Tammy Chang, MD, MPH, MS

Tammy Chang, M.D., M.P.H., M.S.

Associate Professor
Co-Director, National Clinician Scholars Program at IHPI

Administrative Contact

Biography

Dr. Tammy Chang is a health services researcher and practicing family physician with a passion for adolescent health, specifically, breaking the cycle of poverty and poor health among adolescent mothers and their children via community-engaged research.

Her NIH-sponsored research is focused on improving access to reproductive health care and promoting healthy pregnancy weight gain among at-risk adolescents using text messaging, social media mining, and natural language processing (NLP). She is also the founding director of MyVoice (www.hearmyvoicenow.org) a national text-message poll of youth age 14-24 years.  MyVoice engages youth and communities typically invisible to researchers, and uses mixed methods and NLP to inform local and national policies in real-time.

Dr. Chang is also the Director of the Health Behavior Optimization for Michigan (HBOM) Collaborative Quality Initiative, a statewide clinical quality improvement initiative with funding and support from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. Through her leadership, HBOM uses cutting-edge behavior change strategies to transform clinical practices and priorities.  HBOM initiatives make the healthy choice the easy choice so all Michiganders can achieve their health and wellness goals.

Dr. Chang is a Co-Director of the National Clinician Scholars Program at the University of Michiganwhere she trains junior faculty clinicians in health services research and teaches a Master’s level course in Leadership and Communication. She actively mentors numerous high school students, undergraduate students, graduate students, medical students, and post-doctoral fellows to fill the pipeline of future health services researchers.

Dr. Tammy Chang is an associate professor in the Department of Family Medicine and a practicing physician at the Corner Health Center and the Regional Alliance for Healthy Schools.  She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan with honors in Cellular and Molecular Biology and Zoological Anthropology. She also received her medical degree and master of public health degree in health policy and management from the University of Michigan. Dr. Chang completed residency training and served as co-chief resident in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Michigan and is an alumna of the University of Michigan Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars program. She has received several national awards including the Academy Health Presidential Scholarship for New Health Services Researchers, the North American Primary Care Research Group Distinguished Trainee Award, and the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine Distinguished Paper Award.  She has served on committees and working groups at the National Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) and has co-authored two consensus reports on the health and development of adolescents.

She currently serves on the NASEM’s Board on Children Youth and Families.  Dr. Chang has also served on the board of directors of both the North American Primary Care Research Group and the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine where she served as the Chairperson of the Research Committee.

Dr. Chang is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and conversant in Spanish.

Areas of Interest

Research Interests
  • Elevating youth voice to inform health policies in real-time via a national text message poll (www.hearmyvoicenow.org)
  • Social media and text message interventions to improve health behaviors
  • Healthcare policy focusing on access to healthcare and nutrition services for marginalized populations
DEPARTMENT AREAS

Credentials

Medical School
  • M.D., University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, Mich., 2007
Residency
  • University of Michigan Health System, Department of Family Medicine, Mich., 2010
Advanced Degrees
  • M.P.H., Health Policy and Management, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, Mich., 2005
  • M.S., Master of Health and Healthcare Research, Rackham Graduate School, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich., 2013
Fellowship
  • Research Fellow, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich., 2013
Board Certification
  • Family Medicine

 

Grants

  • Special Delivery: A Community Academic Partnership to Improve the Health of Low-Income Young Mothers and their Children

University of Michigan Poverty Solutions Community-Academic Grants Award
Tammy Chang, PI
01/2020-01/2021. $26,500

  • Healthy Michigan Plan CMS Evaluation FY20

SubK-CMMS-DHHS-US through a consortium with MDHHS- 19- PAF04721
Co-I (Principal Investigator: John Z Ayanian)
10/2019-09/2020. $1,397,298

  • MyVoice: Texting with America's Youth to Improve Health and Wellbeing

MICHR

Chang, PI

01/2019-02/2021. $50,000

  • Speaking Their Language: Using Social Media and Texting to Create an Adolescent-Centered Approach to Healthy Weight Gain During Pregnancy

NIH-DHHS-US- 15-PAF05394; 17-PAF06560
Tammy Chang, PI
03/2016-02/2021. $673,650

  • National Clinical Scholars Leadership Program IHPI Clinician Scholars Chair Support

Co-I (Principal Investigator: Rodney Hayward)
02/2016-01/2024. $338,128

The goal of our team's work is to provide the right people, the right information, at the right time to informs policies that improve the health of young people in America. We collect open-ended responses via a national text message poll from over 1000 youth across the nation. We use this information in real-time to inform policy-makers and youth-serving individuals so they can tailor programs that actually work. This represents a fundamental change in the way research is currently done-- changing the timeline from months/years to weeks. Family medicine is especially well positioned to be a leader in doing research that matters to youth by respecting youth as experts of their own experience. We want to take their stories and experiences to people who make decisions about their health and wellbeing so policies can better meet the need of youth.