Maria Venegas PhD
Assistant Professor, General Internal Medicine
801 Massachusetts Ave | (617) 638-8000mdv12@bu.edu
Sections
General Internal Medicine
Biography
I am a medical anthropologist with extensive experience and expertise in qualitative health research in Latin America and among Latinos in the United States. Drawing on my anthropological and public health background, my primary research interests focus on the lived experience of mental illness and ethnographic informed studies of technologies of care (m-health and telehealth) for the management of mental illness among economically disadvantaged and minority populations. My long-term goal is to become an expert on mental health care service delivery for diverse racial and economic underserved populations. I believe that an ethnographic and mixed method approach to mental health research can provide meaningful insights to the conditions of suffering, the context of mental illness experience, and strategies for recovery and improving mental health treatment among ethnic and racial minority groups.
Education
Anthropology, PhD, University of Pittsburgh
Behavior & Health, MPH, University of Pittsburgh
Anthropology, MA, University of Cincinnati
Anthropology, BA, Boise State University
Publications
Venegas M, McCullough MB, Hawley CE, Beizer JL, Hung WW, Moo LR. Telehealth Barriers and Digital Ageism Experienced by Older Veterans: Formative Ethnographic Study to Inform a Telepharmacy Randomized Trial. JMIR Aging. 2026 Apr 30; 9:e79409. PMID: 42060893.
Published on 3/11/2026Marfeo E, Chamberlin E, Venegas M, Ngo V, Shirk SD, Hicken B, Cruise C, Moo LR. Exploring Home and Community-Based Service Needs Among Rural Family Caregivers of Older Adult US Veterans. J Appl Gerontol. 2026 Mar 11; 7334648261431411. PMID: 41811860.
Published on 11/11/2025Kennedy MA, Azar M, Cohen AJ, Dawson CMP, Edwards N, Ngo V, Suarez TR, Ruggles SC, Russell LE, Schwartz AW, Venegas MD, Rhodes RL. Contextualizing Age-Friendly Care Within Social Drivers of Health. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2026 Feb; 74(2):326-335. PMID: 41217116.
Published on 2/5/2025Hossain SR, Samant AN, Balsamo BC, Hawley CE, Zanchelli MC, Zhu C, Venegas MD, Robertson M, McCullough MB, Beizer JL, Boockvar KS, Siu AL, Moo LR, Hung WW. Effect of Medication Management at Home via Pharmacist-Led Home Televisits: Protocol for a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial. JMIR Res Protoc. 2025 Feb 05; 14:e65141. PMID: 39908544.
Published on 11/13/2023Hawley CE, Wagner C, Venegas MD, Genovese N, Triantafylidis LK, McCullough MB, Beizer JL, Hung WW, Moo LR. Connecting the disconnected: Leveraging an in-home team member for video visits for older adults. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2024 May; 72(5):1408-1419. PMID: 37960887.
Published on 10/1/2023Gately ME, Metcalf EE, Waller DE, McLaren JE, Chamberlin ES, Hawley CE, Venegas M, Dryden EM, O'Connor MK, Moo LR. Caregiver Support Role in Occupational Therapy Video Telehealth: A Scoping Review. Top Geriatr Rehabil. 2023 Oct; 39(4):253-265. PMID: 37901356.
Published on 3/1/2022Venegas MD, Brooks JM, Myers AL, Storm M, Fortuna KL. Peer Support Specialists and Service Users' Perspectives on Privacy, Confidentiality, and Security of Digital Mental Health. IEEE Pervasive Comput. 2022 Apr-Jun; 21(2):41-50. PMID: 35814864.
Published on 11/30/2021Storm M, Venegas M, Gocinski A, Myers A, Brooks J, Fortuna KL. Stakeholders' Perspectives on Partnering to Inform the Software Development Lifecycle of Smartphone Applications for People with Serious Mental Illness: Enhancing the Software Development Lifecycle Through Stakeholder Engagement. Proc IEEE Glob Humanit Technol Conf. 2021 Oct; 2021:195-199. PMID: 35005226.
Published on 11/30/2021Fortuna K, Mbao M, Kadakia A, Myers A, Fischer D, MacDonald S, Brunchet S, Hintz I, Rossom R, Brooks J, Kalisa J, Haragirimana C, Storm M, Mois G, Umucu E, Almeida M, Rivera J, Zisman Ilani Y, Venegas M, Walker R. Peer and Non-Peer Academic Scientists and Peer Support Specialist Community of Practice: Stakeholder Engagement to Advance the Science of Peer Support. Proc IEEE Glob Humanit Technol Conf. 2021 Oct; 2021:188-194. PMID: 35498510.
Published on 1/1/2021Venegas M. Grisi Siknis: A Cultural Idiom of Distress in Eastern Nicaragua. Transcultural Psychiatry. 2021.