Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion

Profile

Shari S. Rogal, MD, MPH is CHERP Core Investigator, VA Physician at the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System, and the John J. Fung Assistant Professor of Transplant Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh. She serves as Co-Director of CHERP's Implementation and Dissemination Core. Dr. Rogal works clinically as a transplant hepatologist with a research interest in improving waitlist and transplant outcomes by addressing symptoms and quality of life in the transplant population in the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System.

Dr. Rogal brings her extensive, collaborative experience with Transplant Surgery and the VA Healthcare System to the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition. Dr. Rogal studies liver transplant outcomes with particular interests in addiction and pain with chronic liver disease patients. She is also interested in the implementation of science to combat health disparities.

Her research focuses on improving outcomes in patients with chronic liver disease by improving the management of mental health symptoms, addiction, and pain in this population. Despite the number of known drug interactions and the critical role the liver plays in metabolizing medications, little work has been done to develop safe protocols for managing symptoms such as pain in depression in patients with chronic liver disease. In addition to this research focus, Dr. Rogal is also developing implementation strategies to reduce disparities in hepatitis C treatment. This work focuses on vulnerable populations including those with mental health and substance use disorders.

She has found that untreated pre-transplant depression was associated with increased rejection and that poorly-managed depression in the early post-transplant period is among the strongest predictors of long-term post-transplant mortality. Dr. Rogal plans to develop behavioral interventions to address mental health symptoms in the peri-transplant period in order to improve health outcomes.