Monica Peek is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine and Biological Sciences Division at the University of Chicago. Dr. Peek is a practicing physician and the Principal Investigator of a multi-site intervention funded by an NIDDK R18 grant and the Merck Foundation to improve diabetes care and outcomes on the South Side of Chicago, focusing on primarily working class African-American communities with significant disparities in diabetes health outcomes such as lower extremity amputations. The intervention utilizes an integrated approach that includes culturally tailored patient activation training, a diabetes quality improvement collaborative (e.g. implementing care coordination), cultural competency/communication training for clinicians and enhanced community partnerships (e.g. utilizing food prescription/vouchers redeemable at local farmer’s markets and grocers). This work has been recognized as a best-practice model for healthcare-community partnerships and was featured in Time Magazine in 2016.
As a member of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) program office Finding Answers: Disparities Research for Change, Dr. Peek is a national expert on health care interventions to reduce disparities in diabetes care and outcomes. She has been funded by RWJF and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) to explore racial differences in patient/provider communication and to pilot patient-empowerment interventions to enhance such communication among blacks with diabetes. Dr. Peek was also part of the NIDDK strategic planning committee whose 2010 report ‘Advances and Emerging Opportunities in Diabetes Research’ set forth the diabetes research agenda for the next 5-10 years. She is currently a seated member on the National Advisory Council for Healthcare Research and Quality (NAC) at AHRQ, which provides advice and recommendations to AHRQ's director and to the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on priorities for a national health services research agenda.
