Lauren LaMonica, MPH

Lauren LaMonica, MPH, is a researcher affiliated with the Yale School of Public Health in Chronic Disease Epidemiology and an MD/MBA candidate at the University of Michigan Medical School and the University of Michigan Ross School of Business. Lauren received an undergraduate degree in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology from Yale University in 2018 and a Master of Public Health degree in Chronic Disease Epidemiology from the Yale School of Public Health in 2019.

As a Wilbur G. Downs International Health Fellow and Global Health Scholar, Lauren’s research in Brazil and in Samoa has focused on cost-effective innovations to increase access to preventative screening in underserved and resource-strained settings. She has developed low-cost therapies, including the design of light-at-night phototherapy for patients with diabetic macular edema (DME), the leading cause of blindness in working-age adults, and a modified neonatal incubator covering for infants with Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP). A student researcher in the Yale Samoan Obesity, Lifestyle, and Genetic Adaptations (OLAGA) Study Group, Lauren has worked alongside the Samoan Ministry of Health to implement a remote eye screening program in the South Pacific using a portable, low-cost smartphone-based camera to screen for diabetes-associated eye disease.  

Lauren’s current research through the Michigan Medicine Surgical Innovation Accelerator and National Institute of Health (T35 Research Fellow) focuses broadly on innovation and entrepreneurship through surgical medical device design. She has ongoing interests in the intersection between epidemiology, data science, and health care access.