Nora Henrikson, PhD, MPH

Nora Henrikson

"I believe that our members are the key to helping us know how to deliver the best care possible."

Nora Henrikson, PhD, MPH

Associate Investigator, Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute
Associate Professor, Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine, Department of Health Systems Science
Affiliate Associate Professor, University of Washington School of Public Health, Department of Health Systems and Population Health, and Institute for Public Health Genetics

Biography

Nora Henrikson (she/her) is an associate investigator at Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute. She leads a research portfolio focused on interventions to improve cancer care delivery, health equity, and patient outcomes.

Her current research explores methods for improving risk notification and cascading genetic testing for family members of people with hereditary cancers as well as interventions to mitigate cancer-related financial hardship. Dr. Henrikson also leads systematic evidence reviews on cancer screening and behavioral counseling with the Kaiser Permanente Evidence-based Practice Center.  

Dr. Henrikson holds affiliate faculty appointments at the University of Washington School of Public Health in the Department of Health Systems and Population Health, and the Institute for Public Health Genetics. She is also an associate professor at the Bernard J. Tyson Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine.

She has a PhD from the University of Washington School of Public Health’s Institute for Public Health Genetics, an MPH from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a BA (sociology) from Lehigh University.

RESEARCH INTERESTS AND EXPERIENCE

  • Cancer

    Genetic testing for cancer risk, cancer-related financial hardship

  • Social Determinants of Health

    Financial hardship, health equity

  • Health Services & Economics

    Quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods; intervention design; implementation science

  • Preventive Medicine

  • Evidence-Based Practice

    Systematic review and evidence synthesis; epidemiology

  • Public Health Genetics

    Social, ethical, and policy implications of genomics and precision health

Recent publications

Haas CB, Ralston J, Fullerton SM, Scrol A, Henrikson NB. Environmental scan of family chart linking for genetic cascade screening in a U.S. integrated health system.  Front Genet. 2022 Aug 11;13:886650. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2022.886650. eCollection 2022.  PubMed

Kelly BJ, Leader AE, Henrikson NB. Editorial: Promising strategies for vaccine messages: the message and the source. Front Public Health. 2022 Aug 31;10:971283. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.971283. eCollection 2022.  PubMed

Kauffman TL, Prado YK, Reyes AA, Zepp JM, Sawyer J, White LL, Martucci J, Salas SB, Vertrees S, Rope AF, Weinmann S, Henrikson NB, Lee SS, Feigelson HS, Hunter JE. Feasibility of a traceback approach for using pathology specimens to facilitate genetic testing in the Genetic Risk Analysis in Ovarian Cancer (GRACE) study protocol. J Pers Med. 2021 Nov 13;11(11):1194. doi: 10.3390/jpm11111194. PubMed

Sterling R, Rinne ST, Reddy A, Moldestad M, Kaboli P, Helfrich CD, Henrikson NB, Nelson KM, Kaminetzky C, Wong ES. Identifying and prioritizing workplace climate predictors of burnout among VHA primary care physicians. J Gen Intern Med. 2021 Jul 29. doi: 10.1007/s11606-021-07006-x. Online ahead of print. PubMed

DiNucci A, Henrikson NB, Jonas MC, Basra S, Blasi P, Brown J, Esplin ED, Hassen D, Hao J, Hu Y, Klinger T, Ladd I, Leppig K, Lewis M, Meyer M, Ney S, Ramaprasan A, Romagnoli K, Salvati Z, Scrol A, Schwiter R, Sheridan L, Somasundaram B, Suwannarat P, Wagner JK, Rahm AK. Feasibility and Assessment of a Cascade Traceback Screening program (FACTS): protocol for a multisite study to implement and assess an ovarian cancer traceback cascade testing program. J Pers Med. 2021 Jun 11;11(6):543. doi: 10.3390/jpm11060543. PubMed

Henrikson NB, Blasi P, Figueroa Gray M, Tiffany BT, Scrol A, Ralston JD, Fullerton SM, Lim CY, Ewing J, Leppig KA. Patient and family preferences on health system-led direct contact for cascade screening. J Pers Med. 2021;11(6):538. doi: 10.3390/jpm11060538.  PubMed

Lin JS, Perdue LA, Henrikson NB, Bean SI, Blasi PR. Screening for colorectal cancer: updated evidence report and systematic review for the US Preventive Services Task Force. JAMA. 2021;325(19):1978-1997. doi: 10.1001/jama.2021.4417.  PubMed

Fan X, Wynn J, Shang N, Liu C, Fedotov A, Hallquist MLG, Buchanan AH, Williams MS, Smith ME, Hoell C, Rasmussen-Torvik LJ, Peterson JF, Wiesner GL, Murad AM, Jarvik GP, Gordon AS, Rosenthal EA, Stanaway IB, Crosslin DR, Larson EB, Leppig KA, Henrikson NB, Williams JL, Li R, Hebbring S, Weng C, Shen Y, Crew KD, Chung WK. Penetrance of breast cancer susceptibility genes from the eMERGE III network. JNCI Cancer Spectr. 2021 May 8;5(4):pkab044. doi: 10.1093/jncics/pkab044. eCollection 2021 Aug. PubMed

Henrikson NB, Scrol A, Leppig KA, Ralston JD, Larson EB, Jarvik GP. Preferences of biobank participants for receiving actionable genomic test results: results of a recontacting study. Genet Med. 2021 Jun;23(6):1163-1166. doi: 10.1038/s41436-021-01111-2. Epub 2021 Feb 18. PubMed

Patel HV, Henrikson NB, Ralston JD, Leppig K, Scrol A, Jarvik GP, DeVange S, Larson EB, Hartzler AL. Implementation matters: how patient experiences differ when genetic counseling accompanies the return of genetic variants of uncertain significance.  AMIA Annu Symp Proc. 2022 Feb 21;2021:950-958. eCollection 2021.  PubMed

 

Healthy findings blog

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How do you make sense of a mountain of evidence?

KPWHRI researchers answer questions about systematic reviews and their impact on health care guidelines.

HCSRN conference

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Researchers present, connect at annual conference

The HCSRN conference is a venue for collaborative work to improve health and health care.

profile

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Why does Nora Henrikson study patients’ cost of treatment?

Dr. Henrikson’s Annals of Internal Medicine study describes 3 kinds of cost concerns that can affect cancer care.

video

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Discussing patients’ concerns about cost of care

Nora Henrikson discusses her latest research published in the Annals of Internal Medicine in May 2019. (Vimeo, 3:50)