Featured Scholar: Lauren Nephew, MD, MA, MSCE
Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology
Associate Vice Chair of Health Equity for the Department of Medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine
Understanding the role of the social and structural determinants of health on access to liver disease care
Dr. Lauren Nephew is Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology and the Associate Vice Chair of Health Equity for the Department of Medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine. Her NIH-funded research program focuses on understanding how the structural and social determinants of health contribute to disparities in liver disease and developing interventions that improve access to care. Dr. Nephew completed Internal Medicine residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and Gastroenterology and Liver Transplantation Fellowships at the University of Pennsylvania. While at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University for medical school, Dr. Nephew completed a Master’s program in Bioethics. While at the University of Pennsylvania, she completed a Master of Science in Clinical Epidemiology. She is a champion of social justice, wife, and mother of two.
Professor Nephew's translation of research into understanding how social determinants of health impact liver disease leading to improved access to care is another excellent example of how IU Indianapolis's faculty members are TRANSLATING their RESEARCH INTO PRACTICE.
Selected Publications in IU Indianapolis ScholarWorks
With over 60 scholarly works contributed to IU Indianapolis's free, open access repository, Dr. Nephew has made translational research knowledge available to researchers, students and readers around the world.
Ma, J., Slaven, J. E., Nephew, L., Patidar, K. R., Desai, A. P., Orman, E., Kubal, C., Chalasani, N., & Ghabril, M. (2024). Severe hepatic encephalopathy with mechanical ventilation may inform waitlist priority in acute liver failure: A UNOS database analysis. Clinical Transplantation, 38(1), e15215. https://hdl.handle.net/1805/48514
Montrose, J. A., Desai, A., Nephew, L., Patidar, K. R., Ghabril, M. S., Campbell, N. L., Chalasani, N., Qiu, Y., Hays, M. E., & Orman, E. S. (2024). Medication burden and anticholinergic use are associated with overt HE in individuals with cirrhosis. Available from: https://hdl.handle.net/1805/43322
Nephew, L. D., Moore, C., Garcia, N., Parks, L., McKay, A., Strauss, A. T., Wiehe, S., Chalasani, N., Hughes-Wegner, A. T., & Rawl, S. M. (2025). Information overload, financial constraints, and psychological burdens are among the barriers faced by marginalized groups seeking curative treatments for HCC. Available from: https://hdl.handle.net/1805/46365
Nephew, L. D., Rawl, S. M., Carter, A., Garcia, N., Monahan, P. O., Holden, J., Ghabril, M., Montalvan-Sanchez, E., Patidar, K., Desai, A. P., Orman, E., & Chalasani, N. (2024). Health literacy and cumulative social disadvantage are associated with survival and transplant in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma: A prospective study. Available from: https://hdl.handle.net/1805/44616
Orman, E. S., Desai, A. P., Ghabril, M. S., Nephew, L. D., Patidar, K. R., Holden, J., Samala, N. R., Gawrieh, S., Vuppalanchi, R., Sozio, M., Lacerda, M., Vilar-Gomez, E., Lammert, C., Liangpunsakul, S., Crabb, D., Masuoka, H., Dakhoul, L., Pan, M., Gao, S., & Chalasani, N. (2024). Thirty-Day Readmissions Are Largely Not Preventable in Patients With Cirrhosis. Available from: https://hdl.handle.net/1805/46400
Rokop, Z. P., O’Connell, T. M., Munsch, T., Nephew, L., Orman, E., Mihaylov, P., Mangus, R. S., & Kubal, C. (2024). The rate of muscle wasting in liver transplant recipients on waiting list: Post-transplant outcomes and associated serum metabolite patterns. Available from: https://hdl.handle.net/1805/45370
Ross-Driscoll, K., Ayuk-Arrey, A.-T., Lynch, R., McCullough, L. E., Roccaro, G., Nephew, L., Hundley, J., Rubin, R. A., & Patzer, R. (2024). Disparities in Access to Liver Transplant Referral and Evaluation among Patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Georgia. Available from: https://hdl.handle.net/1805/42060
Singleton, C., Carter, A., Baker, B., Jones, E., Green, K., Lammert, C., & Nephew, L. D. (2024). Low socioeconomic status exacerbates unmet health-related needs in patients with autoimmune hepatitis. Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics, 60(10), 1339–1350. https://hdl.handle.net/1805/48512
Ufere, N. N., Lago-Hernandez, C., Alejandro-Soto, A., Walker, T., Li, L., Schoener, K., Keegan, E., Gonzalez, C., Bethea, E., Singh, S., El-Jawahri, A., Nephew, L., Jones, P., & Serper, M. (2024). Health care–related transportation insecurity is associated with adverse health outcomes among adults with chronic liver disease. Available from: https://hdl.handle.net/1805/40971
Walker, T., & Nephew, L. D. (2025). Learn, adapt, act: A pragmatic approach for intervening on disparities in hepatocellular carcinoma outcomes. Hepatology Communications, 9(3), e0665. https://hdl.handle.net/1805/48511
Find more free articles by Lauren Nephew in IU Indianapolis ScholarWorks.