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
Tuzzio L, Wellman RD, De Marchis EH, Gottlieb LM, Walsh-Bailey C, Jones SMW, Nau CL, Steiner JF, Banegas MP, Sharp AL, Derus A, Lewis CC. Social Risk Factors and Desire for Assistance Among Patients Receiving Subsidized Health Care Insurance in a US-Based Integrated Delivery System. Ann Fam Med. 2022;20(2):137-144. doi: 10.1370/afm.2774. PubMed
Tuzzio L, O'Meara ES, Holden E, Parchman ML, Ralston JD, Powell JA, Baldwin LM. Barriers to implementing cardiovascular risk calculation in primary care: alignment with the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research. Am J Prev Med. 2021 Feb;60(2):250-257. doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2020.07.027. Epub 2020 Dec 3. PubMed
Richesson RL, Marsolo KS, Douthit BJ, Staman K, Ho PM, Dailey D, Boyd AD, McTigue KM, Ezenwa MO, Schlaeger JM, Patil CL, Faurot KR, Tuzzio L, Larson EB, O'Brien EC, Zigler CK, Lakin JR, Pressman AR, Braciszewski JM, Grudzen C, Fiol GD. Enhancing the use of EHR systems for pragmatic embedded research: lessons from the NIH Health Care Systems Research Collaboratory. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2021 Oct 1:ocab202. doi: 10.1093/jamia/ocab202. Online ahead of print. PubMed
Tuzzio L, Berry AL, Gleason K, Barrow J, Bayliss EA, Gray MF, Delate T, Bermet Z, Uratsu C, Grant RW, Ralston JD. Aligning care with the personal values of patients with complex care needs. Health Serv Res. 2021 Aug 6. doi: 10.1111/1475-6773.13862. [Epub ahead of print]. PubMed
Tuzzio L, Meyers CM, Dember LM, Grudzen CR, Melnick ER, Staman KL, Huang SS, Richards J, DeBar L, Vazquez MA, Green BB, Coronado GD, Jarvik JG, Braciszewski J, Ho M, Wells BL, James K, Toto R, D'Onofrio G, Volandes A, Kuklinski MR, Catalano RF, Sterling SA, Morse EF, Curtis L, Larson EB. Accounting for quality improvement during the conduct of embedded pragmatic clinical trials within healthcare systems: NIH collaboratory case studies. Healthc (Amst). 2021 Jun;8 Suppl 1:100432. doi: 10.1016/j.hjdsi.2020.100432. Epub 2021 Jun 23. PubMed
Arterburn DE, Toh S, Williams N, Anau J, Courcoulas A, Tavakkoli A, Stilwell D, Tuzzio L, Lewis CC, Wilcox MN, McTigue KM. Translating stakeholder-driven comparative effectiveness research into practice: the PCORnet Bariatric Study. J Comp Eff Res. 2020 Oct 1. doi: 10.2217/cer-2020-0156. [Epub ahead of print]. PubMed
Tuzzio L, Hanson LR, Reuben DB, Baier RR, Gurwitz JH, Bayliss EA, Williamson J, Fraser JR, Sherman SJ, Larson EB. Transforming dementia care through pragmatic clinical trials embedded in learning healthcare systems. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2020;68 Suppl 2:S43-S48. doi: 10.1111/jgs.16629. PubMed
Crabtree BF, Howard J, Miller WL, Cromp D, Hsu C, Coleman K, Austin B, Flinter M, Tuzzio L, Wagner EH. Leading innovative practice: leadership attributes in LEAP practices. Milbank Q. 2020 May 13. doi: 10.1111/1468-0009.12456. [Epub ahead of print]. 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