“I want to keep working and doing whatever I can to help.”
Maya Ragavan, MD, MPH, MS, joined UPMC nearly three years ago as a general pediatrician and researcher. She’s already made a significant impact.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Ragavan co-founded the Pittsburgh Community Vaccine Collaborative. The initiative partnered with local organizations to ensure all people, including those from underserved and marginalized communities, were part of the process in researching and obtaining the COVID-19 vaccine. That included getting people included in clinical trials and working to promote the trustworthiness and accessibility of the vaccine in all communities.
“In particular, my interest was making sure that non-English speaking members of our community had access to the vaccine,” she says. The issue with that was all systems and structures are built for people who speak English, who write English, who read English.”
Knowing the importance of people getting care in their own language, Dr. Ragavan worked to understand the impact of COVID-19 in non-English-speaking communities. She tried to find solutions and provide resources and educational opportunities for people in those communities.
“I want to do whatever I can to help make it easier for patients who don’t speak English,” Dr. Ragavan says.
Dr. Ragavan helped to organize virtual events where health care providers and vaccine experts provided answers to people’s questions about COVID-19 and the vaccine. The events included bilingual providers and/or interpreters in multiple languages to better serve the community.
“It’s always been something I’ve been really passionate about and care deeply about,” she says. “I want to keep working and doing whatever I can to help.”
At UPMC, Life Changing Medicine means reaching out to everyone who needs care.
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