Bayla Ostrach, PhD

Assistant Professor, Family Medicine

Bayla Ostrach
617.414.4465
85 E. Newton St Fuller Building

Biography

Bayla Ostrach, MA, PhD, Assistant Professor of Family Medicine, is a member of the core faculty and coordinator of the Service Learning Internship for the Master’s of Science program in Medical Anthropology & Cross-Cultural Practice. An Applied Medical Anthropologist by training who conducts research designed to result in changes in policy and practice, Dr. Ostrach is a Fellow of the Society of Family Planning and an invited member of the Scholars Strategy Network. She holds memberships in the American Anthropological Association and North American Catalan Society.

Dr. Ostrach’s research focuses on reproductive justice, publicly funded health systems, the ways that structural violence and marginalization contribute to disease interactions known as syndemics (Singer 2009), and the role of intersectional stigma and other forms of injustice in producing or exacerbating health inequality. She began working directly in the field of reproductive health and abortion care in 1999, and has since worked with and volunteered at multiple clinics in Oregon, Connecticut, and Catalunya.

Dr. Ostrach conducts ongoing fieldwork primarily in Catalunya. Her work focuses on publicly funded reproductive health care and popular engagement with the movement for Catalan independence, as it intersects with commitment to protecting health care for immigrants. She also works with patients and staff of health care facilities in the United States that provide abortion and other reproductive health services.

With Shir Lerman and Merrill Singer, she is the co-editor of a forthcoming volume on stigma-linked syndemics. She has co-authored multiple publications on syndemics, and has single-authored and co-authored publications on reproductive health care access and policy. Her forthcoming book, tentatively titled, Health Policy in (a) Crisis: Access to Publicly Funded Abortion in the Context of Austerity, is under contract with Routledge Press.

Other Positions

  • Graduate Faculty (Primary Mentor of Grad Students), Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, Graduate Medical Sciences

Education

  • University of Connecticut, PhD
  • Oregon State University, MA
  • University of Oregon, BA

Publications

  • Published on 2/6/2024

    Ostrach B, Hixon V, Bryce A. "When people who use drugs can't differentiate between medical care and cops, it's a problem." Compounding risks of law Enforcement Harassment & Punitive Healthcare Policies. Health Justice. 2024 Feb 06; 12(1):3. PMID: 38319474.

    Read at: PubMed
  • Published on 2/1/2024

    Marley G, Annis IE, Ostrach B, Egan K, Delamater PL, Bell R, Dasgupta N, Carpenter DM. Naloxone Accessibility by Standing Order in North Carolina Community Pharmacies. J Am Pharm Assoc (2003). 2024 Feb 01; 102021. PMID: 38307248.

    Read at: PubMed
  • Published on 12/13/2023

    Carroll JJ, Ostrach B, El-Sabawi T. Health Inequities Among People Who Use Drugs in a Post-Dobbs America: The Case for a Syndemic Analysis. J Law Med Ethics. 2023; 51(3):549-553. PMID: 38088631.

    Read at: PubMed
  • Published on 11/10/2023

    Carpenter D, Mashburn P, Viracola C, Marley G, Ostrach B. A Brief Online Training to Address Pharmacists' Willingness to Dispense Buprenorphine. J Addict Med. 2024 Jan-Feb 01; 18(1):68-70. PMID: 37948129.

    Read at: PubMed
  • Published on 10/12/2023

    Latessa RA, Galvin SL, Swendiman RA, Onyango J, Ostrach B, Edmondson AC, Davis SA, Hirsh DA. Psychological safety and accountability in longitudinal integrated clerkships: a dual institution qualitative study. BMC Med Educ. 2023 Oct 12; 23(1):760. PMID: 37828469.

    Read at: PubMed
  • Published on 9/20/2023

    Hughes PM, Ostrach B, Tak CR. Examining differences in opioid deaths by race in North Carolina following the STOP Act, 2010-2019. J Subst Use Addict Treat. 2023 Dec; 155:209171. PMID: 37739125.

    Read at: PubMed
  • Published on 5/4/2023

    Ostrach B, Hill L, Carpenter D, Pollini R. Addressing buprenorphine bottlenecks in the context of MAT Act implementation: A shared responsibility. J Am Pharm Assoc (2003). 2023; 63(4):1044-1048. PMID: 37149144.

    Read at: PubMed
  • Published on 1/24/2023

    Marley GT, Ostrach B, Carpenter D. North Carolina pharmacists' willingness to sell fentanyl test strips: a survey study. Harm Reduct J. 2023 Jan 24; 20(1):10. PMID: 36694186.

    Read at: PubMed
  • Published on 12/26/2022

    Major EG, Wilson CG, Carpenter DM, Harless JC, Marley GT, Ostrach B. Factors in rural community buprenorphine dispensing. Explor Res Clin Soc Pharm. 2023 Mar; 9:100204. PMID: 36703716.

    Read at: PubMed
  • Published on 9/27/2022

    Morrissey B, Hughes T, Ostrach B, Wilson L, Getty R, Combs TL, Bennett J, Carroll JJ. "They don't go by the law around here": law enforcement interactions after the legalization of syringe services programs in North Carolina. Harm Reduct J. 2022 Sep 27; 19(1):106. PMID: 36163255.

    Read at: PubMed

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