Email: penny_liberatos@nymc.edu
Telephone: (914) 594-2822
Address:
New York Medical College
Department of Public Health
19 Skyline Drive, Room 2N-C16
Hawthorne, NY 10532
Biography: Prior to coming to NYMC, Dr. Liberatos worked for several not-for-profit organizations in the fields of education and public health in New York City, including work with the NYC Department of Health. Her research interests are quite varied and can be grouped into five areas. The first is an interest in health behaviors that may lead to poor health outcomes in mothers, children and teens, especially within low-income population groups. In this area she has worked with breastfeeding promotion among pregnant/postpartum mothers, asthma management in children and teen pregnancy prevention in youth. A second area of interest is in health disparities, especially among immigrants and those of low socioeconomic status. For example, one study focused on assessing health disparities for recent immigrants to the Lower Hudson Valley region of New York State. A related area involves health communication in the patient-provider setting, including issues of health literacy, language interpretation, and cultural competency. For example, a recent study used iPad technology to empower individuals with intellectual/developmental disabilities to self-report on their healthcare experiences. A fourth area concentrates on health provider practice. Of particular interest are issues in identifying barriers to medical adherence, screening teens for risky behaviors and psychosocial health issues, and the impact on provider practice when parents refuse to vaccinate their children. The last area involves the impact of health conditions and procedures on health-related quality of life - specifically the assessment of quality of life among those with liver cancer, urinary incontinence, and cochlear implants. This has also included the psychometric assessment of these instruments.
In addition to the above areas of interest, Dr. Liberatos also has expertise in several methodological areas. First of these is questionnaire design and survey research. She has consulted extensively with clinicians and researchers to assist them in developing high quality instruments for collecting self-report data. Program evaluation is another area of skill where she has been responsible for several large-scale program evaluations of comprehensive pediatric, educational reading, and prenatal care programs and for conducting several community health assessments for public health departments and non-profit organizations in the Lower Hudson Valley region and New York City.
Dr. Liberatos has a passion for public health and for teaching that she communicates to her students and advisees in the M.P.H. program. She also serves as a mentor for students on research projects, often leading to presentations at national meetings.
Education Profile:
Graduate Degree: M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.
Graduate Degree Institution: New York University (M.A.); Columbia University (M.Phil., Ph.D)
Undergraduate Institution: AB, Barnard College
Selected Bibliography:
King, N., Nahm, E.A., Liberatos, P., Shi, Q., & Kim, A.H. (In press). Quality of life after bilateral cochlear implantation: A newly developed Comprehensive Cochlear Implant Questionnaire (CCIQ). Otolology & Neurotology.
Liberatos, P., Leone, J., Craig, A., Frei, E.M., Fuentes, N., & Harris, I. (In press). Challenges of asthma management for school nurses in districts with high asthma hospitalization rates. Journal of School Health.
Leib, S., Liberatos, P. & Edwards, K. (2011). Pediatricians’ experience with and response to parental vaccine concerns and vaccine refusals: A survey of Connecticut pediatricians. Public Health Reports, 126 (Supp 2), 13-23.
Baker, F., Denniston, M., Haffer, S.C., & Liberatos, P. (2009). Change in health-related quality of life of newly diagnosed cancer patients, cancer survivors, and controls. Cancer, 115(13), 3024-3033.
Liberatos, P., Elinson, J., Schaffzin, T., Packer, J., & Jones Jessop, D. (2000). Developing a measure of unmet health care needs for a pediatric population. Medical Care, 38(1), 19-34.
Liberatos, P., & Kiely, J. (1991). Selected issues in the evaluation of prenatal care. In M. Kiely (Ed.), Reproductive and perinatal epidemiology (pp. 79-97). Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
Liberatos, P., Link, B., & Kelsey, J.L. (1988). The measurement of social class in epidemiology. Epidemiologic Reviews, 10, 87-121.
Search PubMed for all available publications of Penny Liberatos, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.