Email

hadley.smith@bcm.edu

Positions

Health Policy Fellow

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy
Houston, Texas United States

Research Associate

Center For Medical Ethics and Healthy Policy
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, TX

Research Associate

Mol. & Human Gen./Admin.
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, TX US

Education

PhD from The University of Texas Health Science Center School of Public Health

05/2019 - Houston

Health Economics

MPA from Texas A&M University

05/2015 - College Station, Texas

Health Policy Analysis

BS from Texas A&M University

College Station, Texas

Political Science, Genetics

Professional Interests

• Evaluation of clinical genomic sequencing, especially in newborn and pediatric populations
• Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications (ELSI) of genomics
• Public health genomics
• Health equity and precision medicine
• Child health and wellbeing
• Patient-centered outcomes
• Health outcome measurement
• Economic evaluation of health care programs
• Applied econometrics

Professional Statement

Hadley Stevens Smith is the Health Policy Fellow in the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy at Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Smith is a health economist working at the intersection of health economics and the ethical, legal, and social implications (ELSI) of genomics. Her research examines precision medicine applications from patient-centered, clinical, and economic perspectives. Dr. Smith evaluates implementation of clinical genomics services using both quantitative and qualitative approaches. She is particularly interested in genomic sequencing of newborn and pediatric patient populations and assessment of family-level effects, including cascade screening of family members. She aims to inform policies that advance equitable and efficient implementation of genomic medicine to improve population health.

Additionally, Dr. Smith incorporates her training in public health and health policy to study equity and access issues in genomic medicine and co-leads a journal club on Social Determinants of Health, Medicine, and Ethics.

Dr. Smith earned a PhD in Health Economics from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston School of Public Health. She also holds a Master of Public Service and Administration with a concentration in Health Policy Analysis from the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University. Dr. Smith received her Bachelor of Science in Political Science with a minor in Genetics from Texas A&M University. She has also completed a Certificate in Genetics and Genomics from the Stanford University Center for Professional Development.

Selected Publications

• Pereira S, Smith HS, Frankel LA, et al. "Psychosocial Effect of Newborn Genomic Sequencing on Families in the BabySeq Project: A Randomized Clinical Trial." JAMA Pediatrics. :
• Smith HS, Franciskovich R, Lewis AM, Gerard A, Littlejohn RJ, Nugent K, Rodriguez J, Streff H "Outcomes of Prior Authorization Requests for Genetic Testing in Outpatient Pediatric Genetics Clinics." Genet Med. 2021 May ; 23 : 950–955.
• Smith HS, Swint JM, Lalani SR, et al. "Exome sequencing compared with standard genetic tests for critically ill infants with suspected genetic conditions." Genet Med. 2020 August ; 22 (8): 1303-1310. Pubmed PMID: 32336750
• Smith HS, Russell HV, Lee BH, Morain SR. "Using the Delphi method to identify clinicians’ perceived importance of pediatric exome sequencing results." Genet Med. 2020 January ; 22 (1): Pubmed PMID: 31273346

Funding

An ELSI-Integrated Evaluation of the Family-Level Utility of Pediatric Genomic Sequencing - #K99HG011491

Grant funding from National Human Genome Research Institute

The goal of the proposed research is to investigate how clinical genomic sequencing impacts families of pediatric patients. This research will develop an empirically informed framework of normative values important to families of pediatric patients, including ethical, legal, and social implications (ELSI), which will then be used to elicit preferences for features of sequencing from a nationally representative sample of parents in the US. The results of this work will lead to a measure of family utility that integrates ELSI and can be used in a decision analytic model to assess the impact of genomic sequencing and the importance of including family- level ELSI considerations in such analyses.