Research by Ninez Ponce, a professor in the department of health policy and management at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Affairs, is featured in Health Affairs Blog’s top 10 publications in 2015. The blog is a vehicle for commentary and analysis on health policy and issues affecting health and health care. Editor-in-chief Alan Weil chose from hundreds of studies on a broad range of topics, basing his top 10 selections on the unique approach they take to analyzing an issue and/or important findings that may not have received the attention they deserve.
Ponce’s study, “Early Diffusion Of Gene Expression Profiling In Breast Cancer Patients Associated With Areas Of High Income Inequality,” looked at the uneven adoption across the United States of gene expression profiling, a potentially cost-effective innovation that guides chemotherapy decisions in early-stage breast cancer. She and her research team found that income inequality in metropolitan areas was associated with receipt of gene expression profiling during its initial diffusion in 2006-07. Early diffusion of gene expression profiling is associated with areas of high income inequality, leading to more benefits for the highest-income patients in the most unequal areas. Ponce and her co-authors argue that future policies should address this disparity to serve low-income patients as well.
