Amy Lee, MPH, contributes to a wide range of research focused on improving whole-person care, from prevention to treatment for common mental health and substance use conditions. Her main goals include reducing stigma related to care for unhealthy alcohol and other substance use, and improving patients’ receipt of high-quality treatment and support for these conditions in primary care. Her other areas of interest include health equity, social justice, and social determinants of health.
Working with senior investigator Katharine Bradley, MD, MPH, Ms. Lee has played a lead role in Kaiser Permanente Washington’s Behavioral Health Integration (BHI) initiative. As the primary BHI practice coach, she trained and supported clinical teams in implementing a standard process for screening primary care patients for alcohol and other substance use as well as depression; providing brief counseling for patients with unhealthy alcohol use; and engaging patients in shared decision making and treatment for alcohol and other substance use disorders, depression, and suicidal ideation. Currently, Ms. Lee is working with Dr. Bradley and colleagues to develop a decision aid for people with alcohol use disorders. She is also leading the implementation monitoring team on a nationwide study in six health systems to test the implementation of a collaborative care model for treating opioid use disorders in primary care.
Ms. Lee’s other recent and ongoing projects include:
Ms. Lee received her master’s degree from the University of Washington’s Community Oriented Public Health Practice program in 2012, after which she joined Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute (KPWHRI) as a clinical research specialist. She became a research interventionist in 2015 and was promoted to research associate in 2016. Ms. Lee is a steering committee member of the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Equity and Access Team, also called HEAT, and is a member of the KPWHRI Equity Team.
Alcohol and drug screening; brief alcohol interventions
Implementation research; quality measurement
From Health Care to Health: A Summit to Address Community and Social Factors—supporting work with three groups that came out of the Summit (Community-centered Design, Behavioral Health and NEAR Science, Undoing Institutional and Structural Racism); Community Resource Specialist Role: Implementation and Evaluation
Primary care management of unhealthy alcohol use; primary care management of alcohol, opioid, and other substance use disorders
Screening and brief intervention; mental health quality measurement; behavioral health integration
Unhealthy alcohol and drug use
Prevention and treatment
Campbell CI, Saxon AJ, Boudreau DM, Wartko PD, Bobb JF, Lee AK, Matthews AG, McCormack J, Liu DS, Addis M, Altschuler A, Samet JH, LaBelle CT, Arnsten J, Caldeiro RM, Borst DT, Stotts AL, Braciszewski JM, Szapocznik J, Bart G, Schwartz RP, McNeely J, Liebschutz JM, Tsui JI, Merrill JO, Glass JE, Lapham GT, Murphy SM, Weinstein ZM, Yarborough BJH, Bradley KA. PRimary Care Opioid Use Disorders treatment (PROUD) trial protocol: a pragmatic, cluster-randomized implementation trial in primary care for opioid use disorder treatment. Addict Sci Clin Pract. 2021;16(1):9. doi: 10.1186/s13722-021-00218-w. PubMed
Yeung K, Richards J, Goemer E, Lozano P, Lapham G, Williams E, Glass J, Lee A, Achtmeyer C, Caldeiro R, Parrish R, Bradley K. Costs of using evidence-based implementation strategies for behavioral health integration in a large primary care system. Health Serv Res. 2020 Dec;55(6):913-923. doi: 10.1111/1475-6773.13592. PubMed
Matson TE, Lapham GT, Bobb JF, Johnson E, Richards JE, Lee AK, Bradley KA, Glass JE. Cannabis use, other drug use, and risk of subsequent acute care in primary care patients. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2020 Aug 8;216:108227. doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2020.108227. [Epub ahead of print]. PubMed
Bradley KA, Lapham GT, Lee AK. Screening for drug use in primary care: practical implications of the new USPSTF recommendation. JAMA Intern Med. 2020 Jun 9. doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2019.7335. [Epub ahead of print]. PubMed
Rosenberg DE, Anderson ML, Renz A, Matson TE, Lee AK, Greenwood-Hickman MA, Arterburn DE, Gardiner PA, Kerr J, McClure JB. Reducing sitting time in obese older adults: the I-STAND randomized controlled trial. J Aging Phys Act. 2020 Jun 4:1-11. doi: 10.1123/japa.2019-0470. [Epub ahead of print]. PubMed
Amy Lee describes how the LHS Program is helping KP Washington track and improve treatment for opioid use disorder.
Sharing CHOICE trial results, KPWHRI takes next steps to advance research on alcohol-related care at Kaiser Permanente Washington and beyond.
Clinicians and staff at Tacoma South describe the many ways Behavioral Health Integration is making a difference for patients