About
Care that works on paper does not always work in a person’s real life.
I am Mercedes Tarasovich, a medical sociologist who studies how people find, use, and avoid healthcare. Tarasovich Consulting is the practice I built around that question: patient comprehension, usability, plain language, and the access barriers in between.
How I work
Diagnostic before prescriptive.I find the barrier before recommending a fix. Most of what I am handed was written by people who know the subject well, for people who do not. The science is rarely the issue. What breaks is smaller: a reading level set for a clinician, a step that assumes a new phone and a quiet room, or a measure that reports something other than what the team believes it does.
My training is in medical sociology, so I look at the structure around a person, not only the moment in front of the screen: what care costs them, what it takes to reach it, and what they have learned to expect from it.
I work in mixed methods because most questions need both kinds of answer. A number tells you how often; an interview tells you why.
I am not a clinician. Clinical review belongs with your clinical team, and I will say so when a question is theirs.
Background
Founder, Tarasovich Consulting
A research practice for healthcare and health technology teams. Current work spans medical education research, patient education writing, and program evaluation.
Entrepreneur in Residence, Prosper HealthTech Accelerator
Advising founders in the 2026 cohort on research design and evidence.
Patient education and medical communications, Pack Health, a Quest Diagnostics Company
Three years building the evidence base and patient education for digital health programs in chronic conditions, through medical, legal, and regulatory review.
Adjunct faculty in sociology, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Instructor of record for medical sociology and qualitative research methods.
PhD, medical sociology
Mixed-methods research on who reaches mental healthcare, who does not, and what sits in between.
Start with the conversation.
Tell me what you are working on and what is not landing. If I am not the right fit, I will say so and point you to a better match.