Emma Lo, MD
Assistant Professor of PsychiatryCards
Appointments
Additional Titles
Medical Director, Street Psychiatry Team, Psychiatry
Co-director, Public Psychiatry Track, Psychiatry
Clinical Faculty, Division of Addictions
Clinical Faculty, Adult Psychiatry
Contact Info
Psychiatry
Connecticut Mental Health Center, 34 Park St
New Haven, CT 06511
United States
Appointments
Additional Titles
Medical Director, Street Psychiatry Team, Psychiatry
Co-director, Public Psychiatry Track, Psychiatry
Clinical Faculty, Division of Addictions
Clinical Faculty, Adult Psychiatry
Contact Info
Psychiatry
Connecticut Mental Health Center, 34 Park St
New Haven, CT 06511
United States
Appointments
Additional Titles
Medical Director, Street Psychiatry Team, Psychiatry
Co-director, Public Psychiatry Track, Psychiatry
Clinical Faculty, Division of Addictions
Clinical Faculty, Adult Psychiatry
Contact Info
Psychiatry
Connecticut Mental Health Center, 34 Park St
New Haven, CT 06511
United States
About
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Titles
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry
Medical Director, Street Psychiatry Team, Psychiatry; Co-director, Public Psychiatry Track, Psychiatry; Clinical Faculty, Division of Addictions; Clinical Faculty, Adult Psychiatry
Biography
Dr. Lo has dedicated her career to working with vulnerable and marginalized populations, specifically focusing on people experiencing homelessness and serious mental illness. She is the founder and Medical Director for the newly established Street Psychiatry Program at the Connecticut Mental Health Center (CMHC). She is actively involved in the Street Medicine Institute, where she serves as a faculty advisor on the Learning and Education Advisory Panel, which supervises the Street Medicine Institute Student Coalition, an international group of medical trainees leading and developing best practices for student-run street medicine programs around the world. She has been invited for multiple internal and external speaking engagements and presented numerous times about her work in Street Psychiatry. Her research interests lie in mental health services implementation, health care access issues for vulnerable populations, medical education in structural competency and social determinants of health, and addressing racial and economic disparities on systemic levels.
Prior to her time at Yale, Dr. Lo worked with a prominent street medicine program in Pittsburgh, PA where she first trained and contributed to the field of street medicine. She then served as a Street Medicine Fellow in Kolkata, India where she worked on quality improvement for a program providing medical care to people living on the streets and slums. During medical school at the University of Rochester, she established and led a new student-run street medicine program which provided medical care, education, and connection to services for people experiencing homelessness in Rochester, NY. She spent a year in rural Uganda training Village Health Workers who brought primary care and health screening to those without access to health centers.
Appointments
Psychiatry
Assistant ProfessorPrimary
Other Departments & Organizations
Education & Training
- Public Psychiatry Fellow
- Yale University (2019)
- Residency
- Yale University School of Medicine (2019)
- MD
- University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Medical Humanities Track (2015)
- BA
- Haverford College, Fine Arts (2008)
Research
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Overview
Medical Research Interests
ORCID
0000-0001-5253-5523
Research at a Glance
Yale Co-Authors
Robert Rosenheck, MD
Greg Rhee, PhD, FACE
Publications
2026
Association of Recent and Past Homelessness with Health-Related Quality of Life among US Adults
Lo E, Rhee T, Rosenheck R. Association of Recent and Past Homelessness with Health-Related Quality of Life among US Adults. Psychiatric Quarterly 2026, 1-19. PMID: 41758416, DOI: 10.1007/s11126-026-10258-7.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchConceptsHealth-related quality of lifeQuality Adjusted Life YearsHealth-related qualityNo history of homelessnessHistory of homelessnessQuality of lifeUS adultsPhysical health-related quality of lifeMeasures of health-related quality of lifeHomeless groupHomelessnessMental HRQOL scoresSample of US adultsPhysical health scoresEQ-5D utility valuesMental comorbiditiesAdjusted Life YearsNo historySF-12HRQoL scoresHealth scoresSociodemographic characteristicsEQ-5DLife yearsConfounding factors
2020
Addressing challenges in prescribing for vulnerable unsheltered homeless populations with mental illness
Balasuriya L, Buelt E, Bruneau W, Lo E. Addressing challenges in prescribing for vulnerable unsheltered homeless populations with mental illness. Journal Of Social Distress And The Homeless 2020, 30: 135-140. DOI: 10.1080/10530789.2020.1774732.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchCitationsConceptsMental illnessUnique barriersComplexity of regimensSide effect profileType of medicationVulnerable populationsSerious mental illnessHomeless individualsSuccessful prescribingThoughtful prescribingModality of deliveryMedication adherencePsychiatric comorbidityHomeless populationTreatment successMedicationsSocial determinantsVulnerable subpopulationsIllnessUnreliable transportationPrescribingCliniciansTreatmentLack of accessAdherence
Academic Achievements & Community Involvement
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Activities
activity Learning and Education Advisory Panel
07/01/2018 - PresentAdvisory BoardsAdvisorDetailsStreet Medicine Institute Student CoalitionSupervise students serving on international panel to assist other students in starting and improving their own street medicine programs, provide webinars and journal club materialactivity Anti-racism Task Force - Community Subcommittee
02/01/2021 - PresentCommitteesMemberDetailsMulti-disciplinary task force to address racial disparities on the community levelactivity American Association of Community Psychiatrists
2018 - PresentProfessional OrganizationsMemberactivity Street Medicine Institute
2008 - PresentProfessional OrganizationsMemberactivity Doctors for Global Health
2009 - PresentProfessional OrganizationsMember
Honors
honor Ira Levine Award
06/01/2017Yale School of Medicine AwardYale Department of PsychiatryDetailsUnited Stateshonor Distinction in Community Health
05/15/2015Other AwardUniversity of Rochester School of MedicineDetailsUnited Stateshonor The Medical Society of the State of New York Community Service Award
05/15/2015Other AwardUniversity of Rochester School of MedicineDetailsUnited Stateshonor The Kenneth Woodward Memorial Award
05/15/2015Other AwardUniversity of Rochester School of MedicineDetailsUnited Stateshonor Gold Humanism Society
05/15/2013National AwardUniversity of Rochester School of MedicineDetailsUnited States
News
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News
- June 17, 2026
Lo, Rawlins Honored by Connecticut Psychiatric Society
- March 23, 2026Source: Street Side: The Street Medicine Institute Podcast (with Dr. Emma Lo)
A Passion for the Streets with Psychiatrist Emma Lo, MD
- March 12, 2026Source: The Carlat Addiction Treatment Report (with Dr. Emma Lo)
Lessons from Street Psychiatry
- November 18, 2024Source: The Hartford Courant
Opinion: Medical Providers and Researchers Call to End CT Homeless Encampment Displacements
Get In Touch
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Contacts
Psychiatry
Connecticut Mental Health Center, 34 Park St
New Haven, CT 06511
United States