About

Natasha Mehta is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Chicago, within the Department of Medicine. Her research focuses on developing a global medicine student pre- and post-travel curriculum. Her scholarly work includes investigations into the prediction of adverse events in COVID-19 patients using high sensitivity Troponin-T, as well as studies on cerebral vasoreactivity evaluated by the breath-holding challenge and its correlation with cognitive performance in persons living with treated HIV infection in China. Additionally, she has conducted qualitative research on the role of stigma on fertility desire among HIV-positive women in Bangkok, Thailand. Her contributions aim to enhance medical education and improve understanding of health outcomes in diverse populations.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Political Science
• Physical medicine and rehabilitation
• Internal medicine
• Psychology
• Medical emergency
• Business
• Cardiology
• Physical therapy

Selected publications

• A RARE CASE OF ARRHYTHMOGENIC LEFT DOMINANT CARDIOMYOPATHY

  Journal of the American College of Cardiology · 2025-03-30

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Immune‐mediated necrotizing myopathy: An illustrative electrodiagnostic case

  PM&R · 2024-03-29

  letter
  PublisherDOI

• Efficacy of Lateral View Needle Placement for Sacroiliac Joint Injections

  Journal of Pain Research · 2024-02-01 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access

  Introduction: Sacroiliac joint (SIJ) pathology is typically diagnosed and treated with fluoroscopy-guided intraarticular injections. Most practitioners use only an anteroposterior (AP) or oblique view. Although injection into the periarticular space may yield adequate pain relief, intraarticular needle placement is imperative to identify SIJ pathology and plan future management. This study highlights the importance of obtaining an additional lateral view during fluoroscopy to better evaluate SIJ disease. Methods: A retrospective review of 38 patients who underwent fluoroscopy guided SIJ injection was conducted, for which IRB approval was granted by the MetroWest Medical Center Institutional Review Board. Patient demographics (age, sex, BMI) and pre- and post-operative numerical rating scale (NRS) scores were collected, and initial needle location was reviewed. Patients were placed into groups according to initial needle location. Statistical analysis was conducted using a Mann–Whitney U -test with significance defined as p < 0.05. Results: The 21 females and 17 males had a mean age and BMI of 70.5 years and 27.8 kg/m 2 , respectively. Thirty-one patients had initial intraarticular needle placement confirmed with lateral arthrogram, and 7 patients had initial periarticular needle placement, requiring needle readjustment in lateral confirmatory view. Both groups had similar demographic characteristics. No statistically significant differences were found between the two groups’ mean NRS score improvement ( p =0.108). Conclusion: Using only the AP or oblique view during needle placement results in miss rates of nearly 20% while adding a lateral view can lower miss rates to near 0%. While pain relief may be adequate in either case, proper diagnosis and future management relies upon accurate needle placement. Keywords: corticosteroid injections, fluoroscopy, intraarticular, periarticular

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Extreme heat and cardiovascular mortality among structurally marginalized populations in the United States: A scoping review

  The Journal of Climate Change and Health · 2024-09-07 · 4 citations

  reviewOpen access

  Introduction: Extreme heat and heat waves have long been recognized as a significant risk factor for cardiovascular disease exacerbations and death. Differential outcomes among structurally marginalized populations are less well understood, and in particular, the impact of this environmental hazard on cardiac mortality deserves further exploration for these populations. Methods: A scoping review was conducted to characterize the scientific literature examining the impact of extreme heat on cardiovascular mortality among structurally marginalized populations in the United States. Using relevant medical subject headings (MeSH) and key terms, a systematic search of the indexing databases of Pubmed, Embase, and Web of Science for English-language manuscripts published from inception to July 2023 for primary research, systematic reviews, meta analyses, and narrative reviews was performed. Results: 4674 articles were screened, of which 33 which met inclusion criteria. The majority (73 %) of these were primary quantitative research studies, all of which were observational in nature. Half of the research designs were cohort studies. The most common marginalized group described was that of older adults (79 % of manuscripts), while race/ethnicity (42 %), sex/gender (42 %), and lower socioeconomic status (49 %) were also commonly explored. Most studies assessed aggregated composite cardiovascular mortality as the primary end point, with only four fractionating myocardial ischemia/infarction as the cause of death. Conclusions: Future directions of study for the field include additional analyses of other marginalized groups including differently-abled, immigrant, outdoor laborers, incarcerated peoples, Hispanic/Latinx, Native American, and Asian American/Pacific Islander populations, as well as determining the impact of diverse socioeconomic parameters, and examining disaggregated cardiac outcomes.

  PublisherDOI

• Telemedicine and the environment: life cycle environmental emissions from in-person and virtual clinic visits

  npj Digital Medicine · 2023 · 79 citations

  • Political Science
  • Medical emergency
  • Medicine

  Concern over climate change is growing in the healthcare space, and telemedicine has been rapidly expanding since the start of the COVID19 pandemic. Understanding the various sources of environmental emissions from clinic visits-both virtual and in-person-will help create a more sustainable healthcare system. This study uses a Life Cycle Assessment with retrospective clinical data from Stanford Health Care (SHC) in 2019-2021 to determine the environmental emissions associated with in-person and virtual clinic visits. SHC saw 13% increase in clinic visits, but due to the rise in telemedicine services, the Greenhouse Gas emissions (GHGs) from these visits decreased 36% between 2019 and 2021. Telemedicine (phone and video appointments) helped SHC avoid approximately 17,000 metric tons of GHGs in 2021. Some departments, such as psychiatry and cancer achieved greater GHG reductions, as they were able to perform more virtual visits. Telemedicine is an important component for the reduction of GHGs in healthcare systems; however, telemedicine cannot replace every clinic visit and proper triaging and tracking systems should be in place to avoid duplicative care.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Developing a global medicine student pre- and post-travel curriculum

