James D. Ralston, MD, MPH

Biography

James Ralston MD, MPH, is an internal medicine physician and senior investigator in health services and health informatics. His research mission is improving the health and care of patients living with common ongoing illnesses. His current areas of emphasis include understanding and honoring the priorities of patients living with multiple chronic conditions.

Dr. Ralston’s research focuses on developing and evaluating communication technologies that foster continuous care and a closer connection between patients and primary care teams. His commitment to finding effective ways to redesign care spans all stages of research, from project development to complete translation of results into clinical practice.

Examples of Dr. Ralston’s research projects include:

The Valuing Important Things in Active Lives (VITAL) study to improve care for people with multiple chronic conditions including diabetes, heart disease, and arthritis. VITAL uses participatory design methods with patients and providers to design and evaluate interactive care plans.
The Seeing Priorities study to build and test a single, trusted tool for individuals with multiple chronic conditions that illuminates connections between personal values and chronic illness management. The tool helps visualize, track, and share what matters most for self-management and care.
Understanding and addressing differences in patient use of online health care services that could lead to care disparities.
Testing online care management of blood sugar control using an electronic health record shared with patients with type 2 diabetes. Control improved in patients receiving online care management in addition to usual care.
Validating and evaluating a clinical tool to identify patients with type 2 diabetes at risk of severe low blood sugar. This national collaboration uses Kaiser Permanente and Veterans Administration electronic health record data and machine learning methods.
Testing innovative engagement methods such as photos taken by study participants to document their values to ensure that patient priorities guide self-management plans and clinical care.
Working with primary care teams and clinics in rural and underserved areas to improve the care of their patients with chronic conditions.

Dr. Ralston is also a University of Washington affiliate professor in health services and biomedical informatics, where he serves on the committees of PhD and master’s degree students.

Research interests and experience

Health Informatics

eHealth; hypertension; diabetes
Chronic Illness Management

Health informatics; hypertension; diabetes; health behaviors; multiple chronic conditions
Behavior Change

Self-management support
Health Services & Economics

Health care disparities

Recent publications

Bowen DJ, Makhnoon S, Shirts BH, Fullerton SM, Larson E, Ralston JD, Leppig K, Crosslin DR, Veenstra D, Jarvik GP What improves the likelihood of people receiving genetic test results communicating to their families about genetic risk? 2021 Apr;104(4):726-731. doi: 10.1016/j.pec.2021.01.001. Epub 2021-01-07. PubMed

Schuttner L, Coleman K, Ralston J, Parchman M The role of organizational learning and resilience for change in building quality improvement capacity in primary care 2021 Apr;46(2):E1-E7. doi: 10.1097/HMR.0000000000000281. PubMed

Makhnoon S, Bowen DJ, Shirts BH, Fullerton SM, Meischke HW, Larson EB, Ralston JD, Leppig K, Crosslin DR, Veenstra D, Jarvik GP Relationship between genetic knowledge and familial communication of CRC risk and intent to communicate CRCP genetic information: insights from FamilyTalk eMERGE III 2021 Mar 16;11(2):563-572. doi: 10.1093/tbm/ibaa054. PubMed

Ramirez M, Duran MC, Pabiniak CJ, Hansen KE, Kelley A, Ralston JD, McCurry SM, Teri L, Penfold RB Family Caregiver Needs and Preferences for Virtual Training to Manage Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia: Interview Study 2021 Feb 10;4(1):e24965. doi: 10.2196/24965. Epub 2021-02-10. PubMed

Tuzzio L, O'Meara ES, Holden E, Parchman ML, Ralston JD, Powell JA, Baldwin LM Barriers to Implementing Cardiovascular Risk Calculation in Primary Care: Alignment With the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research 2021 Feb;60(2):250-257. doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2020.07.027. Epub 2020-12-03. PubMed

Penfold RB, Thompson EE, Hilt RJ, Kelleher KJ, Schwartz N, Beck A, Clarke GN, Ralston JD, Hartzler AL, Coley RY, Akosile M, Vitiello B, Simon GE Safer use of antipsychotics in youth (SUAY) pragmatic trial protocol 2020 Dec;99:106184. doi: 10.1016/j.cct.2020.106184. Epub 2020-10-20. PubMed

Grant RW, McCloskey J, Hatfield M, Uratsu C, Ralston JD, Bayliss E, Kennedy CJ Use of Latent Class Analysis and k-Means Clustering to Identify Complex Patient Profiles 2020 Dec;3(12):e2029068. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.29068. Epub 2020-12-01. PubMed

Lynch JA, Sharp RR, Aufox SA, Bland ST, Blout C, Bowen DJ, Buchanan AH, Halverson C, Harr M, Hebbring SJ, Henrikson N, Hoell C, Holm IA, Jarvik G, Kullo IJ, Kochan DC, Larson EB, Lazzeri A, Leppig KA, Madden J, Marasa M, Myers MF, Peterson J, Prows CA, Kulchak Rahm A, Ralston J, Milo Rasouly H, Scrol A, Smith ME, Sturm A, Stuttgen K, Wiesner G, Williams MS, Wynn J, Williams JL Understanding the Return of Genomic Sequencing Results Process: Content Review of Participant Summary Letters in the eMERGE Research Network 2020 May 13;10(2). doi: 10.3390/jpm10020038. Epub 2020-05-13. PubMed

Tchesnokova VL, Rechkina E, Chan D, Haile HG, Larson L, Ferrier K, Schroeder DW, Solyanik T, Shibuya S, Hansen K, Ralston JD, Riddell K, Scholes D, Sokurenko EV Pandemic uropathogenic fluoroquinolone-resistant Escherichia coli have enhanced ability to persist in the gut and cause bacteriuria in healthy women 2020 Feb 14;70(5):937-939. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciz547. PubMed

Hartzler AL, Ralston JD, A Hannan T, Kelleher KJ, Penfold RB Designing Safer Use of Antipsychotics Among Youths: A Human-Centered Approach to an Algorithm-Based Solution 2019 Oct;70(10):944-947. doi: 10.1176/appi.ps.201800390. Epub 2019-07-16. PubMed