Gwen Lapham, PhD, MPH
"My research focuses on primary care, currently in two areas: understanding cannabis use and integration of mental health services for adolescents."
Gwen Lapham, PhD, MPH, MSW
Associate Investigator, Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute
Assistant Professor, Department of Health Systems Science, Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine
Gwen.T.Lapham@kp.org
206-287-2021
Biography
Gwen Lapham, PhD, MPH, MSW, joined Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute (KPWHRI) in 2013 as an addictions health services researcher. Since then, she has capitalized on her prior social work and health services training to do impactful research on evidence-based primary care for unhealthy substance use, including alcohol, cannabis, and opioids. She has recently begun making strides in understanding cannabis use among primary care patients, including medical use and use among prenatal women.
Dr. Lapham recently completed the CATALyST K12 Washington Learning Health System Program funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute. In the program, she partnered with Kaiser Permanente Washington health system leaders and with KPWHRI’s Center for Accelerating Care Transformation to address gaps in the quality of behavioral health care for children and adolescents by developing and testing an integrated approach to adolescent mental health. She expects this work to lead to new evidence for effective implementation of adolescent mental health integrated in primary care.
She is also a co-investigator of the Primary Care Opioid Use Disorders Treatment, or PROUD trial, a pragmatic implementation trial of nurse care management for treatment of opioid use disorders in primary care, as well as the Health Systems node of the National Institute on Drug Abuse Clinical Trials Network. Dr. Lapham’s research projects specific to cannabis include:
- A pilot study about the prevalence of and reasons for cannabis use among pregnant women. This study uses both cannabis screening results from the electronic health record (EHR) and qualitative interviews.
- Site principal investigator for a multisite study that examined patient-level and system-level factors associated with the Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set, commonly known as HEDIS, to measure performance for initiation and engagement in treatment for patients with cannabis use disorders.
- Co-principal investigator for a study evaluating EHR documentation of medical use of cannabis. This study employs natural language processing methods to compare EHR data with data from confidential surveys about medical cannabis use.
Prior to working at KPWHRI, Dr. Lapham focused on qualitative and quantitative evaluation of preventive alcohol interventions in medical settings at the Veterans Health Administration in Seattle.
RESEARCH INTERESTS AND EXPERIENCE
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Behavior Change
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Addictions & Unhealthy Substance Use
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Health Services & Economics
Implementation research; quality measurement
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Implementation Research
Screening and brief intervention; mental health quality measurement
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Child & Adolescent Health
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Addictions
Prevention and treatment
Sparc trial tools
Resources for behavioral health integration
The SPARC trial successfully implemented behavioral health care into primary care. On our website, you can access tools for behavioral health integration, as well as frequently asked questions and publications.
Recent publications
Young-Wolff KC, Chi FW, Campbell CI, Does MB, Wysota CN, Ansley D, Castellanos C, Lapham GT Association of preconception cannabis use frequency with cannabis use during early pregnancy 2025 Oct 8;25(1):1044. doi: 10.1186/s12884-025-08190-y. Epub 2025-10-08. PubMed
Matson TE, Johnson E, Bobb JF, Graham V, Kiel L, Lee AK, Lapham GT, Caldeiro RM, Bradley KA, Angerhofer JE Implementing Care for Cannabis and Other Drug Use in Adult Primary Care: Outcomes of a Cluster-Randomized Implementation Trial 2025 Sep 16 doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2025.108112. Epub 2025-09-16. PubMed
Hamilton LK, Lapham GT, Day A, Black-Watson M, Bishop D, Parsons D, Budimir CA, Baulckim L, Lee AK, Addis M, Bradley KA Improving alcohol-related care in small-medium primary care practices: An evaluation of an adaptation of the SPARC trial intervention for small-medium sized practices 2025 Jun;173:209697. doi: 10.1016/j.josat.2025.209697. Epub 2025-04-12. PubMed
Simon GE, Stewart CC, Richards JE, Ziebell R, Lapham GT, Hoopes AJ Accuracy of Self-Report Questionnaires and Records-Based Risk Scores to Identify Adolescents' Risk for Self-Harm 2025 Jun;76(6):554-562. doi: 10.1176/appi.ps.20240427. Epub 2025-03-19. PubMed
Young-Wolff KC, Chi FW, Campbell CI, Alexeeff SE, Ansley D, Vanderziel A, Lapham GT Frequency of Preconception and Prenatal Cannabis Use and Nausea and Vomiting in Pregnancy 2025 May;145(5):519-522. doi: 10.1097/AOG.0000000000005884. Epub 2025-03-13. PubMed
Chavez LJ, Yu O, Wartko PD, Braciszewski JM, Glass JE, Horigian VE, Arnsten JH, Murphy MT, Stotts AL, Bagley SM, Lapham GT, Samet JH Opioid use disorder medications among youth in primary care: Subgroup analysis of the PROUD trial 2025 Apr;1(2). doi: 10.1542/pedsos.2024-000392. Epub 2025-04-25. PubMed
Lapham GT, Bobb JF, Luce C, Oliver MM, Hamilton LK, Hyun N, Hallgren KA, Matson TE Prevalence of Cannabis Use Disorder Among Primary Care Patients with Varying Frequency of Past-Year Cannabis Use 2025 Apr;40(5):1039-1047. doi: 10.1007/s11606-024-09061-6. Epub 2024-10-24. PubMed
Lapham GT, Chi FW, Young-Wolff KC, Ansley D, Castellanos C, Does MB, Asyyed AH, Ettenger A, Campbell CI Predictors of Participation in Prenatal Substance Use Assessment, Counseling, and Treatment Among Pregnant Individuals in Prenatal Settings Who Use Cannabis 2025 Mar;19(2):179-186. doi: 10.1097/ADM.0000000000001399. Epub 2024-11-15. PubMed
Bradley K, McCormack J, Addis M, Hamilton LK, Lapham GT, Jonas D, Bishop D, Parsons D, Budimir C, Sanchez V, Bannon J, Villalobos G, Krist AH, Walunas T, Day A Do electronic health records used by primary care practices support recommended alcohol-related care? 2024 Dec;7(4):ooae125. doi: 10.1093/jamiaopen/ooae125. Epub 2024-12-04. PubMed
Lapham GT, Hyun N, Bobb JF, Wartko PD, Matthews AG, Yu O, McCormack J, Lee AK, Liu DS, Samet JH, Zare-Mehrjerdi M, Braciszewski JM, Murphy MT, Arnsten JH, Horigian V, Caldeiro RM, Addis M, Bradley KA Nurse Care Management of Opioid Use Disorder Treatment After 3 Years: A Secondary Analysis of the PROUD Cluster Randomized Clinical Trial 2024 Nov 4;7(11):e2447447. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.47447. Epub 2024-11-04. PubMed
Research
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Increasing opioid use disorder treatment in primary care
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Research
Is medical use of cannabis as risky as nonmedical use?
New findings indicate medical cannabis use is associated with a lower risk of moderate to severe cannabis use disorder.
KPWHRI In the media
Improving opioid use disorder treatment with nurse care management
Nurses, access to medication expand treatment for opioid use disorder
Medscape, Dec. 19, 2024
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