24 Jul Connecting the Dots: Where Informatics and Mental Health Come Together
The ITHS profile series is meant to shine a deserving spotlight on individuals within the institute doing critical work across the vast spectrum of translational science. In our July installment, we are focusing on the vibrant career of Dr. Kari A. Stephens, a longtime faculty contributor to our community engagement program. Before arriving at ITHS, Dr. Stephens’ career path was marked by two distinct phases: Information technology and psychology. Her multidisciplinary background provides a unique lens through which she approaches her work, merging the realms of informatics and mental health care.
Dr. Stephens’ career began when she was a data architect and developer for the UW School of Medicine, delving into the intricacies of web-based medical records more than 20 years ago. This gave her an impressive foundation rooted in data sharing, where she contributed to building the first web-based medical records system. Despite this technical prowess, she had always harbored a passion for becoming a clinical scientist, a path she ultimately embraced.
“I always wanted to do research.” Stephens says. “I really wanted to be on the other side of the table.” That drive led her to pursue a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Washington, completing residency in Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences and a training grant from the National Institute of Mental Health as a junior faculty. Her years spent crafting data systems and working closely with researchers primed her for a transition back to her initial passion for psychology, where she could directly impact lives through research and patient care.
“I like to think of data as Legos,” she said, “Because the potential for what you can build is so vast. What you build is dependent on who has the Legos in their hands and what their vision is. With health data, we’re in the same world where we have this tremendous amount of data now at our fingertips and the sky’s the limit on what we can build. The tools we’re using are rapidly evolving.”
As an expert in both clinical psychology and data sharing informatics, Kari found her niche in a field where the two domains intersect. Her focus became clear: utilizing the vast landscape of data to craft innovative solutions aimed at improving the lives of those most in need of support.
Dr. Stephens joined ITHS more than a decade ago. The mission of ITHS, emphasizing the importance of creating shared services to prevent redundant efforts across institutions, aligned perfectly with her goals.
“ITHS has actually been at the heart of a lot of what I’ve done forever, because it’s about translating you know, shortening that window from innovation to dissemination. Out in the real world. And we have community facing partners that so infrequently get to be part of research. And so we combine powerful data sharing from our partners’ practices with research that helps improve patients’ lives faster and better”
In her current role as a professor in Family Medicine and the Research Section Head at UW Medicine, Dr. Stephen’s research focus revolves around using health data to enact tangible change. She emphasizes a sense of social responsibility to help underprivileged people access care, saying “Our mission is to help improve the health of those most in need.” Her collaborations with community engagement cores and efforts to establish practice-based research networks underscore her commitment to reaching underserved populations.
In a recent study, one of the largest national studies done focused on improving integrated behavioral health in primary care, Dr. Stephens and team focusing on two critical factors: the varying time practices took to implement an intervention and the extent to which they actually executed the intervention. They found that an intervention where practices could choose their own way to improve care led to increases in integration of behavioral health that targeted care for patients with multiple chronic conditions. The study provides evidence for a practice-centric solution to help make real change in primary care practices that can improve the quality of care, aim for better patient outcomes, provider satisfaction, patient relevance of care, and potentially reduce overall healthcare costs, especially in systems like managed care settings. A publicly available toolkit (https://sites.google.com/view/ibhpc/home) has been made available to help disseminate the study intervention to any interested practice and allow them to benefit from the findings, thus potentially influencing broader public health initiatives.
In discussing the future of primary care, Dr. Stephens is both hopeful and realistic. She recognizes the immense challenges facing this vital aspect of healthcare, from high burnout rates to the urgent need for innovation. Through her work at the intersection of primary care, mental health integration, and informatics, she aims to be a catalyst for positive change.
As she looks ahead, Dr. Stephens’ profile is one of dedication, innovation, and a relentless pursuit of health equity.
“I’m on a mission to promote and support health equity in the best way I can.”
Dr. Kari Stephens is Research Section Head, Director of Clinical Research Informatics, and Associate Professor in Family Medicine and Adjunct Associate Professor in Biomedical Informatics and Medical Education at the UW School of Medicine. Dr. Stephens is a practicing clinical psychologist and biomedical informaticist conducting research focused on health equity, integrated behavioral health, chronic pain, posttraumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression, substance use, cancer, Long COVID, and informatics data sharing, particularly in primary care settings. Dr. Stephens leads informatics and innovations in data sharing as an Associate Director with the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center and as an executive faculty member with the UW Institute of Translational Health Science and ITHS Data QUEST Director, overseeing a regional electronic health record systems based primary care data sharing network, which has supported over $100M in grant funded projects.
