Mihoko Tanabe, DO, MPH, MIA
Assistant Professor, Family Medicine
Biography
Mihoko Tanabe has worked in both international and domestic refugee health. Prior to transitioning to medicine, she worked for almost a decade with a New York-based humanitarian research and advocacy organization that aimed to enhance health access for refugees and internally displaced persons affected by conflicts and natural disasters worldwide. Over the years, she has conducted research on reproductive health-related issues in Haiti, Kenya, Nepal, the Thai-Burma border, South Sudan, and Uganda, and has overseen projects in Bangladesh, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Jordan, Malaysia, and Pakistan. Some of her projects included piloting community-based approaches to providing sexual and reproductive health services in conflict settings; identifying good practice programming for adolescent reproductive health; and addressing the intersections between sexual and reproductive health and disability in humanitarian contexts. She further advocated for good quality SRH services in conflict and natural disaster settings through reviewing and developing global policy and technical guidance; conducting inter-agency assessments on minimum SRH services at the onset of emergencies; and organizing and presenting at meetings and fora. She also sat on the steering committee of the Inter-agency Working Group on Reproductive Health in Crises, a global network of SRH in crises practitioners.
Now as a family medicine physician in Boston, she sees newly arriving refugees to Boston in her weekly refugee clinic. She also rounds with the Family Medicine Inpatient Unit and the Observation Unit at Boston Medical Center. She is exploring how to improve health access and health outcomes for refugee patients.
Websites
Education
- Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, DO
- Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, MPH
- Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs, MIA
- International Christian University, BA
Publications
- Published on 11/18/2024
Tanabe M, Pennington K, Standish K, Goldman A. Improving Residency Training in Refugee and Immigrant Health Care at an Urban Academic Family Medicine Residency. J Immigr Minor Health. 2025 Feb; 27(1):177-180. PMID: 39556278.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 6/1/2024
Deitch, Julianne, Lily Jacobi, Sarah Rich, and Mihoko Tanabe. Do Family Planning High Impact Practices Work in Humanitarian Settings? A Preliminary Review of the Evidence. Women's Refugee Commission. New York. 2024.
Read at: Custom - Published on 9/1/2022
Tanabe M, Hynes M, Rizvi A, Goswami N, Mahmood N, Krause S. Building resilience for sexual and reproductive health at the community level: learning from three crisis-affected provinces in Pakistan. BMJ Glob Health. 2022 Sep; 7(9). PMID: 36175038.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 6/1/2021
ACCESS Consortium. Facilitator’s Kit: Community Preparedness for Reproductive Health and Gender. A Resource for Communities in Disaster-Prone Areas. 2021.
Read at: Custom - Published on 1/1/2021
Tanabe, Mihoko, Sandra Krause, et al. "Part 3: Strengthening Community-based Care, Section 2: Community Health Workers Training". Communities Care: Transforming Lives and Preventing Violence Programme. UNICEF. UNICEF. New York. 2021.
Read at: Custom - Published on 11/3/2020
Nehal US, Kanahara S, Tanabe M, Hayner G, Nelson BD. Pediatric Refugee Health Care Delivery in the Community Setting: An Educational Workshop for Multidisciplinary Family-Centered Care During Resettlement. MedEdPORTAL. 2020 Nov 03; 16:10988. PMID: 33204831.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 5/1/2019
Tanabe M, Greer A, Leigh J, Modi P, Davis WW, Mhote PP, Htoo EM, Otterness CM, Parmar P. An exploration of gender-based violence in eastern Myanmar in the context of political transition: findings from a qualitative sexual and reproductive health assessment. Sex Reprod Health Matters. 2019 May; 27(2):1665161. PMID: 31589098.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 1/1/2019
Khosla, Rajat, Sandra Krause, and Mihoko Tanabe. “Chapter 8: Addressing the rights of women in conflict and humanitarian settings”. The Health of Refugees: Public Health Perspectives from crisis to settlement, 2nd edition. Eds Pascale Allotey and Daniel Reidpath. Oxford University Press. 2019.
- Published on 1/1/2018
Inter-agency Working Group on Reproductive Health in Crises. Reproductive Health in Humanitarian Settings: An Inter-agency Field Manual. Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health. IAWG on RH in Crises. Geneva. 2018.
Read at: Custom - Published on 12/13/2017
Krause SK, Chynoweth SK, Tanabe M. Sea-change in reproductive health in emergencies: how systemic improvements to address the MISP were achieved. Reprod Health Matters. 2017 Nov; 25(51):7-17. PMID: 29233076.
Read at: PubMed
View 21 more publications: View full profile at BUMC