Clarissa Hsu, PhD
“I want to empower individuals and communities by ensuring they have the information and support from health care systems to make decisions and take action to improve their health and well-being. This means directly involving them in the design and testing of health care processes and interventions.”
Clarissa Hsu, PhD
Associate Investigator, Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute
Clarissa.W.Hsu@kp.org
206-287-4276
Biography
Medical anthropologist Clarissa Hsu, PhD, has been doing Kaiser Permanente research since 2001, and became an official member of the faculty in 2011. She conducts research using a holistic approach that unites the cultural, social, and political factors that shape health and health care. Dr. Hsu was one of the first researchers to receive funding from the national Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), which supports studies on issues that are a high priority for patients, caregivers, and clinicians. PCORI-funded research follows an innovative model, including patient input at all steps in the research process. Dr. Hsu and her team christened her PCORI project LINCC: Learning to Integrate Neighborhoods and Clinical Care.
The LINCC project designed, piloted, and evaluated a new primary care role: connecting patients to community resources. This new community resource specialist role was spread throughout Kaiser Permanente Washington, with a robust evaluation and implementation support co-led by Dr. Hsu through KPWHRI’s Center for Accelerating Care Transformation. LINCC also resulted in the creation of valuable health care resources, including an article on having patients as co-investigators, as well as a guide and set of care-design templates for engaging a cohort of patients in co-designing care.
Dr. Hsu is also at the forefront of other prevalent health issues, working to document, design, evaluate, and disseminate new approaches and best practices. She seeks to help chronic pain patients taper off and find alternatives to opioids. She also works to improve how care delivery systems interact with patients and family members around sensitive and complex topics such as dementia diagnoses, use of antipsychotics in youth, blood pressure diagnosis and control, cannabis use, and childhood vaccinations.
Dr. Hsu is an affiliate professor at the University of Washington School of Public Health.
Research interests and experience
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Clinical Quality Improvement
Primary care; ambulatory care; preventive medicine; health care design and workforce issues; addressing social determinants of health -
Patient-Centered Outcomes Research/Patient-Centered Care
Patient engagement and partnership; shared decision making -
Chronic Pain
Using safe and effective methods to treat pain, supporting patients to minimize opioid use, cannabis use, communication about pain -
Addressing Social Risks in Clinical Settings
Screening and providing support for patients with social needs -
Complementary & Integrative Health
Patient experiences with complementary and alternative medicine
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Evaluation Science and Implementation and Dissemination Science
Qualitative and mixed-methods approaches
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Healthy Communities
Clinic-community linkages; preventive medicine; addressing social determinants of health
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Addictions
Prevention and treatment
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Social Determinants of Health
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Chronic Illness Management
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Vaccines & Infectious Diseases
Recent publications
Hsu C, Sherman KJ, Eaves ER, Turner JA, Cherkin DC, Cromp D, Schafer L, Ritenbaugh C. New perspectives on patient expectations of treatment outcomes: results from qualitative interviews with patients seeking complementary and alternative medicine treatments for chronic low back pain. BMC Complement Altern Med. 2014 Jul 30;14(1):276. doi: 10.1186/1472-6882-14-276. PubMed
Sherman KJ, Eaves ER, Ritenbaugh C, Hsu C, Cherkin DC, Turner JA. Cognitive interviews guide design of a new CAM patient expectations questionnaire. BMC Complement Altern Med. 2014 Jan 25;14(1):39. doi: 10.1186/1472-6882-14-39. PubMed
Ladden MD, Bodenheimer T, Fishman NW, Flinter M, Hsu C, Parchman M, Wagner EH. The emerging primary care workforce: preliminary observations from the primary care team: learning from Effective Ambulatory Practices Project. Acad Med. 2013 Dec;88(12):1830-4. doi: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000000027. Epub 2013 Oct 14. PubMed
Grow HM, Hsu C, Liu LL, Briner L, Jessen-Fiddick T, Lozano P, Saelens BE. Understanding family motivations and barriers to participation in community-based programs for overweight youth: one program model does not fit all. J Public Health Manag Pract. 2013 Jul-Aug;19(4):E1-E10. doi: 10.1097/PHH.0b013e31825ceaf9. PubMed
Reid RJ, Johnson EA, Hsu C, Ehrlich K, Coleman K, Trescott C, Erikson M, Ross TR, Liss DT, Cromp D, Fishman PA. Spreading a medical home redesign: effects on emergency department use and hospital admissions. Ann Fam Med. 2013 May-Jun;11 Suppl 1:S19-26. doi: 10.1370/afm.1476. PubMed
Tomoaia-Cotisel A, Scammon DL, Waitzman NJ, Cronholm PF, Halladay JR, Driscoll DL, Solberg LI, Hsu C, Tai-Seale M, Hiratsuka V, Shih SC, Fetters MD, Wise CG, Alexander JA, Hauser D, McMullen CK, Scholle SH, Tirodkar MA, Schmidt L, Donahue KE, Parchman ML, Stange KC. Context matters: the experience of 14 research teams in systematically reporting contextual factors important for practice change. Ann Fam Med. 2013 May-Jun;11 Suppl 1:S115-23. doi: 10.1370/afm.1549. PubMed
Hsu C, Liss DT, Westbrook EO, Arterburn D. Incorporating patient decision aids into standard clinical practice in an integrated delivery system. Med Decis Making. 2013 Jan;33(1):85-97. doi: 10.1177/0272989X12468615. PubMed
Schafer LM, Hsu C, Eaves ER, Ritenbaugh C, Turner J, Cherkin DC, Sims C, Sherman KJ. Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) providers' views of chronic low back pain patients' expectations of CAM therapies: a qualitative study. BMC Complement Altern Med. 2012 Nov 27;12(1):234. doi: 10.1186/1472-6882-12-234. PubMed
Fishman PA, Johnson EA, Coleman K, Larson EB, Hsu C, Ross TR, Liss D, Tufano J, Reid RJ. Impact on seniors of the patient-centered medical home: evidence from a pilot study. Gerontologist. 2012 Oct;52(5):703-11. doi: 10.1093/geront/gnr158. Epub 2012 Mar 15. PubMed
Hsu C, Coleman K, Ross TR, Johnson E, Fishman PA, Larson EB, Liss D, Trescott C, Reid RJ. Spreading a patient-centered medical home redesign: a case study. J Ambul Care Manage. 2012;35(2):99-108. PubMed
Research roundup
What's new in cannabis use research?
Use in pregnancy and screening in primary care studied by KPWHRI’s Kiel, Matson, and Lapham.
research
LINCC-ing patients with community resources
Study ends but benefits for Kaiser Permanente members continue — thanks to a new support role in the regions’ clinics, writes Dr. Clarissa Hsu.
Resources
Partnering with Patients as Equals in Co-Designing Primary Care: Examples and Tools from the LINCC Project
New findings
Overcoming undervaccination
Clarissa Hsu, PhD, asked parents why they decline or delay vaccinating their children to explore ways to overcome barriers to getting vaccinated.
New funding
KPWHRI to launch study on vaccine hesitancy among long-term care workers
The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute plans to award $4.75 million to compare ways to raise COVID-19 immunization rates.
KPWHRI In the Media
Dr. Clarissa Hsu on creating and implementing the community resource specialist role
Lessons learned deploying community resource specialists at KP Washington
Healthcare Innovation, July 25, 2022
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