Matthew Allison, MD, MPH

            Dr. Matthew Allison, assistant professor at the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) since 2005, is expanding on his multi-ethnic work by exploring potential reasons for cardiovascular health disparities among different Hispanic groups.

            Developing a program of research on a Native American population in northeast San Diego County is another of his future goals, focusing on subclinical measures of atherosclerosis.

            Born in San Jose, Calif., in 1966, Dr. Allison earned a BS in biochemistry from California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo, his MD at Uniformed Services University, Bethesda, and MPH at San Diego State University.

            He began his research career as a preventive medicine resident at UCSD, studying the association between systemic calcified atherosclerosis and incident cardiovascular disease events. He held a post-doctoral fellowship at UCSD and has expanded his work as an investigator in the Women’s Health Initiative and the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis.     

            He has received NIH grant funding to examine the associations between abdominal body composition and both inflammation and incident cardiovascular disease events, and also to study the associations between neighborhood characteristics and chronic diseases.

            In 2006, his San Diego group was selected as a field center for the Hispanic Communities Health Study, for which he is an active investigator.

            Among several purposes for his SADF-funded research, Dr. Allison is determining the extent of atherosclerosis in the vascular beds of the neck, heart, upper and lower extremities and aorta, using five different non-invasive methods.

            He resides with his wife and two daughters in San Diego.

Email: mallison@ucsd.edu

Phone: 858-200-3814

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