Rachel Scott

Rachel K. Scott, MD, MPH, is the scientific director of women’s health research for MedStar Health Research Institute and the associate chair for research for the Women’s and Infants’ Services Department of MedStar Washington Hospital Center (MHWC), where she is a practicing obstetrician/gynecologist. Dr. Scott’s passion for women’s health and commitment to underserved women drives both her clinical career and her commitment to clinical and translational research. She currently divides her time between clinical care and research, primarily focused on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and HIV prevention in women. Dr. Scott is the director of the Women’s Center for Positive Living, MWHC’s HIV Obstetrics and Gynecology practice within the Department of Women's and Infant Services. In addition to her clinical responsibilities, she is an Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology Georgetown University and is active in resident and medical student education and mentorship. In recognition of her expertise in maternal health and HIV, Dr. Scott was selected to be a member of the national Department of Health and Human Services Panel on Treatment of Pregnant Women with HIV Infection and Prevention of Perinatal Transmission guidelines, which sets the preconception, antepartum, and postpartum clinical recommendations for women living with HIV and for HIV prevention/pre-exposure prophylaxis in women at risk for HIV. 

Dr. Scott’s current research includes a highly competitive NIH K23 award to study the behavioral health determinants of adherence during pregnancy and postpartum in women living with HIV. Additionally, she is the principal investigator on a NIH R34 award to improve HIV prevention in women at high risk for HIV, a R21 award to study placental microvasculature in pregnancies complicated by HIV, and a R21 award which utilizes population pharmacokinetic modeling to assess the adequacy of dosing of oral HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis in pregnancy.

Dr. Scott was awarded the Excellence in Teaching Award by the Association of Professors of Gynecology and Obstetrics and the George E. Stevens Teaching Award by both MedStar Georgetown University Hospital and MWHC for her role as a teacher and research mentor. As a resident, she was a two-time recipient of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine Teaching Award.

Dr. Scott is board certified by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology. She is a fellow of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and she is a member of the District of Columbia Developmental Center for AIDS Research.

Her medical degree is from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY. She then continued her medical training with an internship and residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Her master's degree in Public Health is from the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans, where she studied International Health and Development and participated in coursework conducted in Cuba and Guatemala. Dr. Scott is fluent in Spanish and English.

Research Interests

Dr. Scott’s research interests include

• Obstetric and gynecologic care of women living with HIV
• Hepatitis C and Pregnancy
• Contraceptive and condom use
• Disparities in healthcare among low-income women
• HIV prevention/pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP)
• HIV treatment/antiretroviral therapy (ART) in pregnancy (including pharmacokinetics (PK))
• HIV in pregnancy/postpartum
• HIV associated morbidity in pregnancy
• ART adherence

View Dr. Scott's publications on PubMed