Allison Willis, MD, MS is a Professor of Neurology and Epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. She holds several other appointments: Faculty Scholar at the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Core Faculty at the Center for Pharmacoepidemiology Research and Training, and Co-Director of the Center for Improving Care Delivery for the Aging (CICADA, a Resource Center for Minority Aging Research [RCMAR]). She is also the Site Chief for Neurology and the Associate Director of the Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion (CHERP) at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center.
Dr. Willis is a movement disorders neurologist with formal research training in analytical epidemiology and health outcomes research. Through two complementary investigative paths, she pursues research questions relevant to clinical decision-making and health policy for neuro aging populations. Her health services research program focuses on the complex ways biological-, environmental-, and health care system-domain social determinants of health affect health care outcomes at the individual, population, and societal levels, with the ultimate goal of integrating equity-achieving practices into daily health care processes and care models.
Her pharmacoepidemiology research program focuses on the bidirectional relationships between neurological disease and central nervous system (CNS) drug effects—such as whether neurological disease predisposes to specific adverse drug reactions and whether CNS-acting drugs influence neurological disease phenotype or progression. Dr. Willis’s work has received funding from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), the National Institute on Aging (NIA), the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), the Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF), the American Parkinson Disease Association (APDA), and the Parkinson’s Foundation.
She has held leadership and organizing roles in national and international organizations focused on neurological disorders, including the American Neurological Association, the Parkinson Study Group, and the American Academy of Neurology. Dr. Willis has over 200 peer-reviewed research manuscripts and abstracts.
