Mary Catherine Beach

Mary Catherine Beach, MD, MPH, is a Professor of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and holds a joint appointment as Professor in the Department of Health, Behavior & Society at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her research focuses on respect in healthcare, patient-clinician communication, and health disparities affecting underserved populations, particularly those with HIV/AIDS and sickle cell disease. She has been funded by the NIH, AHRQ, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, among others.

Dr. Beach earned her BA from Barnard College, MD from Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and MPH from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She has held prestigious roles including former Greenwall Bioethics Fellow and recipient of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Generalist Physician Faculty Scholar Award.

Her work emphasizes improving communication quality, reducing healthcare bias, and enhancing patient engagement. Recent studies include analyzing stigmatizing language in medical records and developing tools like the CORE-ICU instrument to measure respect in intensive care units. She serves on editorial boards, chairs IRB committees, and directs training programs in clinical research.

Her contributions span over 20 years, with impactful publications on shared decision-making, empathy in HIV care, and communication in sickle cell disease management. Awards include recognition for advancing culturally competent care and reducing racial disparities in healthcare outcomes.