Patients and health care systems worldwide have benefited from Ed Wagner, MD, MPH's commitment to transforming health care. Best known for innovations in chronic illness care, Dr. Wagner's work spans a range of topics in health services research and produces results that consistently enhance our nation’s capacity for health systems change.
Translating evidence-based methods of improving care into practice is the tie that binds Dr. Wagner's investigations in preventive medicine, geriatrics, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. Another common thread is collaboration—between researchers and health care teams, between health care teams and patients, and between researchers at different health care organizations. Under his leadership, several projects, initiatives, and organizations aimed at improving care have sprung up and flourished.
Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute's founding director, Dr. Wagner established its MacColl Center for Health Care Innovation in 1992, launching a new effort to move advances in quality improvement research into practice. He and his team developed and disseminated the Chronic Care Model (CCM), an evidence-based framework for health care that delivers safe, effective, and collaborative care to patients.
The CCM is widely recognized for its capacity to guide health care teams in caring for chronically ill patients. Funded as a national program by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and led by Dr. Wagner, Improving Chronic Illness Care (ICIC) introduced the Chronic Care Model to a wide spectrum of organizations, with a particular focus on safety net practices. Over the past two decades, he and his colleagues at the MacColl Center have focused on promoting such efforts in quality improvement research to organizations serving safety net populations. Dr. Wagner also served for many years as principal investigator for the Cancer Research Network CRN, a National Cancer Institute-funded consortium of health-plan-based research organizations. The CRN is part of the Health Care System Research Network (formerly called the HMO Research Network), a larger alliance of health care delivery organizations with sophisticated research capabilities that he helped establish in 1996.
Dr. Wagner's professional service is extensive. Locally, he served as co-chair of the task force that led to the creation of the Washington Health Alliance, a regional multi-stakeholder collaboration committed to improving health care quality and reducing costs in the Pacific Northwest.
In 2007, Dr. Wagner received the Health Quality Award from the National Committee for Quality Insurance (NCQA) and was elected into the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine, now National Academy of Medicine. A longstanding champion of patient-centered care, he was also honored in 2007 with the Picker Award for Excellence in the Advancement of Patient-Centered Care—for advocating that respecting patients' values and preferences be central to chronic illness care. He received the William B. Graham Prize for Health Services Research in 2011, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association of Community Health Centers in 2012. Dr. Wagner has authored two books and more than 300 publications. He is also professor emeritus of health services at the University of Washington School of Public Health.
Dr. Wagner retired in June 2017.
Diabetes care; collaborative approaches to transforming health care systems; management
Quality of life
Senior care management
Berry ABL, Lim C, Hartzler AL, Hirsch T, Ludman E, Wagner EH, Ralston JD. Eliciting values of patients with multiple chronic conditions: evaluation of a patient-centered framework. AMIA Annu Symp Proc. 2018 Apr 16;2017:430-439. eCollection 2017. PubMed
Flinter M, Hsu C, Cromp D, Ladden MD, Wagner EH. Registered nurses in primary care: emerging new roles and contributions to team-based care in high-performing practices. J Ambulatory Care Manage. 2017 Mar 20. doi: 10.1097/JAC.0000000000000193. [Epub ahead of print]. PubMed
Wagner EH, Flinter M, Hsu C, Cromp D, Austin BT, Etz R, Crabtree BF, Ladden MD. Effective team-based primary care: observations from innovative practices. BMC Fam Pract. 2017 Feb 2;18(1):13. doi: 10.1186/s12875-017-0590-8. PubMed
Parchman ML, Von Korff M, Baldwin LM, Stephens M, Ike B, Cromp D, Hsu C, Wagner EH. Primary care clinic re-design for prescription opioid management. J Am Board Fam Med. 2017 1/2;30(1):44-51. doi: 10.3122/jabfm.2017.01.160183. PubMed
Ratzliff A, Phillips KE, Sugarman JR, Unutzer J, Wagner EH. Practical approaches for achieving integrated behavioral health care in primary care settings. Am J Med Qual. 2017 Mar/Apr;32(2):117-121. doi: 10.1177/1062860615618783. Epub 2016 Jul 9. PubMed
Wagner EH. A first step on the journey to high-quality chronic illness care. Healthc Pap. 2016;15 Suppl:62-5. PubMed
Ludman EJ, McCorkle R, Bowles EA, Rutter CM, Chubak J, Tuzzio L, Jones S, Reid RJ, Penfold R, Wagner EH. Do depressed newly diagnosed cancer patients differentially benefit from nurse navigation? Gen Hosp Psychiatry. 2015 Feb 28. pii: S0163-8343(15)00038-9. doi: 10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2015.02.008 [Epub ahead of print]. PubMed
Jones SM, Ludman EJ, McCorkle R, Reid R, Bowles EJ, Penfold R, Wagner EH. A differential item function analysis of somatic symptoms of depression in people with cancer. J Affect Disord. 2015 Jan 1;170:131-7. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2014.09.002. Epub 2014 Sep 10. PubMed
Derrett S, Gunter KE, Nocon RS, Quinn MT, Coleman K, Daniel DM, Wagner EH, Chin MH. How 3 rural safety net clinics integrate care for patients: a qualitative case study. Med Care. 2014 Nov;52 Suppl 4:S39-47. doi: 10.1097/MLR.0000000000000191.
Sugarman JR, Phillips KE, Wagner EH, Coleman K, Abrams MK. The Safety Net Medical Home Initiative: transforming care for vulnerable populations. Med Care. 2014 Nov;52 Suppl 4:S1-S10. doi: 10.1097/MLR.0000000000000207.
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