Senior Investigator Michael Parchman, MD, MPH, of KPWHRI's Center for Accelerating Care Transformation, is a nationally recognized scholar in the application of implementation science to improving primary care. As both a family practitioner and health services researcher, he has more than 25 years of experience as a clinician and medical educator.
Dr. Parchman’s research focuses on using complexity science to understand how diverse health care teams can work together to achieve high-quality care. He has been the principal investigator on several projects in ACT Center’s portfolio. One recent example is Healthy Hearts Northwest, a 4-year study to build quality improvement (QI) capacity in smaller primary care practices in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)’s EvidenceNOW initiative. The project demonstrated that smaller practices can improve the cardiovascular health of their patients and build their QI capacity if provided with external support.
Dr. Parchman's other recent ACT Center projects include:
Dr. Parchman is an affiliate professor of family medicine at the UW School of Medicine and of health services at the UW School of Public Health.
Primary care organization and design; quality of primary care; implementation science
Diabetes care; Chronic Care Model implementation
Cardiovascular risk factors and organization of primary care delivery
Primary care organization and design; quality of primary care; implementation science
Using a complex adaptive systems approach to improve outcomes and quality in primary care
Parchman ML, Anderson ML, Penfold RB, Kuo E, Dorr DA. The ability of practices to report clinical quality measures: more evidence of the size paradox? J Am Board Fam Med. Jul-Aug 2020;33(4):620-625. doi: 10.3122/jabfm.2020.04.190369. PubMed
Shoemaker-Hunt S, Sargent W Jr, Swan H, Mikosz C, Cobb K, McDonald D, Keane N, von Korff M, Parchman M, Losby J. Developing clinical quality improvement measures aligned with the CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain : an important strategy to support safer prescribing in primary care. Am J Med Qual. 2020 Jul 29:1062860620944472. doi: 10.1177/1062860620944472. Online ahead of print. PubMed
Huffstetler AN, Kuzel AJ, Sabo RT, Richards A, Brooks EM, Lail Kashiri P, Villalobos G, Arias AJ, Svikis D, Bortz BA, Edwards A, Epling J, Cohen DJ, Parchman ML, Winter J, Wessler P, Yu TJ, Krist AH. Practice facilitation to promote evidence-based screening and management of unhealthy alcohol use in primary care: a practice-level randomized controlled trial. BMC Fam Pract. 2020 May 20;21(1):93. doi: 10.1186/s12875-020-01147-4. PubMed
Schuttner L, Coleman K, Ralston J, Parchman M. The role of organizational learning and resilience for change in building quality improvement capacity in primary care. Health Care Manage Rev. 2021;46(2):E1-E7. doi: 10.1097/HMR.0000000000000281. PubMed
Parchman M. My footsteps on the floating dock. Perm J. 2020;24. doi: 10.7812/TPP/15.056. Epub 2020 Mar 18. PubMed
Shoemaker-Hunt SJ, Evans L, Swan H, Bacon O, Ike B, Baldwin LM, Parchman M. Study protocol for evaluating Six Building Blocks for Opioid Management implementation in primary care practices. Implement Sci Commun. 2020 Feb 26;1:16. doi: 10.1186/s43058-020-00008-6. eCollection 2020. PubMed
Parchman ML, Palazzo L, Austin BT, Blasi P, Henrikson NB, Gundersen G, Ganos E. Taking action to address medical overuse: common challenges and facilitators. Am J Med. 2020 Feb 4. pii: S0002-9343(20)30052-8. doi: 10.1016/j.amjmed.2020.01.001. [Epub ahead of print]. PubMed
Parchman ML, Ike B, Osterhage KP, Baldwin LM. Barriers and facilitators to implementing changes in opioid prescribing in rural primary care clinics. J Clin Transl Sci. 2020 Jan 10;4(5):425-430. doi: 10.1017/cts.2019.448. PubMed
Jones SW, Parchman ML, Hsu CW, Austin B, Flinter M, Cromp D, Wagner E, McDonald S. Measuring attributes of team functioning in primary care settings: development of the TEAMS tool. J Interprof Care. 2020 May-Jun;34(3):407-413. doi: 10.1080/13561820.2019.1670628. Epub 2019 Oct 1. PubMed
Ike B, Baldwin LM, Sutton S, Van Borkulo N, Packer C, Parchman ML. Staff and clinician work-life perceptions after implementing systems-based improvements to opioid management. J Am Board Fam Med. 2019 Sep-Oct;32(5):715-723. doi: 10.3122/jabfm.2019.05.190027. PubMed
Michael Parchman, MD, MPH, explores how relationship-building, “sense-making conversations,” and patience can build trust and promote high-value care.
KPWHRI collaborator Dr. L.J. Fagnan shares an effective way to support rural practices, illustrating why "place matters."
KPWHRI’s ACT Center offers online training to help clinicians identify and curb overused services in clinical practice.
KPWHRI researchers uncover obstacles faced by smaller practices when adding CVD risk calculators into primary care.
The latest on our research on chronic pain and opioids—and how the results influence health policy and clinical practice.