  BMC Medical Education · 2023-10-06 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  BACKGROUND: The popularity of short-term global health experiences amongst US medical students has been increasing. However, it remains a challenge for medical schools to comprehensively prepare students to work in an international environment and to contribute in ethically responsible and meaningful ways. Students of the Global Medicine program (GMED) of the UIC College of Medicine Center for Global Health set out to develop a pre-and-post travel curriculum that addresses some of these challenges. METHODS: The students surveyed the literature of 66 published global health curricula and identified aspects of pre-and-post travel training that were found to be under-addressed. They then developed a curriculum in conjunction with GMED faculty that incorporated these identified aspects of pre-and-post travel training. RESULTS: Five aspects of pre-and-post travel training were identified as being under-addressed in the literature while traveling. These domains include: [1] examining power relations associated with neo-colonization between and within countries; [2] training for bi-directional learning; [3] examining motivations and goals for participating in global health; [4] addressing personal resiliency and psychosocial wellbeing related to students' travel, and; [5] reflecting on the challenging aspects of the fieldwork experience. CONCLUSIONS: The student-driven curriculum is being integrated into the GMED program through structured didactic sessions, one-on-one mentor meetings and small group discussions. Once students have traveled, the curriculum will be evaluated with the foreign partners they visited.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Does Long COVID Exist in Sub-Saharan Africa?

  COVID · 2023-07-17 · 5 citations

  articleOpen access1st author

  Billions of people have been impacted by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic with over 600 million infections worldwide. Researchers have turned their attention to describing the post-viral phenomenon known commonly as “Long COVID”. While post-viral syndromes have been documented after other viral pandemics, the scale of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic provides a unique opportunity to study and understand both the epidemiology and pathophysiology of the long COVID syndrome. While the pandemic impacted populations from all continents, there is a significant gap in what is known about long COVID on the sub-Saharan African continent. We review what is known about long COVID and highlight the need for further research within the African population.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Developing a Global Medicine Student Pre- and Post-Travel Curriculum

  Research Square · 2023-03-15

  preprintOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract Background The popularity of short-term global health experiences amongst US medical students has been increasing. However, it remains a challenge for medical schools to comprehensively prepare students to work in an international environment and to contribute in ethically responsible and meaningful ways. Students of the Global Medicine program (GMED) of the UIC College of Medicine Center for Global Health set out to develop a pre-and-post travel curriculum that addresses some of these challenges. Methods The students surveyed the literature and published global health curricula and identified aspects of pre-and-post travel training that were found to be under-addressed in the. They then developed a curriculum in conjunction with GMED faculty that incorporated these identified aspects of pre-and-post travel training. Results Five aspects of pre-and-post travel training were identified as being both under-addressed in the literature and in student’s personal experiences while traveling. These domains include: (1) examining power relations associated with neo-colonization between and within countries; (2) training for bi-directional learning; (3) examining motivations and goals for participating in global health; (4) addressing personal resiliency and psychosocial wellbeing related to students’ travel, and; (5) reflecting on the challenging aspects of the fieldwork experience. Conclusions The student-driven curriculum is being integrated into the GMED program through structured didactic sessions, one-on-one mentor meetings and small group discussions. Once students have traveled, an evaluation of the curriculum will be conducted together with the foreign partners they visited.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Experience of Exposure Across Racial Groups: Differences in Presence During Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy for Social Phobia Across African-American and Caucasian Women

  Digital Archive @ GSU · 2022-05-13

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Few studies have looked at the experience of exposure therapy (ET) amongst underrepresented populations. African-American (AA) women may be at higher risk for anxiety and experience treatment differently than their Caucasian counterparts. Virtual reality exposure therapy (VRE) is suited to examine differences in treatment experiences because a measure of ?presence? exists to quantify the experience of standardized VRE. Qualitative methods provide an opportunity to explore the experience of underrepresented populations and individual differences. The current study employed a mixed-method design to compare self-reported levels of presence during VRE across a sample of 24 AA and Caucasian women diagnosed with social phobia. The study also examined how AA women discussed their experiences of VRE (N=4). Results revealed that AA women reported greater presence than their Caucasian counterparts. Qualitative results highlighted benefits and areas of improvement in the experience of exposure therapy. These findings have important implications for differential experiences of treatment.

  PublisherDOI

• Eyelet Wiring V/S IMF Screws: A Comparative Evaluation Study

  Journal of Pharmaceutical Negative Results · 2022-01-01

  articleOpen access

  Objectives-To evaluate in minutes the time taken in minutes required from the beginning of the IMF procedure to the end of both the eyelet wiring as well as IMFSs; To record the intraoperative stability of both the groups in terms of device stability and IMF stability after maxillo-mandibular fixation; To evaluate intraoperative complications; Intra operative occlusion also checked; Radiographs taken post operatively to check for root perforations in case of IMFSs group.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Shannon Fuller

  Johns Hopkins University

  9 shared

• N. Ganguly

  University of Kansas Medical Center

  5 shared

• Ranjan Ganguly

  Jadavpur University

  5 shared

• J. Yasha Kresh

  University of Pennsylvania

  5 shared

• Annette H. Sohn

  4 shared

• Phiangjai Boonsuk

  4 shared

• Jonathan Grinstein

  4 shared

• Jennifer Ho

  Columbia University Irving Medical Center

  4 shared

Labs

• Natasha Mehta's LabPI

  1-2 sentence research focus

Education

• MD, College of Medicine

  University of Illinois at Chicago

  2021

• MS Global Health Sciences, Global Health Sciences

  University of California, San Francisco

  2016

• BS Psychobiology

  University of California, Los Angeles

  2015