Health Services Research Grand Rounds
The UH Health Services Research Grand Rounds will occur on the third Tuesday of each month from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. EST. Each session will feature an extramural-funded health service researcher from University Hospitals and across the United States to share scholarly insights on their cutting-edge research.
2024 – 2025 Speakers
Goutham Rao, MD
Goutham Rao, MD, is the Jack H Medalie Professor and Chairman of the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at University Hospitals and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. He also serves as Chief Clinician Experience Officer for the University Hospitals Health System. Dr. Rao is board-certified in both family medicine and obesity medicine and practices in both fields. He is the Principal Investigator of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) funded UH ADVANCE Center (Advancing DIagnosis through Validated Analytics and Novel Collaborations for Excellence). UH ADVANCE is one of just ten funded centers of its kind in the United States. Its mission is to identify best practices for diagnosis. Dr. Rao is an established health services researcher who has served as principal investigator for more than $8 milion dollars in grants from AHRQ, NIH, and PCORI. He is the author of well over 100 publications including six books. Among these is Rational Medical Decision Making: A Case-Based Approach (McGraw-Hill), a unique textbook that combines the disciplines of evidence-based medicine, clinical epidemiology, and biostatistics, and is used by medical students and others all over the world. Dr. Rao serves on a number of important national committees. He is a member of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and AHRQ's Health Information Technology Research study section. He is past chair of the American Heart Association's Obesity Committee, and has served on the National Quality Forum's Core Quality Measures and Child Health Steering Committees. Dr. Rao is an experienced medical editor. Among several editorial roles, he serves as Editor-in-Chief of Family Practice (Oxford University Press), one of the world's leading journals with an emphasis on primary care. Dr. Rao is a graduate of McGill University School of Medicine in Montreal. He completed his residency training at the University of Toronto, and fellowship training at the University of Pittsburgh. University Hospitals, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.
Alyna T. Chien, MD, MS
Alyna Chien, MD, MS, is an Associate Professor at Children’s Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School. She studies how payment policies and public reporting affect healthcare quality and spending, especially for vulnerable populations such as children and young adults with disabling health conditions. Dr. Chien’s research has been supported by the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research, the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development, and several private foundations. She has also participated on national advisory committees for the National Academies of Medicine, National Quality Forum, and the Patient-centered Outcomes Research Institute. Dr. Chien is also a practicing primary care pediatrician.
Gina Kruse, MD, MPH
Gina Kruse, MD, MPH, is a physician researcher in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. She trained in internal medicine and primary care at Massachusetts General Hospital, completed a Harvard Medical School General Internal Medicine research fellowship, earned her MPH in Clinical Effectiveness from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health followed by a post-doctoral fellowship in Cancer Prevention from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences. Dr. Kruse’s research uses clinical trials, observational research, and mixed methods to test interventions and examine implementation strategies to improve the delivery of preventive services with a focus on improving tobacco cessation treatment in healthcare settings in the US and internationally.
Beth A. Tarini, MD, MS, MBA
George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences
Kiran Faryar, MD, MPH
University Hospitals, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
Martha Sajatovic, MD
University Hospitals, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
John R. Blosnich, PhD
University of Southern California Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work
Nathalie L. Maitre, MD, PhD
Emory University School of Medicine
Arvin Garg, MD, MPH
UMass Chan Medical School
Sarah D. Ronis, MD, PhD
University Hospitals, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
Julia E. Blanchette, PhD, RN, CDCES
University Hospitals, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
Shoba Ramanadhan, ScD, MPH
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health