Senior Investigator Paula Lozano, MD, MPH, is a pediatrician and medical director for research and translation at the Washington Permanente Medical Group. Her work focuses on helping Kaiser Permanente Washington succeed as a learning health system, where research informs practice and practice informs research.

“The challenges that health care is facing are so complex,” she says. “The learning health system seems like the best way to deliver on our promise to provide the highest quality, patient-centered, effective and affordable care to Kaiser Permanente Washington members.”

Dr. Lozano founded and co-leads the organization’s Learning Health System (LHS) Program, which launched in June 2017. The program represents Kaiser Permanente Washington’s investment in the use of rigorous evidence and research methods, in partnership with frontline clinicians and leaders to promote a culture of continuous learning. Deploying the advanced scientific methods available at Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute (KPWHRI), the LHS Program helps to improve health, make care more affordable—and delight patients.

The LHS Program’s portfolio includes developing and piloting an integrated pain management program based in primary care, developing predictive models to target effective interventions to the patients who would most benefit from them, supporting implementation of community resource specialists across Kaiser Permanente Washington, and evaluating our newest primary care clinics at Ballard and South Lake Union.

As co-Program Director of the CATALyST Learning Health Systems Scholars K12 Training Program, funded by Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), Dr. Lozano trains and mentors multidisciplinary junior faculty at KPWHRI, the University of Washington (UW), and Veterans Affairs (VA).

Dr. Lozano's other research interests include health behavior-change, obesity, self-management of chronic conditions, and health disparities. She is collaborating with KPWHRI Senior Investigator David Arterburn on Moving to Health, a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded project that is examining the relationships between neighborhood food and physical activity characteristics and development of overweight and obesity.

Dr. Lozano has conducted research on the care of children with asthma, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and other chronic conditions, and the delivery of health care services to disadvantaged children. Her work has focused on improving health care quality through changing the delivery system, supporting clinical decision-making by providers, and supporting patients and parents in health behavior change. She has also served as an investigator for several U.S. Preventive Services Task Force evidence reviews conducted by the Kaiser Permanente Research Affiliates Evidence-based Practice Center.

Previously, while on the faculty at the UW Department of Pediatrics, Dr. Lozano practiced general pediatrics at Harborview Children and Teens Clinic, the Harborview Medical Center pediatric burn/trauma service, and the inpatient service at Seattle Children's Hospital. She taught residents and medical students, designing and leading a communication-skills training program for residents. She also served as director of the UW Primary Care Research Fellowship, funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), to provide research training in the primary care disciplines of internal medicine, family medicine, and pediatrics. She is an adjunct professor of health services at the UW School of Public Health.