time, that focus became a commitment: to identify what’s getting in the way, and to design real, research-informed solutions that help people navigate care without sacrificing their financial or emotional well-being. I believe meaningful change comes from combining rigorous evidence with practical tools, honest partnerships, and a deep respect for the lives people are already managing.

My Core Belief

I believe that healthcare should respect people’s time, circumstance, and basic dignity. I focus on making care more usable, affordable, and fair- especially for people navigating complex chronic conditions.

I believe in creating resources and systems that allow everyone to thrive.

Values Driving My Work

Clarity
Make healthcare easier to understand and use- for patients, providers, and systems.

Usefulness
My research leads to real tools and solutions that can improve people’s lives.

Collaboration
I build partnerships that connect research to the people and systems who need it.

Real-World Change
I measure success by how much easier it becomes for people to manage their health without sacrificing basic needs.

Career Highlights

Redefining Chronic Care

My research has shown how cost and complexity can derail treatment—and how systems can be redesigned to reduce that burden. This work has helped shape patient-facing tools and clinical workflows that promote financial stability and treatment success.

Scaling Solutions

From digital navigation tools to policy strategies, I develop interventions that healthcare organizations can implement and scale.

Influencing systems

My work has informed practice guidelines, large-scale evaluations, and policy conversations across sectors—especially in diabetes and cardiometabolic care.

Work WIth Me

I help healthcare leaders simplify care, improve access, and drive real-world impact.

My work spans speaking engagements, strategic advising, and applied research- all aimed at making care more navigable, affordable, and responsive to real-world needs.

Speaking

Keynotes, panels, and workshops on breaking down cost, complexity, and barriers to better support patients in real-world healthcare.

Consulting

Strategic guidance to help advocates and organizations reduce patient burden and turn evidence into practical, lasting healthcare solutions.

Learning

Drive change by turning awareness into action. This learning series equips professionals with knowledge and tools to address and fix systemic inequalities.

Featured and published across

Recent Research

Current Diabetes Reports, 2025 May 13;25(1):32.

Financial Toxicity in Diabetes: The State of What We Know

Patel MR.

Journal of Advanced Nursing. 2025 Mar 10.

Leveraging artificial intelligence to identify and intervene on unmet social needs through care coordination: A scoping review

Davis VH*, Pinto A, Patel MR.

Journal of Patient-Reported Outcomes, 2025 Jan 6;9(1):2.

Clinically meaningful classes of financial toxicity for patients with diabetes

Patel MR, Troost JP, Heisler M, Carlozzi NE.

Journal of General Internal Medicine, 2024 Dec 9.

Unbanked status among individuals with diabetes: Exploring reasons, correlates, and implications for financial and health outcomes

Patel MR.

Journal of General Internal Medicine. 2024 Oct;39(13):2415-2424.

Randomized Controlled Trial to Improve Unmet Social Needs and Clinical Outcomes Among Adults with Diabetes

Patel MR, Zhang G*, Heisler M, Piette JD, Resnicow K, Choe HM, Shi X,  Song P. A

JAMA Network Open, 2024 Mar 4;7(3):e243723.

Food insecurity at a large academic medical center: understanding the scope, trends, risk factors, and disparities in patients’ interest in assistance

Leung CW, Patel MR, Miller M, Spring E, Wang Z, Wolfson JA, Cohen AJ,  Heisler M, Hao W.