Dr. Rulin Hechter headshot

Rulin Hechter, MD, PhD, MS

Research Scientist II

Division of Epidemiologic Research

626-564-3494

Rulin.C.Hechter@kp.org

Biography

Dr. Rulin Hechter is an infectious disease epidemiologist in the Department of Research & Evaluation and an adjunct associate professor of Epidemiology at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is also an Assistant Professor of Health Systems Science in the Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine. Her research focuses on the prevention and treatment of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. She also studies the impact of psychiatric disorders and substance abuse on health outcomes and care engagement among people with HIV. Her other research interests include vaccine safety and effectiveness and disparity of and barriers to vaccine uptake. She has considerable experience leading and collaborating on multisite studies using automated health care data.

Dr. Hechter has worked on many large government- and industry-sponsored epidemiologic and intervention studies. She serves as site principal investigator of the Health Systems Node of the Clinical Trials Network

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funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and has received several grants to improve PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) screening in primary care, enhance patient engagement in addiction treatment, and study opioid use outcomes.

Areas of Focus

  • HIV & infectious diseases
  • PrEP uptake and adherence
  • Substance abuse treatment and patient engagement
  • Vaccine uptake, safety, and effectiveness

Education

PhD, Epidemiology
UCLA, Fielding School of Public Health
Los Angeles, California
MS, Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Fudan University, School of Public Health
Shanghai, China
MD, Preventive Medicine
Soochow Medical College
Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China

Honors and Awards

  • Muliple Chronic Conditions Scholar, AGING Initiative, Health Care Systems Research Network-Older Americans Independence Centers, 2019
  • Scholarships, 21st and 22nd International AIDS Conference, International AIDS Society, 2016 and 2018
  • Scholarship, UCLA HIV/AIDS, Substance Abuse and Trauma Training Program, 2015–2017
  • Claudette Gravell Award for Excellence in HIV/HCV Research, Kaiser Permanente, 2015
  • Young Investigator Scholarship, Annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Investions, 2015