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
Law YM, Hsu C, Hingorani SR, Richards M, McMullan DM, Jefferies H, Himmelfarb J, Katz R Randomized controlled trial of remote ischemic preconditioning in children having cardiac surgery 2024 Jan 3;19(1):5. doi: 10.1186/s13019-023-02450-8. Epub 2024-01-03. PubMed
Lion KC, Arthur KC, Frías García M, Hsu C, Sotelo Guerra LJ, Chisholm H, Griego E, Ebel BE, Penfold RB, Rafton S, Zhou C, Mangione-Smith R Pilot Evaluation of the Family Bridge Program, a Communication- and Culture-Focused Inpatient Patient Navigation Program 2024 Jan;24(1):33-42. doi: 10.1016/j.acap.2023.06.021. Epub 2023-06-22. PubMed
Green BB, Anderson ML, McClure JB, Ehrlich K, Hall YN, Hansell L, Hsu C, Margolis KL, Munson SA, Thompson MJ Is Hypertension Diagnostic Testing and Diagnosis Associated with Psychological Distress? 2024 Jan;37(1):69-76. doi: 10.1093/ajh/hpad083. Epub 2023-09-09. PubMed
Hsu C, Williamson BD, Becker M, Berry B, Cook AJ, Derus A, Estrada C, Gacuiri M, Kone A, McCracken C, McDonald B, Piccorelli AV, Senturia K, Volney J, Wilson KB, Green BB Engaging staff to improve COVID-19 vaccination response at long-term care facilities (ENSPIRE): A cluster randomized trial of co-designed, tailored vaccine promotion materials 2024 Jan;136:107403. doi: 10.1016/j.cct.2023.107403. Epub 2023-12-03. PubMed
Dublin S, Greenwood-Hickman MA, Karliner L, Hsu C, Coley RY, Colemon L, Carrasco A, King D, Grace A, Lee SJ, Walsh JME, Barrett T, Broussard J, Singh U, Idu A, Yaffe K, Boustani M, Barnes DE The electronic health record Risk of Alzheimer's and Dementia Assessment Rule (eRADAR) brain health trial: Protocol for an embedded, pragmatic clinical trial of a low-cost dementia detection algorithm 2023 Dec;135:107356. doi: 10.1016/j.cct.2023.107356. Epub 2023-10-17. PubMed
Thompson MJ, Anderson ML, Cook AJ, Ehrlich K, Hall YN, Hsu C, Margolis KL, McClure JB, Munson SA, Green BB Acceptability and Adherence to Home, Kiosk, and Clinic Blood Pressure Measurement Compared to 24-H Ambulatory Monitoring 2023 Jun;38(8):1854-1861. doi: 10.1007/s11606-023-08036-3. Epub 2023-01-17. PubMed
Mogk JM, Matson TE, Caldeiro RM, Garza Mcwethy AM, Beatty T, Sevey BC, Hsu CW, Glass JE Implementation and workflow strategies for integrating digital therapeutics for alcohol use disorders into primary care: a qualitative study 2023 May 8;18(1):27. doi: 10.1186/s13722-023-00387-w. Epub 2023-05-08. PubMed
DeBar LL, Justice M, Avins AL, Cook A, Eng CM, Herman PM, Hsu C, Nielsen A, Pressman A, Stone KL, Teets RY, Wellman R Acupuncture for chronic low back pain in older adults: Design and protocol for the BackInAction pragmatic clinical trial 2023 May;128:107166. doi: 10.1016/j.cct.2023.107166. Epub 2023-03-27. PubMed
Evers S, Hsu C, Gray MF, Chisolm DJ, Dolcé M, Autio K, Thompson EE, Ervin E, Quintana LM, Beck A, Hansell L, Penfold R Decision-making among adolescents prescribed antipsychotic medications: Interviews to gain perspectives of youth without psychosis or mania 2023 Apr;28(2):683-696. doi: 10.1177/13591045221105197. Epub 2022-06-12. PubMed
Kiel L, Hsu C, Wartko PD, Albertson-Junkans L, Ewing J, Lapham GT Perspectives from women who engaged in prenatal and postpartum cannabis use in a U.S. State with legal non-medical use 2023 Feb;31:102075. doi: 10.1016/j.pmedr.2022.102075. Epub 2022-11-29. PubMed
ENSPIRE Codesign Playbook
Develop a codesign project and process with insights from the ENSPIRE study.
Healthy findings blog
Accelerating qualitative research with Rap-GAP
Clarissa Hsu and Jess Mogk share a new way to fast-track insights from qualitative data.
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.
Land Acknowledgment
Our Seattle offices sit on the occupied land of the Duwamish and by the shared waters of the Coast Salish people, who have been here thousands of years and remain. Learn about practicing land acknowledgment.