DR. OMAR GALÁRRAGA


Education:

  • 2007 – Doctorate in Health Economics, Johns Hopkins University.
  • 2004 – Master in Health Economics, Johns Hopkins University.
  • 1996 – Master in Development Economics, American University.
  • 1994 – Economics, University of the District of Columbia.

Academic appointments:

  • Research professor at the Brown University School of Public Health in Providencia, RI, USA, since 2010.
  • Visiting Professor at the Center for Population and Development Studies at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA, USA, in 2016.
  • Researcher affiliated with CISIDAT.

Research interests:

  • Empirical analysis of the impact of public health interventions, particularly HIV prevention and treatment, using econometric techniques such as difference in differences, discontinuous regression, instrumental variables, propensity scores, etc.
  • The most interesting topics focus on using conditioned economic incentives for behavior change, evaluation of health insurance systems, and cost-effectiveness applications.

Featured projects:

  • He previously held academic appointments at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Institute of Public Health in Cuernavaca, Mexico (2006-2010).
  • He has been Associate Officer for Economic Affairs for the United Nations Commission for Africa (UNECA) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (1999-2001);
  • Research Analyst for Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. (1998-1999); Manager of the Economic Analysis Program for the Micronutrient Interventions Project (OMNI) for USAID (1996-1998) and consultant for various international organizations such as UNAIDS, the World Bank, the World Health Organization, and the Global Fund for the fight against AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Steenland, Maria W., Short, Susan E., Galarraga, Omar. “Association Between Rhode Island’s Paid Family Leave Policy and Postpartum Care Use.” Obstetrics & Gynecology, vol. 137, no. 4, 2021, pp. 728-730.

Braitstein, Paula, DeLong, Allison, Ayuku, David, Ott, Mary, Atwoli, Lukoye, Galárraga, Omar, Sang, Edwin, Hogan, Joseph. “Association of Care Environment With HIV Incidence and Death Among Orphaned, Separated, and Street-Connected Children and Adolescents in Western Kenya.” JAMA Network Open, vol. 4, no. 9, 2021, pp. e2125365.

Kinney, Rebecca G., Zakumumpa, Henry, Rujumba, Joseph, Gibbons, Kevin, Heard, Anna, Galárraga, Omar. “Community-funded integrated care outreach clinics as a capacity building strategy to expand access to health care in remote areas of Uganda.” Global Health Action, vol. 14, no. 1, 2021.

Wilson-Barthes M, Chrysanthopoulou SA, Atwoli L, Ayuku D, Braitstein P, Galárraga O. “Cost-Effectiveness of Care Environments for Improving the Mental Health of Orphaned and Separated Children and Adolescents in Kenya.” The journal of mental health policy and economics, vol. 24, no. 2, 2021, pp. 31-41. PubMed

Galárraga, Omar, Harris, Jeffrey E. “Effect of an abrupt change in sexual and reproductive health policy on teen birth rates in Ecuador, 2008–2017.” Economics & Human Biology, vol. 41, 2021, pp. 100967.

Thapa, Bishnu Bahadur, Laws, M. Barton, Galárraga, Omar. “Evaluating the impact of integrated behavioral health intervention.” Medicine, vol. 100, no. 34, 2021, pp. e27066.

Wachira J, Genberg B, Chemutai D, Mwangi A, Galarraga O, Abraham S, Wilson I. “Implementing enhanced patient care to promote patient engagement in HIV care in a rural setting in Kenya.” BMC Health Services Research, vol. 21, no. 1, 2021, pp. 515.

Ganley KY, Wilson-Barthes M, Zullo AR, Sosa-Rubí SG, Conde-Glez CJ, García-Cisneros S, Lurie MN, Marshall BDL, Operario D, Mayer KH, Galárraga O. “Incidence and time-varying predictors of HIV and sexually transmitted infections among male sex workers in Mexico City.” Infectious diseases of poverty, vol. 10, no. 1, 2021, pp. 7.

Genberg, Becky L., Wachira, Juddy, Steingrimsson, Jon A, Pastakia, Sonak, Tran, Dan N Tina, Said, Jamil AbdulKadir, Braitstein, Paula, Hogan, Joseph W., Vedanthan, Rajesh, Goodrich, Suzanne, Kafu, Catherine, Wilson-Barthes, Marta, Galárraga, Omar. “Integrated community-based HIV and non-communicable disease care within microfinance groups in Kenya: study protocol for the Harambee cluster randomised trial.” BMJ Open, vol. 11, no. 5, 2021, pp. e042662.

Genberg BL, Wilson-Barthes MG, Omodi V, Hogan JW, Steingrimsson J, Wachira J, Pastakia S, Tran DN, Kiragu ZW, Ruhl LJ, Rosenberg M, Kimaiyo S, Galárraga O. “Microfinance, retention in care, and mortality among patients enrolled in HIV 2 Care in East Africa.” AIDS, vol. 35, no. 12, 2021, pp. 1997-2005.

Salinas-Rodríguez, Aarón, Sosa-Rubí, Sandra G., Chivardi, Carlos, Rodríguez-Franco, Roxana, Gandhi, Monica, Mayer, Kenneth H., Operario, Don, Gras-Allain, Nathalie, Vargas-Guadarrama, Galileo, Galárraga, Omar. “Preferences for Conditional Economic Incentives to Improve Pre-exposure Prophylaxis Adherence: A Discrete Choice Experiment Among Male Sex Workers in Mexico.” AIDS and Behavior, 2021.