Grundlæggende oplysninger

Navn: Kathleen Thomas
Titel: Lektor
Institution: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Eshelman School of Pharmacy
Disciplin: Folkesundhed
Års erfaring: 31

Forskning

Primær metodologisk forskningstilgang:

• Holdninger
• Sundhedsfærdigheder
• Minoriteter / dårligt stillede befolkning
• Patientcentrerethed
• Patient-leverandør forhold

Fokus for forskning i kommunikation og sundhedspleje:

• Co-design
• Delphi og konsensusfindingsmetoder
• Implementeringsforskning
• Mikroanalyse af ansigt-til-ansigt dialog
• Blandede metoder
• Observationsstudier
• Deltagende læring og handling
• Kvalitative metoder
• (Kvasi-)oplevelsesmæssige designs
• RCT
• Sequence analysis
• Systematisk litteraturgennemgang

Beskrivelse

Tre nøgleord, der beskriver ekspertise og interesse:

1. mental health
2. disability

Beskrivelse af ekspertiseområde, større interesser og høringsemner:

I am a behavioral economist and mental health services researcher with 3 areas of expertise: 1) disparities in access to care, 2) patient self-efficacy interventions, and 3) health insurance policy. All three areas inform pharmaceutical outcomes and policy, require patient-engaged work with multidisciplinary research teams and creative data compilation to accomplish scientific breakthroughs. The combined learning in these three areas is synergistic, with the goal to improve access and quality of mental health services. My research in disparities in access includes variation in use of psychotropic medication and polypharmacy by nonclinical factors. In this work, I use novel data linkages to elucidate strategies that address racial and other disparities in access to mental health care. My work takes into account patient preferences, motivation and behavior, shared decision-making with clinicians, and mental health workforce shortage. I currently lead a PCORI project seeking to build self-efficacy in parents of youth with IDD. This study is a randomized controlled trial that will integrate qualitative and quantitative data from primary data collection and medical records to assess the comparative effectiveness of two parent interventions.

Kort biografi: