Bayla Ostrach, PhD
Assistant Professor, Family Medicine
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 1/27/2025
Vieira LEB, Ostrach B, Westrick S, Kennelty KA, Look KA, Carpenter DM. Practical naloxone communication tips for pharmacists: Lessons learned from the Linguistic Model of Patient Participation in Care. Res Social Adm Pharm. 2025 May; 21(5):361-370. PMID: 39884916.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 12/19/2024
Marley G, Viracola C, Bryce A, Hudson A, Locklear E, Ostrach B, Carpenter D. Co-development of a community pharmacy training regarding fentanyl and xylazine test strips. Explor Res Clin Soc Pharm. 2025 Mar; 17:100557. PMID: 39845424.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 11/1/2024
Ostrach B, Carroll JJ. On Race and Place in Substance Use Research. Am J Public Health. 2024 Nov; 114(11):1148-1150. PMID: 39357005.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 8/22/2024
Carroll JJ, Dasgupta N, Ostrach B, El-Sabawi T, Dixon S, Morrissey B, Saucier R. Evidence-based treatment for opioid use disorder is widely unavailable and often discouraged by providers of residential substance use services in North Carolina. J Subst Use Addict Treat. 2024 Dec; 167:209474. PMID: 39179208.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 8/1/2024
Tak C, Ostrach B, Ramage M. Postpartum Access to Health Care and Opioid Use Treatment: An Evaluation of a Medicaid Population. N C Med J. 2024 Aug; 85(6):462-470. PMID: 39570144.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 4/20/2024
Ostrach B, Hixon V, Bryce A. Correction: "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 Apr 20; 12(1):19. PMID: 38642216.
Read at: PubMed - 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; 64(3):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
View 57 more publications: View full profile at BUMC