Tiago Jesus, PhD
Assistant Professor
(Courtesy)
Health Services Management and Policy
Biography
Tiago Jesus is a rehabilitation services and health equity researcher dedicated to identifying and addressing disability and rehabilitation access and quality-of-care disparities, particularly among geographically underserved populations, including people with disabilities living in rural and other low-resource settings in the United States and internationally.
Jesus's work integrates spatiotemporal analyses, workforce development strategies, stakeholder-engaged co-design of service delivery innovations and community-based approaches to knowledge translation, often combining these approaches within the same research programs. His scholarship also examines what it takes for health and rehabilitation services to be truly person-centered and how patient experience feedback can be leveraged to drive meaningful quality improvement.
Jesus's research, training and improvement initiatives have been supported by national and international funding from federal agencies, foundations, leading rehabilitation hospitals, and the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, among others.
In addition, he serve as project lead for the World Federation of Occupational Therapists' first global strategy to strengthen the occupational therapy profession worldwide, with a particular emphasis on under-resourced settings.
Jesus has authored more than 75 peer-reviewed publications, frequently as first or senior author, in leading rehabilitation and public health journals, including The Lancet. His scholarship spans local, national and global contexts. He has been invited to present internationally and mentor graduate students, practitioners and junior faculty from more than 10 countries across income settings. He is particularly passionate about building the capacity of mentees to become agents of change within their organizations, communities and countries.
Education
- Post-doctoral Fellowship
- Health Services and Outcomes Research, Northwestern University, 2023
- PhD
- Health Psychology, Universidad Miguel Hernandez (Spain), 2013
- OTD
- Occupational Therapy, Boston University, 2021
Research interests
Health systems and services research and both global and local (e.g., rural) disability and rehabilitation disparities. Specific interests include geographic disparities in the access and quality of care, including in rural areas; Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and spatiotemporal analyses; human resources planning and development for under-serviced locations; stakeholder engagement and community-based co-design and service-delivery; patient experience and user engagement in service development.
Select publications
- Jesus TS, Masterson K, Juckett L, Cronin C. The Rural Community-Based Occupational Therapy Model (Rural CB-OT): Community-Codesigned Solution to support Aging in Place in Rural Underserved Areas. Res Sq [Preprint]. 2026 Sep 8:rs.3.rs-10933834. doi: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-10933834/v1
- Ayres SN, Monteiro PC, Doyle NW, Morrow C, Jesus TS. Rural rehabilitation disparities and strengthening strategies: Umbrella review .Work. 2026. 30:10519815261435564. doi: 10.1177/10519815261435564.
- Jesus T, Frazier M, Monteiro P, Delaney G, Pinho C, Heinemann A, Deutsch A. Spatiotemporal GIS-based analyses of risk-adjusted postacute therapy utilization in Original Medicare: a decade-long analysis identifying long-term and emerging cold spots. Res Sq [Preprint]. 2026 May. doi: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9707798/v1.
- Takagi-Stewart J, Prater LC, Marts E, Ayachit P, Jesus TS. Circumstantial variables preceding firearm suicide among females with and without mobility disability in the USA: comparative analysis using data from the National Violent Death Reporting System. Inj Prev. 2026 Jan 20;32(1):127-132. doi: 10.1136/ip-2023-045195.
- Jesus T, Belson S, Bosch J, Onwuekwe I, Ojimba A, Osi-Ogbu O, Sanabria A, Oshundele B, Ahmad M, Melifonwu R. Implementation of a Community-Based Life After Stroke Centre in a Low-Resource Context: Barriers, Facilitators and Strategies in Onitsha, Nigeria. Preprints [Preprint]. 2026 May. doi: 10.20944/preprints202605.1778.v1.
- Jesus TS, Kamalakannan S, Bhattacharjya S, Bogdanova Y, Arango-Lasprilla JC, Bentley J, Landry MD, Papadimitriou. PREparedness, REsponse and SySTemic transformation (PRE-RE-SyST): a model for disability-inclusive pandemic responses and systemic disparities reduction derived from a scoping review and thematic analysis. Int J Equity Health. 2021 Sep 14;20(1):204. doi: 10.1186/s12939-021-01526-y
- Jesus TS, Landry MD. Global need: including rehabilitation in health system strengthening. Lancet. 2021 Feb 20;397(10275):665-666. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(21)00207-5.
- Jesus TS, Mani K, Bhattacharjya S, Kamalakannan S, von Zweck C, Ledgerd R, World Federation of Occupational Therapists. Situational analysis for informing the global strengthening of the occupational therapy workforce. Int J Health Plann Manage. 2023 Mar;38(2):527-535. doi: 10.1002/hpm.3605.
- Jesus TS, Zhang M, Lee D, Struhar J, Stern BZ, Jordan N, Heinemann AW, Deutsch A. Improving Patient Experience With Provider Communication: Systematic Review of Interventions, Implementation Strategies, and Their Effectiveness. Med Care. 2025 1;63(8):545-554. doi: 10.1097/MLR.0000000000002158.