Matthew D Kearney, PhD, MPH

faculty photo
Assistant Professor of Family Medicine and Community Health at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
Associate Director, Mixed Methods Research Lab (MMRL), Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, University of Pennsylvania
Senior Fellow, University of Pennsylvania Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics
Department: Family Medicine and Community Health

Contact information
Department of Family Medicine and Community Health
Penn Presbyterian Medical Center
Andrew Mutch Building, 6th Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Education:
BS (Biology)
Union College, 2009.
MPH
University of Pennsylvania, 2016.
PhD (Community Health and Prevention)
Drexel University, 2021.
Permanent link
 
> Perelman School of Medicine   > Faculty   > Details

Description of Research Expertise

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health (DFMCH) at the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) with additional training in mixed methods, biostatistics, and qualitative research. I have a methodological focus on integrated research methods, and am currently Associate Director of the Mixed Methods Research Lab, a service center within Penn Medicine that facilitates a variety of inter- and multi-disciplinary research projects. Since 2019, I have served as a Research Fellow with Penn Medicine’s Center for Health Equity Advancement (CHEA). As a CHEA fellow, I have worked as a consultant, collaborator, and mentor on a variety of research projects that use mixed methods to evaluate disparities in care quality and workforce inclusion. I am also currently a Senior Fellow with UPenn’s Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics and have an appointment as a Research Specialist at the Corporal Michael J. Crescenz Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Philadelphia.

At Penn my scholarship is focused on three specific areas: 1) program evaluation, 2) health promotion through community-engaged research, and 3) social media surveillance and evaluation. Since joining UPenn’s faculty in 2021, I have had the privilege of serving as evaluator on multiple federally-funded projects through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). As evaluator, I have employed my skills in mixed methods research to explore program implementation barriers and facilitators, solicit participant and broader community input, and identify factors associated with program success.

My research interests include identifying innovative strategies to investigate, evaluate, and address health behaviors and other phenomena within the digital environment of social media, as well as in clinical settings at Penn Medicine. I am particularly curious about the impact of social media health misinformation in unique social contexts and communities. As a doctoral candidate at Drexel University, my training focused on identifying and implementing novel approaches to explore health behaviors and communications on social media. At the University of Pennsylvania my scholarship is focused on three specific areas: 1) mixed methods research, 2) social media surveillance and evaluation, and 3) health promotion through community-engaged research. Based on my experience as a qualitative researcher studying misinformation’s impact on social media platforms including Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, I am deeply interested in understanding the role of misinformation in healthcare consumers’ decision making processes, in particular as it relates to vaccination.

Selected Publications

Fuller SL, Ambardekar AP, Diachun CAB, Kearney MD, Long TR, Miller Juve AK, Mitchell JD, Woodworth GE. : Competency-Based Time-Variable Anesthesiology Residency Training: Identification of Problems and Solutions. Anesthesia & Analgesia Page: 10.1213, July 2023 Notes: https://doi.org/10.1213/ane.0000000000006625.

Keddem, S., Agha, A., Morawej, S., Buck, A., Cronholm, P., Sonalkar, S., Kearney, M.: Characterizing Twitter Content About HIV Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) for Women: Qualitative Content Analysis Journal of Medical Internet Research 25(e43596), May 2023 Notes: https://doi.org/10.2196/43596.

Park PSU, Algur E, Narayan S, Song WB, Kearney MD, Aysola J: Representation of Asian American Populations in Medical School Curricula. JAMA Network Open 5(9): e2233080, September 2022 Notes: https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.33080.

Manganello, J. A., Chiang, S. C., Cowlin, H., Kearney, M. D., & Massey, P. M. : HPV and COVID-19 vaccines: Social media use, confidence, and intentions among parents living in different community types in the United States. Journal of Behavioral Medicine Page: 212-228, June 2022 Notes: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-022-00316-3.

Philip M Massey; Matthew D Kearney; Alexandre Rideau; Adam Peterson; Jessica D Gipson; Roch A Nianogo; Marta Bornstein; Michael L Prelip; Deborah C Glik: Measuring impact of storyline engagement on health knowledge, attitudes, and norms: A digital evaluation of an online health-focused serial drama in West Africa. Journal of Global Health 12: 04039, May 2022 Notes: https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.12.04039.

Kearney, M., Bornstein, M., Fall, M., Nianogo, R., Glik, D., & Massey, P. : Cross-sectional study of COVID-19 knowledge, beliefs and prevention behaviours among adults in Senegal. BMJ Open. British Medical Journal, 12(5): e057914, May 2022 Notes: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-057914.

Resnick, D., Kearney, M. D., Smith, J. M., Bautista, A., Jones, L., Schapira, M. M., & Aysola, J.: Designing a Cancer Prevention Collaborative Goal-Setting Mobile App for Non-Hispanic Black Primary Care Patients: An Iterative, Qualitative Patient-Led Process JMIR Formative Research. JMIR Publications Inc., Toronto, Canada, 6(3): e28157, March 2022 Notes: https://doi.org/10.2196/28157.

Matthew D. Kearney, Frances K. Barg, Dominique Alexis, Eve Higginbotham, Jaya Aysola: Employee Health and Wellness Outcomes Associated With Perceived Discrimination in Academic Medicine: A Qualitative Analysis. JAMA Network Open 5(1), January 2022 Notes: https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.45243.

Aysola, Jaya; Clapp, Justin T.; Sullivan, Patricia; Brennan, Patrick J.; Higginbotham, Eve J.; Kearney, Matthew D.; Xu, Chang; Thomas, Rosemary; Griggs, Sarah; Abdirisak, Mohamed; Hilton, Alec; Omole, Toluwa; Foster, Sean; Mamtani, Mira: Understanding Contributors to Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Emergency Department Throughput Times: a Sequential Mixed Methods Analysis. Journal of General Internal Medicine 37(2): 341-350, August 2021 Notes: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-021-07028-5.

Selvan, Preethi; Kearney, Matthew; Cognetti, David; Massey, Philip; Leader, Amy: Exploring Knowledge and Attitudes About Human Papillomavirus Vaccination Among School Nurses in an Urban School District. Journal of School Health 91(2): 125-132, Feb 2021 Notes: https://doi.org/10.1111/josh.12981.

back to top
Last updated: 02/28/2024
The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania