John F. Steiner, MD, MPH
Senior Clinician Investigator
John F. Steiner, MD, MPH, is a Senior Clinician Investigator at the Institute for Health Research. His research focuses on increasing access to care, health equity, social determinants of health, treatment and visit adherence, prevention and treatment of hypertension and diabetes, and the development of learning health systems.
Dr. Steiner received his medical training at the University of Pennsylvania and completed a residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Colorado. He earned his Master of Public Health degree at the University of Washington. Dr. Steiner has over 35 years of research experience, with his early work focused on developing and testing measures of medication adherence and using those measures in studies of the prevention and treatment of hypertension and diabetes. Another central focus of Dr. Steiner's research has been on improving access and quality of care for minority, vulnerable, and under-served populations. He was the inaugural Director of a "learning network" established in 2016, the Social Needs Network for Evaluation and Translation (SONNET) to promote rigorous evaluation of Kaiser Permanente programs that address social, economic, and behavioral needs among members. He now directs the Innovative Methods Promoting Operational Value and Efficiency (IMPROVE) program, an internally-funded project to rapidly conduct operationally relevant research in collaboration with operational leaders in Kaiser Permanente Colorado.
Dr. Steiner is a Professor of General Internal Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, a fellow of the American College of Physicians and a member of the Society of General Internal Medicine.
Selected Research:
- Innovative Methods Promoting Regional Operational Value and Efficiency (IMPROVE)
- Center for American Indian and Alaska Native Diabetes Translation Research Center (CAIANDTR)
- Funder: National Institute for Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases
- Award End Date: 2023
- Using Values Affirmation to Reduce the Effects of Perceived Discrimination on Hypertension Disparities
- Funder: National Institutes of Health
- Award End Date: 05/31/2021
- A Social Needs Network for Evaluation and Translation (SONNET): Addressing the Social, Economic and Behavioral Needs of Kaiser Permanente Members
- Funder: Kaiser Permanente Community Health
- Award End Date: 12/31/2020
- Improving Hypertension Care of American Indians and Alaska Natives through Interactive Voice Response Technology
- Funder: American Heart Association
- Award End Date: 06/30/2020
The goal of IMPROVE is to encourage the development of a learning health system in Kaiser Permanente Colorado through the support of rapid projects.
The goal of this project is to promote excellence in translational research and capacity-building to improve diabetes-related health in American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) populations.
The aims of this project are (1) to compare the effects of a values-affirmation exercise with a control exercise on antihypertensive medication adherence in African American patients across three clinical settings; and (2) compare the effects of the values-affirmation exercise in African American patients with its effects in white patients with similar socioeconomic and clinical characteristics.
The goal of this project is to establish a learning network, the Social Needs Network for Evaluation and Translation (SONNET), to promote rigorous evaluation of Kaiser Permanente programs that address social, economic and behavioral needs (SEBN) among Kaiser Permanente members.
The goal of this project was to improve care for patients with hypertension at the First Nations Community HealthSource, an Urban Indian Health Organization in Albuquerque New Mexico. The study supported a randomized, controlled trial of interactive voice-response outreach to patients with hypertension, with the goal of improving blood pressure control through reducing missed clinic appointments and improving medication adherence.