Dr. Tarak Trivedi (VA/UCLA Scholar) is an emergency medicine physician and researcher with a background in public health and epidemiology. He graduated summa cum laude from Wayne State University with an undergraduate degree in biology, followed by a medical school degree from the University of Chicago as a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society. During medical school, Dr. Trivedi was a research fellow in applied epidemiology at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, focusing on the global and domestic burden of viral gastroenteritis. After medical school, he completed his residency training in emergency medicine at Highland Hospital, the safety-net hospital in Oakland, California. As a doctor in a high volume urban emergency department, he witnessed the acute and chronic health consequences of underlying social issues. He believes that by bringing more attention to these issues through research and data analysis, more accountability can be brought to the public and private agents capable of instituting change.

Career Interests: Dr. Trivedi is interested in a career in academic emergency medicine that combines the clinical care of socially disadvantaged patients with research and policy work that will give agency to emergency department providers to improve the lives of their most vulnerable patients.

Research Interests: Dr. Trivedi has a keen interest in better understanding and alleviating pressing problems faced by emergency room patients, such as interpersonal violence, substance abuse and addiction, and the severe societal deficit of acute psychiatric care in the United States. As a scholar, Dr. Trivedi plans to focus his research on these problems by studying the social epidemiology of emergency psychiatric evaluations, more commonly known as “involuntary holds.” ‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