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Usama Bilal, MD, PhD, MPH

Usama Bilal

Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Co-Director of the Urban Health Collaborative
Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Urban Health Collaborative
267.359.6378
ubilal@drexel.edu
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Degrees

MD, University of Oviedo
PhD, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
MPH, University of Alcala/National School of Public Health

Bio

Usama Bilal (usamabilal.info) is an associate professor in the department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics and Co-Director of the Urban Health Collaborative and the Climate Change and Urban Health Research Center at Drexel's Dornsife School of Public Health.

His primary research interest is the macrosocial determinants of health, with an interest in describing health inequities in urban environments, specifically urban health in Latin American cities (the Urban Health Collaborative's SALURBAL project); the unequal effects of climate change on urban health; and policy modifiers that mitigate/exacerbate these effects.

Bilal received the prestigious NIH Director’s Early Independence Award (DP5) in 2018 for his The Health Consequences of Urban Scaling project, and the 2024 Drexel Provost Early Career Outstanding Productivity Award.

He earned a PhD in Cardiovascular Epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, an MPH from the Universidad de Alcala in Spain, and MD from the Universidad de Oviedo in Spain.

Research Interests

  • Health and Place or Built Environment
  • Data Analysis Methods
  • Health Disparities
  • Spatial Analysis or GIS
  • Urban Health
  • Climate Change
  • Global Health

Publications

1. Bilal U, Diez-Roux AV, Alazraqui M, Caiaffa WT, Lopez-Olmedo N, Martinez-Folgar K, Miranda JJ, Rodriguez DA, Vives A. Life expectancy inequalities within six large Latin American cities in the SALURBAL study: an ecological analysis. The Lancet Planetary Health 2019; 3 (12), e503-e510

2. Bilal U, Hessel P, Perez-Ferrer C, Michael YL, Alfaro T, Tenorio-Mucha J, de Friche AAL, Pina MF, Vives A, Quick H, Alazraqui M, Rodriguez DA, Miranda JJ, Diez-Roux AV, and the SALURBAL group. Life expectancy and mortality in 363 cities of Latin America. Nature Medicine 2021 Mar;27(3):463-470

3. Bilal U, Tabb LP, Barber S, Diez Roux AV. Spatial Inequities in COVID-19 Testing, Positivity, Confirmed Cases and Mortality in 3 US Cities: an Ecological Study. Annals of Internal Medicine 2021 Jul;174(7):936-944.

4. Bilal U, de Castro CP, Alfaro T, Barrientos-Gutierrez T, Barreto ML, Leveau C, Martinez-Folgar K, Miranda JJ, Montes F, Mullachery PH, Pina MF, Rodriguez DA, dos Santos GF, Andrade RFS, Diez Roux AV. Scaling of Mortality in 742 Metropolitan Areas of the Americas. Science Advances 2021 Dec 10;7(50):eabl6325.

5. Bilal U, Jemmott JB, Schnake-Mahl A, Murphy K, Momplaisir F. Racial/ethnic and neighborhood social vulnerability disparities in COVID-19 testing positivity, hospitalization, and in-hospital mortality in a large hospital system in Pennsylvania: a prospective study of electronic health records. The Lancet Regional Health - The Americas. 2022;10:100220

6. Bilal U, Mullachery PH, Schnake-Mahl AS, Rollins H, McCulley E, Kolker J, Barber S, Diez Roux AV. Heterogeneity in Spatial Inequities in COVID-19 Vaccination Across 16 Large US Cities. American Journal of Epidemiology. 2022 Aug 22;191(9):1546-1556

7. Schnake-Mahl AS, O'Leary G, Mullachery PH, Vaidya V, Connor G, Rollins H, Kolker J, Diez Roux AV, Bilal U. The impact of keeping indoor dining closed on COVID-19 rates among large US cities: a quasi-experimental design. Epidemiology 2022 Mar 1;33(2):200-208.

8. Schnake-Mahl AS, Mullachery PH, Li R, Purtle J, Diez Roux AV, Bilal U. Heterogeneity in Disparities in Life Expectancy Across US Metropolitan Areas. Epidemiology, 2022 Nov 1;33(6):890-899

9. Schnake-Mahl AS, O’Leary G, Mullachery PH, Kolker J, Skinner A, Diez Roux AV, Raifman J, Bilal U. Paid Sick Leave and COVID-19 Vaccination Coverage: A longitudinal analysis of 37 large US cities. Health Affairs, 2022 Nov;41(11):1565-1574

10. Mullachery PH, Quistberg DA, Lazo M, Indvik K, Perez-Ferrer C, Lopez-Olmedo N, Colchero MA, Bilal U. Evaluation of the national sobriety checkpoints program in Mexico: a difference-in-difference approach with variation in timing of program adoption. Injury Epidemiology, 2022, 9:32

See Dr. Bilal's full list of publications on PubMed