David Scales, MD, PhD, MPhil

David Scales is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Boston Children's Hospital. The goal of his research is to more accurately identify vulnerable populations, particularly among the foreign-born. "Many foreign-born groups have higher rates of infectious disease and particularly TB while having lower rates of "lifestyle" diseases like obesity, type II diabetes, high blood pressure and coronary artery disease. However, over time, these rates of disease in the foreign-born increasingly approximate disease rates in native-born populations, a process labeled "acculturation." In my research, I hope to better understand the socioeconomic factors associated with acculturation to allow better differentiation of vulnerable populations based on divergent acculturation rates. This research will inform an application being built to enable public health professionals to do hazard-based risk analysis by geographically pinpointing hot-spots of vulnerable foreign-born populations."

Previous Education

• MD/PhD, Yale University - 2010
• MPhil, University of Cambridge - 2002
• BA, University of Pennsylvania - 2001