Raagini Jawa, MD, MPH, FASAM

  • Assistant Professor of Medicine

Dr. Jawa is an Assistant Professor and Clinician Investigator in the Department of General Internal Medicine at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and a clinician investigator in the Center for Research on Health Care.  She is board certified in Internal Medicine and Infectious Disease and Addiction Medicine. Dr. Jawa’s research interests focus on the intersection of Infectious Disease and Addiction, including studying how to optimize integration of harm reduction services for individuals with substance use disorders within traditional health settings, developing multidisciplinary provider facing interventions to prevent infectious and non-infections complications of drug use. Clinically, she provides office-based addiction treatment in IM Recovery Engagement Program and attends on the Endovascular Infection Service at UPMC. 

For fun, Dr. Jawa is an accomplished musician who performs vocals and ukulele, leading musical collaborations with her band Leher. She is also an amateur photographer. 

Education & Training

  • BA-MD, Medical Sciences, Boston University School of Medicine, 2014
  • MPH, International Health, Boston University School of Public Health, 2014
  • Residency, Internal Medicine, Boston Medical Center, 2017
  • Internal Medicine Chief Resident, Boston Medical Center, 2018
  • Combined Infectious Disease and Addiction Medicine Fellowship, Boston Medical Center, 2020
  • Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship, Boston Medical Center, 2022

Representative Publications

Jawa R, Stein MD, Anderson B, Liebschutz JM, Stewart C, Phillips KT, Barocas JA. Association of skin infections with sharing of injection drug preparation equipment among people who inject drugs. Int J Drug Policy. 2021;94:103198.

In a cohort study of 252 hospitalized persons who inject drugs (PWID), we found that PWID who shared injection drug preparation equipment alone had a 2.2 fold higher incidence rate of skin and soft tissue infections 1 year later and  PWID who shared shared injection drug preparation equipment with or without needles had a 3.31 fold higher incidence rate of skin and soft tissue infection 1 year later compared to those who did not share any equipment.

Jawa R, Stein MD, Anderson B, Liebschutz JM, Stewart C, Phillips KT, Barocas JA. Behavioral Risk Factors for HIV Infection in Hospitalized Persons Who Co-use Stimulants and Opioids. AIDS Behav. 2022;26(4):1047-1055.

In a single center cohort of 197 HIV negative persons who injected opioids we found a significant association between stimulant co-use and higher HIV sex and drug the Risk Assessment Battery scores compared to PWID who injected opioids alone. This suggests a need to develop interventions that target differential HIV risk behaviors among individuals who co-use stimulants with opioids.

Jawa R, Laks J, Saravanan N, Demers L, Wishik-Miller G. Physician trainees' compassion satisfaction, burnout, and self-efficacy when caring for people who inject drugs. Subst Abus. 2022;43(1):675-681.

In this single center prospective study of Internal Medicine trainees at an urban institution serving a large population of PWID, we found that self-efficacy in harm reduction counseling and compassion satisfaction increase with time in training while burnout remains similar. Strengthening trainees' capacity to counsel PWID on harm reduction may improve their compassion satisfaction in caring for this population, potentially leading to improved care and this relationship should be explored longitudinally in larger cohorts and through evaluations of harm reduction-focused medical education.

Jawa R, Walley AY, Wilson DJ, Green TC, McKenzie M, Hoskinson R Jr, Bratberg J, Ramsey S, Rich JD, Friedmann PD. Prescribe to Save Lives: Improving buprenorphine prescribing among HIV clinicians. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 2022 May 18. 

This quasi-experimental stepped wedge intervention study of peer-to-peer clinician training about overdose prevention education and introduced buprenorphine prescribing with follow-up academic detailing at 22 Ryan White funded HIV clinics found that this intervention was associated with increases in buprenorphine training and prescriber certification, but with no meaningful increases in buprenorphine prescribing at the clinic level.

Click here for a more complete bibliography of Dr. Jawa's works.

Research Interests

  • Healthcare based Harm reduction interventions
  • Developing multidisciplinary innovative strategies for co-located care for patients with substance use disorders within non-specialty practices
  • Implementation Science