Katherine Koh, MD, MSc, is a clinician investigator in the Department of Psychiatry at Mass General Hospital (MGH) and a member of the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Street Team, which provides face-to-face medical care for individuals who are homeless and living on the street. This group is known as Boston’s “rough sleepers,” and they commonly face conditions such as extreme weather, violence, and trauma.
In a recent perspective published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Koh recounts her first experience of patient death on the street and the insights and reflections that followed. In an interview for Mass General Brigham, Dr. Koh discusses the challenges and rewards of caring for the homeless population.
Dr. Koh advocates for the development of non-traditional systems of healthcare that are more accessible for patients experiencing homelessness. In addition, her research focuses on the transition to homelessness, identifying times at which certain individuals are more likely to become homeless and finding ways to prevent homelessness. For example, she is currently working on a model that can predict homelessness in soldiers leaving military service.
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Koh KA. Invisible Deaths – Mortality among People Experiencing Homelessness.N Engl J Med. 2024 Nov 21; 391(20):1868-1870.
Koh KA, Montgomery AE, O’Brien RW, Kennedy CH, et al. Predicting Homelessness Among U.S. Army Soldiers No Longer on Active Duty. Am J Prev Med. 2022 Apr 14.
Koh KA, Gorman BL. Reimagining Institutionalization and a Continuum of Care for People Experiencing Homelessness and Mental Illness. JAMA. 2023 May 2; 329(17):1449-1450.
Velasquez DE, Mecklai K, Plevyak S, Eappen B, Koh KA, Martin AF. Health system-based housing navigation for patients experiencing homelessness: A new care coordination framework. Healthc (Amst). 2022 Mar; 10(1):100608.
Katherine Koh, MD, MSc is a practicing psychiatrist at Mass General Hospital, a member of the Street Team at the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program and an Assistant Professor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. As a member of the street team at BHCHP, she focuses her clinical care on homeless patients who live on the street through a combination of street outreach, clinic sessions, and home visits for patients recently or unstably housed. She also maintains a general outpatient practice at MGH and conducts research on the health of homeless populations. Her primary interest is improving systems of mental health care for homeless patients.
