At the core of Leah Tuzzio’s work is a passion for stakeholder engagement and applying human-centered design methods to pragmatic research, with a goal of uncovering real-world solutions to common health and care issues. She contributes to a wide range of quality-improvement and health care design research focused on advancing whole-person health. She has particular interest in social health disparities research, and reducing social isolation, financial hardship, and other social risks that impact people’s health and well-being.
At Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute (KPWHRI), Ms. Tuzzio is a scientific collaborator on many teams. She focuses on projects related to social determinants of health, patient-centered care, and quality improvement research on topics related to cancer, chronic illnesses, and dementia.
Some of Ms. Tuzzio’s projects that use qualitative design research methods include:
Among other highlights from her tenure with KPWHRI:
Before joining KPWHRI (formerly known as Group Health Research Institute) in 2005, Ms. Tuzzio was a senior project manager overseeing large health disparities research studies in New York City. Certified as a Six Sigma green belt in quality improvement, she also collaborated with a team to reduce lost Medicare claims revenue in a health care system.
Outside of work, Ms. Tuzzio spends time with her family doing building projects and outdoor activities that always include their dog, Rutabaga. She also enjoys volunteering with various community-based organizations that focus on homelessness, food insecurity, public land, and education.
Health promotion; social/behavioral theories; smoking cessation
Health promotion; social/behavioral theories; smoking cessation
Primary care organization and design; quality of primary care; implementation science; value-based health care; patient-centered care; team-based care
Patient-centered medical home
Collaborative approaches to transforming health care systems; design of health care systems and teams; evaluation of health care systems; measurement of change in health care systems
Preventive care; evidence-based medicine; immunization
Clinic-community linkages; preventive medicine; addressing social determinants of health
Hartzler AL, Tuzzio L, Hsu C, Wagner EH. Roles and functions of community health workers in primary care. Ann Fam Med. 2018 May;16(3):240-245. doi: 10.1370/afm.2208. PubMed
Lewis CC, Klasnja P, Powell BJ, Lyon AR, Tuzzio L, Jones S, Walsh-Bailey C, Weiner B. From classification to causality: advancing understanding of mechanisms of change in implementation science. Front Public Health. 2018 May 7;6:136. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2018.00136. eCollection 2018. PubMed
Dillon EC, Tuzzio L, Madrid S, Olden H, Greenlee RT. Measuring the impact of patient-engaged research: how a methods workshop identified Critical Outcomes of Research Engagement (COREs). J Patient Cent Res Rev. 2017;4:237-46. doi: 10.17294/2330-0698.1458
Parchman M, Hsu C, Fagnan L, van Borkulo N, Tuzzio L. Building a learning health care organization: external facilitation tailors support to the learning capacity of primary care settings. J Patient Cent Res Rev. 2017;4:187.
Chambers D, Coronado G, Green B, Jarvik J, Septimus E, Tuzzio L, Zatzick D. Designing with implementation and dissemination in mind: introduction. In: Rethinking Clinical Trials: A Living Textbook of Pragmatic Clinical Trials. Bethesda, MD: NIH Health Care Systems Research Collaboratory. DOI: 10.28929/0.
Zatzick D, Tuzzio L, Chambers D, Suls J, Darnell D, Coronado G, DeBar L, Green B, Huang S, Jarvik J, Septimus E, Simon G, Vazquez M. Dissemination and implementation: conceptualizing the challenge. In: Rethinking Clinical Trials: A Living Textbook of Pragmatic Clinical Trials. Bethesda, MD: NIH Health Care Systems Research Collaboratory. DOI: 10.28929/072.
Tuzzio L, Chambers D, Tambor E, Suls J, Green B, Huang S, Weinfurt K, Zatzick D. Dissemination approaches for different stakeholders: introduction. In: Rethinking Clinical Trials: A Living Textbook of Pragmatic Clinical Trials. Bethesda, MD: NIH Health Care Systems Research Collaboratory.
Green BB, BlueSpruce J, Tuzzio L, Vernon SW, Shay A, Catz SL. Reasons for never and intermittent completion of colorectal cancer screening after receiving multiple rounds of mailed fecal tests. BMC Public Health. 2017 May 30;17(1):531. doi: 10.1186/s12889-017-4458-6. PubMed
By partnering with patients, KPWHRI researchers developed 2 new interventions to boost lung cancer screening.
KPWHRI researchers uncover obstacles faced by smaller practices when adding CVD risk calculators into primary care.
The MacColl Center’s LEAP project identifies 11 features of effective leadership at primary care practices.
Leah Tuzzio, MPH, and colleagues describe an underutilized role that can help primary care become truly patient-centered.
Healthcare Innovation, March 30, 2022