Meet the Connection to Health Research Team
Connection to Health was created by the world-renowned researchers from the University of Colorado School of Medicine Department of Family Medicine and the University of California San Francisco Department of Family and Community Medicine. Please meet our research team.
L. Miriam Dickinson, PhD
Professor, Department of Family Medicine
University of Colorado School of Medicine, CU Anschutz Medical Campus
Dr. Dickinson is an adjunct professor in the Department of Biostatistics and Informatics, a senior biostatistician in the Biostatistics Core of the ACCORDS Center for health outcomes research at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, and Senior Scientist for the National Research Network of the American Academy of Family Physicians. She brings a strong methodological background to inform study design and apply rigorous methods and innovative approaches to practice-based research, study design, covariate constrained randomization, and the application of complex analytic methodologies to the challenges associated with cluster randomized pragmatic trials and stepped wedge trials. Dickinson has many years of experience as lead methodologist/evaluator and co-investigator on numerous federally funded grants focused on research in practice-based and community settings, as well as serving as PI on an NIMH R03 grant to use multilevel modeling to examine contextual effects on depression process of care in primary care practices.
Particular areas of interest include designing and evaluating pragmatic trials, and a general focus on underserved populations, chronic disease, behavioral health, and immunization.
Perry Dickinson, MD
Professor, Department of Family Medicine
University of Colorado School of Medicine, CU Anschutz Medical Campus
Dr. Perry Dickinson is director of the Department of Family Medicine’s Practice Innovation Program, and convener of the Colorado Health Extension System. He is Past President of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, the North American Primary Care Research Group, the Board of Directors of the Annals of Family Medicine, and the Council of Academic Family Medicine. Dickinson has led multiple studies investigating the process of practice transformation, particularly focusing on the implementation of advanced primary care models, self-management support, and integrated behavioral health services in primary care practices. Dr. Dickinson was the Principal Investigator for the Connection to Health (CTH) study. He helped develop the CTH web-based patient self-management support system and oversaw the implementation of CTH in primary care practices in Colorado.
Douglas H. Fernald, MA
Senior Instructor, Department of Family Medicine
University of Colorado School of Medicine, CU Anschutz Medical Campus
Doug Fernald is the director of BIGHORN, a primary care practice-based research network in Colorado. For over 20 years, Mr. Fernald has worked with community primary care practices to improve the quality and safety of the care they deliver to their patients, including high-priority areas of patient safety, health information exchange, health information technology, patient self-management support, cardiovascular care, and laboratory testing. This work includes lead evaluation roles of statewide initiatives to implement patient-centered medical homes, to integrate behavioral health into primary care, and to improve implementation of cardiovascular care guidelines.
Lawrence Fisher, Ph.D., ABPP
Professor Emeritus, Department of Family & Community Medicine
University of California, San Francisco
Dr. Lawrence Fisher is a clinical psychologist who has been a professor in the Department of Family & Community Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco for over 25 years. He has a Diplomate in Clinical Psychology through the American Board of Professional Psychology and is a former Associate Editor of Diabetes Care. He has conducted both cross-sectional and longitudinal NIH- and ADA-supported clinical research with adults with diabetes and their families. His recent work focuses on diabetes distress and depression, disease management, and how adults and families struggle over time to manage chronic health conditions. He has also focused on telephone and web-based interactive behavioral interventions for adults with chronic disease, and with interventions that help primary and secondary care clinicians re-configure the way clinical care is delivered for patients with chronic disease. Fisher maintains an active clinical practice at UCSF, has published over 190 peer-reviewed articles on diabetes and related topics, and frequently speaks to both professional and lay groups at local, national and international meetings and workshops.
Danielle Hessler, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Family Medicine
University of California, San Francisco
Dr. Hessler is an Associate Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. She is a health psychologist whose research focuses on connections between an individual’s emotional, social, and greater contextual experiences with their engagement in health behaviors and physical health. Over the last 10 years, Hessler has partnered on the Connection to Health (CTH) web-based patient self-management support system; helping to design and implement CTH in over 30 primary care practices across two large NIH studies, as well as expanding the CTH program to include social determinants of health and increase program support of patient-provider relationship building.
Bonnie T. Jortberg, PhD, RD, CDE
Associate Professor, Department of Family Medicine
University of Colorado School of Medicine, CU Anschutz Medical Campus
Dr. Jortberg is an Associate Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine (CU-SOM). She holds a PhD in Human Nutrition, is a Registered Dietitian and a Certified Diabetes Educator. Dr. Jortberg
has been with CU-SOM since 1995, and was a Co-Investigator and the Program Manager for the Connection to Health (CTH) study. She helped develop the CTH web-based patient self-management support system and managed the implementation of CTH in primary
care practices in Colorado. She continues to seek research opportunities to further the evidence for web-based self-management support tools and applications.
Kyle Knierim, MD
Associate Professor, Department of Family Medicine
University of Colorado School of Medicine, CU Anschutz Medical Campus
Robyn Wearner, RD, MA, PMP
Instructor, Department of Family Medicine
University of Colorado School of Medicine, CU Anschutz Medical Campus
Ms. Wearner is an Instructor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine (CU-SOM). She has a Master’s degree in Instructional Design and was actively involved in the lifecycle of the CTH web-based patient self-management support system. She contributed to the development and curating stages of CTH, including user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) design, usability testing, site copy writing and authoring the user guide. During the implementation phase she was a Practice Facilitator for CTH wherein she established relationships, trained practice teams and supported the implementation of the system, using feedback reports as well as process and technical troubleshooting. As a Registered Dietitian she has extensive experience developing and delivering health education in traditional community settings and web-based learning.
