Division of General Internal
Medicine

Francesca Gany, MD, MS; Associate Professor; Director, Center for Immigrant Health

Phone: 212-263-8897
Fax: 212-263-8234
E-mail: francesca.gany@med.nyu.edu

Information Page

As the founder and Director of the Center for Immigrant Health, and a member of the faculty of the New York University School of Medicine, Dr. Gany has extensive background in immigrant health research, curriculum development, education, and program and policy development.  Dr. Gany teaches primary care, immigrant health, and health policy and medical economics at the School. She has published and lectured widely on immigrant health issues and has facilitated the dissemination of model projects nationally. Dr. Gany holds a B.S. in Biology from Yale University, an M.D. from Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, and an M.S. in Health Policy from the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service

The Center for Immigrant Health is a network of over 1000 community members, social scientists, and health care and public health professionals working with the diverse immigrant groups in New York and nationally. The mission of the Center is to improve access to, and quality of, health care for New York’s large immigrant populations. The Center accomplishes its mission through research, education, information dissemination, and program and policy development.

Dr. Gany has served as the Principal Investigator on a number of pioneering immigrant health  projects. As a Robert Wood Johnson Faculty Scholar, Dr. Gany conducted a study to elucidate barriers to the completion of tuberculosis screening and prophylaxis facing immigrants. Her reviews led to the development of long-term policy and programmatic changes in tuberculosis screening for immigrants.  Dr. Gany’s tuberculosis activities have continued through the Center’s Community Tuberculosis Prevention Program.  To date, 20,000 community members have been screened, and if necessary, treated for latent tuberculosis. 

Dr. Gany also developed the NCI/NIH funded Cancer Awareness Network for Immigrant and Minority Populations (CANIMP). CANIMP responds to the disparities in utilization of, and participation of immigrants in, cancer prevention, detection, and treatment services.  Currently in its fifth  year, CANIMP works with the Haitian, Latino, Chinese, Korean, and English-speaking Caribbean immigrant communities. Through CANIMP Dr. Gany has also  developed a junior minority intern and researcher mentorship program.  

Dr. Gany has a strong interest the field of cultural competence in the practice of medicine, and has led various projects to enhance the provision of culturally competent services. These have included research into current and best practices on culturally competent health care delivery, knowledge-garnering efforts on cultural beliefs and practices and their impact on health-seeking behavior and decision-making, development of a comprehensive cultural competence curriculum, cultural competence trainings for health care and other institutions, and review, and analysis, of evaluation tools used to assess cultural competence. As part of the Center’s language initiative programs, Dr. Gany spearheaded a medical interpreter project entitled, "Access Through Medical Interpreter and Language Services (ATMILS)." The objective of this project was to create a comprehensive medical interpreter network in New York City. The national model analysis and assessment conducted in New York City led to the development of a medical interpreter screening and assessment tool, the implementation of a number of training curricula, and the revolutionary Remote Simultaneous Medical Interpretation System. Dr. Gany  has also developed a medical  interpreting studies program which is examining  the impact of various interpreting strategies on the medical interview, on medical errors and medical outcomes, and on health care costs. The Center has also taken the lead in community based approaches to enrolling immigrants in insurance, specifically Child Health Plus, and in using technology to increase health care access.

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