Andrea Apter, MD, MA is a Professor Emerita of Medicine in the Section of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania. She is board-certified in both internal medicine and allergy and immunology and holds a Masters Degree in Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health. At Penn she is an Associate Scholar of the Center of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics. She is an associate editor of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology and a past- Director of the American Board of Allergy and Immunology.
Dr. Apter’s research concentrates on eliminating health disparities focusing on asthma as a model for addressing social determinants of health and access to care. She has also studied barriers to adherence, the patient-provider relationship, and the impact of the health system. In 2000, Dr. Apter received a Mentored Clinical Research Scientist Award (K23) from the NHLBI to study modifiable predictors of adherence. This project has resulted in several publications and led to the awarding of an R01, an intervention study, in 2005, “Individualized Interventions to Improve Asthma.” She received a second career development award on health literacy. These awards led to interventions studies including her current R18 (A Patient Advocate to improve real-world asthma management for inner city adults and PCORI (AS-1307-05218) grant: “Using IT to improve access, communication, and asthma in African-American and Hispanic/Latino adults.”
In June 2019, Dr. Apter was awarded an R01 From NHLBI: Clinic navigation and home visits to improve guideline-based care and outcomes in low income minority adults with asthma. These studies have led to a focus on how health care providers, patient stakeholders, and administrators can work together to improve health outcomes in undeserved audlts. She has served on the FDA Pulmonary Allergy Drug Advisory and Allergenic Products Advisory Committees and NIH study sections and DSMBs.