Yukiko Asada’s research contributes to establish sound foundations of fairness in health systems and the health of populations locally, nationally, and globally.
Asada is a quantitatively trained population health researcher focusing on ethical issues in population health. Her research seeks to make explicit the implicit assumptions underlying quantitative methods used in population health research. Her program of research articulates the concept of health inequity, advances the measurement of health inequity, and promotes public dialogues on health inequity.
Her interdisciplinary approach is most vividly exemplified in her book, Health Inequality: Morality and Measurement (University of Toronto Press, 2007). Her work has appeared in JAMA, Social Science & Medicine, The Milbank Quarterly, and other key journals. Her work has been supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).
Prior to joining McMaster University, she was a faculty member in the Department of Bioethics, National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center in the United States and a senior investigator in the NIH intramural research program with a focus on health disparities/inequalities and ethics (2022-2025) and a professor in the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology at Dalhousie University (2005-2022). She obtained a PhD in Population Health from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2003).
