Primary Care Psychology Fellowship

Integral member of the primary care team, with psychologists, medical residents, medical students, pharmacists, nurses, care managers, social workers, psychiatry, graduate students, and interns.

Clinical care in a primary care setting. Teaching medical students, family medicine residents, psychology externs, and psychology interns.

• AF Williams Family Medicine Clinic.
• Westminster Family Medicine Clinic.
• Boulder Family Medicine Clinic.

Evaluating the Feasibility of Automated Insulin Delivery in Primary Care In Person and Through Telehealth.

• This study seeks to evaluate the feasibility of delivering an automated insulin delivery system to patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes through primary care.
• We will be assessing clinical, psychosocial, behavioral outcomes.
• There is the opportunity to lead efforts to validate a survey that evaluates the impact of automated insulin dosing systems on the psychosocial functioning and quality of life on individuals with type 2 diabetes.

Use of Continuous Glucose Monitoring in the Treatment of Prediabetes.

• This study seeks to determine if CGM improves the metabolic and psychological function of adults with prediabetes, (2) to determine if use of CGM is enhanced with an empowering lifestyle intervention targeting glycemic excursions, and (3) to determine plasma proteome changes that reflect the impact of the interventions being evaluated in (1) and (2) and have the potential to guide future studies and more individualized use of the aforementioned approaches and interventions.

PREPARE 4 CGM

• This study seeks to evaluate three strategies for implementation of CGM in primary care.
• Patient and practice-level outcomes will be assessed.

PATHWEIGH: Pragmatic Weight Management in Primary Care.

• Major Goals: Despite the overwhelming prevalence and health implications of obesity, it is rarely addressed in a health care setting. To address this gap, we built PATHWEIGH: a weight-centric flowsheet built into EPIC (an electronic medical record) that prioritizes weight loss in primary care and captures data on best practices that can inform future iterations. This study will examine the implementation of PATHWEIGH in a large, geographically diverse healthcare system and test its effectiveness on patient weight loss and weight loss maintenance.

HOMER Comparing Office and Home Induction for Medication Assisted Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder.

• The overall goal of this study is to compare the impact of home v office induction on this critical component of long-term medication assisted treatment for patients suffering opioid use disorder. The specific aims are to: Aim 1:  Compare short-term stabilization and long-term maintenance treatment engagement in MAT in patients receiving home induction to those receiving office-based induction; and Aim 2: Identify clinically relevant practice and patient characteristics associated with successful long-term treatment.

CO-CEAL is designed to bring together our CCTSI-CE and clinical trials infrastructures to enhance our ability to reach Colorado’s most vulnerable populations with COVID-19 vaccines, testing and therapeutics.

• We will partner with 5 of Colorado’s most disproportionately impacted racial/ ethnic communities (urban Hispanic/LatinX; urban Black/African American; urban American Indian/Alaska Native; rural Hispanic/LatinX; rural Black/African American).
• In each community we will conduct 3 serial surveys to inform our understanding of COVID-19 misinformation, vaccine barriers and hesitancy and attitudes about COVID-19 trials and therapeutics and we will intervene with proven Boot Camp Translation methods to translate information about COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics into culturally sensitive messaging and materials.
• We will assess the reach of our efforts into our target communities using Social Network Analysis. Finally, we will create a Community Clinical Trials Advisory Board to establish linkages between those conducting trials and communities, providing ready access to partnerships with community members who can inform recruitment methods and materials.

Improving Messaging Around Gaps in Needs of rEfferrals (IMAGINE).

• The goal of this study is to explore reasons why patients in primary care practices decline referral to services that may assist them with identified social needs. The study will answer four related questions regarding screening and referral for social needs in primary care patients in western Colorado:
  

1) Why do patients decline referrals to services?

2) What messages and communication vehicles regarding screening and referral for social needs do patients identify as important?

3) What delivery channels do patients identify as most trustworthy and persuasive?

4) Do patient-developed messages and messaging strategies increase acceptance of assistance?

Campeones de la Salud (Health Champions).

This collaborative project includes a cohort of health care providers and colleagues from Metropolitan State University and Colorado State University.

The objective is to develop and implement an evaluation plan that incorporates a Social Network Analysis (SNA) and Systems Collaboration Analysis (SCA) that captures the relational and transactional impacts of the work on the overall cohorts system, the multi-sectoral system partners, and the individual program participants. Designed to address health inequities in Eagle County, these efforts form the basis for expansion to additional geographic areas impacted by poor health literacy outcomes and social vulnerability.

FAST Alcohol use is the third leading cause of death in the United States. Primary care practices need to implement new research findings that help identify and treat alcohol use disorder.

• This project would compare two methods of supporting small and medium size primary care practices in Colorado to improve their alcohol screening and treatment.

Innovation Support Program.

Support Colorado primary care practices with full implementation of practice improvement and transformation by utilizing practice transformation organizations and the regional health connector program.

Over 50% of smokers quit for less than a year, will relapse to smoking. Personal social networks can have powerful influences on smoking behavior and the chances of relapsing.

The proposed study will test Helpers Stay Quit, an innovative relapse prevention program that teaches newly-quit smokers how to reach out and help others in their personal network to quit, thereby creating a social environment more supportive of staying quit.

Engaging Practices and communities in the development of interventions to promote HPV vaccine uptake.

The overall goal of this project is to engage key stakeholders with providers and researchers to develop and evaluate the impact of a novel and innovative intervention strategy for improving the uptake of HPV vaccine in the primary care setting.

UPL BH+ evaluation Integrated Care in Family Medicine: Virtual and In-Person Integrated Behavioral Health Services.

The purpose of these funds is to support the expansion of telepsychiatry and behavioral health at the University of Colorado/UC Health practices.

Invested in Diabetes.

• This is a four-year pragmatic, cluster randomized comparative effectiveness trial of diabetes shared medical appointments (SMAs) using patient-driven educational content delivered by multidisciplinary care teams including peer mentors, compared to SMAs with standardized content delivered by health educators.
• The aims are to implement patient-driven and standardized SMAs in twenty practices using stakeholder engagement and evidence-based implementation strategies, and to evaluate differences in patient participation in care, patient-reported outcomes (diabetes distress, self-care behaviors, quality of life), clinical outcomes, and practice-level adoption, implementation, and maintenance.

Mentorship with:

• Grant writing
• Academic writing
• Publishing

And, contributing to practice transformation and behavioral integration research.