Steve Zeliadt, PhD, MPH

Research Associate Professor
Department of Health Services, School of Public Health
University of Washington;
Associate Director
Seattle VA Health Services Research & Development Center of Innovation

Steve Zeliadt is a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Health Services in the University of Washington’s School of Public Health and the Associate Director for the Seattle VA Health Services Research & Development Center of Innovation to Promote Veteran-Centered and Value-Driven Care. One of his key roles as Associate Director is to support early stage investigators at the Center, which includes working with students, recruiting graduates into our post-doctoral programs, and supporting them on the path to independent academic careers in grant-funded research.

Steve trained as a health economist/health services researcher and has focused his career on using data to appropriately inform care delivery targeting gaps in knowledge about population outcomes associated with implementation of policies and healthcare interventions. His work has been used to guide policy makers in understanding broad implications of healthcare policies at the population level, and to help providers and patients in making individual care decisions. His expertise involves pragmatic study design and methods for untangling potential biases observed in real-world adoption of health technologies and interventions.

He is leading the cost and outcome assessment of VHA’s response to the CARA Act of 2016 in which complementary and integrative health interventions are being rolled out to Veterans to help manage chronic pain and reduce opioid utilization. Recent positive findings from the National Lung Screening Trial have led VA and health care systems across the US to work to implement lung cancer screening. His current area of research is focused on helping low-resource health systems, including VA and Federally Qualified Health Centers, implementing lung cancer screening in ways to ensure maximization of its benefits. His work examining smoking cessation has led to the successful pilot testing of care tools in collaboration with VA’s national quitline (1-855-QUIT-VET) for potential national implementation.