Rita Mangione-Smith, MD, MPH, was appointed vice president for research and health care innovation at Kaiser Permanente Washington and executive director of Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute (KPWHRI) in August 2019. She is also a senior investigator at the institute, pursuing research on improving care for children and others throughout the life course.
A pediatrician, Dr. Mangione-Smith’s research to date has focused primarily on assessing quality of care and then developing, evaluating, and implementing quality improvement interventions in areas such as transitions between sites of care and hospital-based care for respiratory illness and mental health.
She has also conducted extensive research on doctor-parent communication, studying how interactions influence the decision to prescribe antibiotics for acute respiratory illness in pediatric outpatient settings. Based on this work, she has developed a multifaceted quality improvement intervention for outpatient providers called Dialogue Around Respiratory Illness treatment (DART).
Dr. Mangione-Smith has a passion for developing learning health systems where scientists and clinicians collaborate on research programs that can drive the improvement of health care delivery, quality, and cost.
Before her work at Kaiser Permanente Washington, Dr. Mangione-Smith served as an investigator in the Center for Child Health, Behavior, and Development at Seattle Children’s Research Institute and chief of the Division of General Pediatrics and Hospital Medicine in the University of Washington (UW) Department of Pediatrics. She was also director of the Quality Improvement Scholars Program at the UW Department of Pediatrics and Seattle Children’s Hospital.
An accomplished organizational leader, Dr. Mangione-Smith is recognized for her work as an active teacher and mentor. Since joining KPWHRI in 2019, she has established an institute-wide mentorship program for faculty that has been highly successful. She also worked collaboratively with all institute members in 2020 to refresh the KPWHRI Mission and Vision statements and to develop a 5-year strategic plan based on the institute’s mission and vision.
In 2018, AcademyHealth, the nation’s premiere health services association, honored Dr. Mangione-Smith with its “Child Health Interest Group Life Time Achievement Award,” recognizing her significant and lasting contributions to child health services research. She also received the 2017 Academic Pediatric Association Research Award, the organization’s highest award for research excellence and achievement.
Dr. Mangione-Smith is also a professor in the Department of Health System Science at Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine.
Desai AD, Tolpadi A, Parast L, Esporas M, Britto MT, Gidengil C, Wilson K, Bardach NS, Basco WT, Brittan MS, Johnson DP, Wood KE, Yung S, Dawley E, Fiore D, Gregoire L, Hodo LN, Leggett B, Piazza K, Sartori LF, Weber DE, Mangione-Smith R. Improving the quality of written discharge instructions: A multisite collaborative project. Pediatrics. 2023 May 1;151(5);e2022059452. doi: 10.1542/peds.2022-059452. PubMed
Leyenaar JK, Tolpadi A, Parast L, Esporas M, Britto MT, Gidengil C, Wilson KM, Bardach NS, Basco WT, Brittan M, Williams DJ, Wood KE, Yung S, Dawley E, Elliott A, Manges KA, Plemmons G, Rice T, Wiener B, Mangione-Smith R on behalf of the Pediatric Research in Inpatient Settings (PRIS) Network. Collaborative to increase lethal means counseling for caregivers of youth with suicidality. Pediatrics. 2022 Nov 2:e2021055271. doi: 10.1542/peds.2021-055271. Online ahead of print. PubMed
Parast L, Burkhart Q, Bardach NS, Thombley R, Basco WT Jr, Barabell G, Williams DJ, Mitchel E, Machado E Jr, Raghavan P, Tolpadi A, Mangione-Smith R. Development and testing of an emergency department quality measure for pediatric suicidal ideation and self-harm. Acad Pediatr, 2022 Apr;22(3S):S92-S99. doi: 10.1016/j.acap.2021.03.005. PubMed
Leyenaar JK, Esporas M, Mangione-Smith R. How Does Pediatric Quality Measure Development Reflect the Real World Needs of Hospitalized Children? Acad Pediatr. 2022 Apr;22(3S):S70-S72. doi: 10.1016/j.acap.2021.01.019. PubMed
Mangione-Smith R, Robinson JD, Zhou C, Stout JW, Fiks AG, Shalowitz M, Gerber JS, Burges D, Hedrick B, Warren L, Grundmeier RW, Kronman MP, Shone LP, Steffes J, Wright M, Heritage J. Fidelity evaluation of the dialogue around respiratory illness treatment (DART) program communication training. Patient Educ Couns. 2022 Jul;105(7):2611-2616. doi: 10.1016/j.pec.2022.03.011. Epub 2022 Mar 14. PubMed
KPWHRI Executive Director Rita Mangione-Smith, MD, MPH, talks about her research to advance pediatric care
Dr. Rita Mangione-Smith reflects on the year since KPWHRI launched the world's first clinical trial for a COVID-19 vaccine.
New York Times, Apr 17, 2020