Elena Byhoff

Elena Byhoff MD, MSc is an Associate Professor at UMass Chan Medical School, holding dual appointments in the Department of Medicine within the T.H. Chan School of Medicine, and in Population and Quantitative Health Sciences. Her work bridges clinical medicine and population health through community-engaged research focused on social determinants of health.

Her educational background includes a BS in Environmental Economics from UC Berkeley, an MS in Health Services Research from the University of Michigan, and an MD from the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. This interdisciplinary training underpins her research approach integrating policy analysis with clinical implementation.

Byhoff's research centers on social risk screening, food insecurity interventions, and health equity in safety-net settings. She employs community-based participatory methods to develop interventions addressing SNAP enrollment barriers in Latine communities and evaluate clinical-community partnerships for food insecurity. Her publication trajectory shows accelerating output since 2019, with 2023-2025 representing her most productive period, featuring high-impact work in journals like Liver Transplantation and Translational Behavioral Medicine. Key themes include social determinants screening implementation, Medicaid policy impacts, and racial/ethnic disparities in healthcare access.

Her scientific contributions are recognized through significant NIH funding:

• K23MD015267 (2020-2025): Principal Investigator for "Increasing SNAP enrollment in a diverse Latinx community"
• R01NR021522 (2024-2029): Principal Investigator for "A clinical-community partnership to understand health impacts of a food insecurity intervention"

Byhoff actively collaborates with community organizations and healthcare systems, particularly focusing on Massachusetts Medicaid redesigns and mobile produce market interventions. Her work demonstrates how health systems can effectively partner with community-based organizations to address food insecurity and other social determinants, moving beyond screening to meaningful intervention.