Our team
Michael Parchman, MD, MPH
Dr. Parchman is Director of The MacColl Center for Health Care Innovation, which he joined in 2012. A significant research focus for Dr. Parchman has been improving chronic illness care in primary care offices/clinics by approaching them as a complex adaptive system. He has extensive experience with practice facilitation and coaching and implementation of the Patient-Centered Medical Home. Prior to joining MacColl and Group Health he served as a senior advisor for primary care with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. He has served as a director of the South Texas Ambulatory Research Network, a primary care Practice-Based Research Network (PBRN) in Texas, and the PBRN Resource Center within the Community Engagement Program at the Institute for the Integration of Medicine and Science. A NRSA Fellow, Dr. Parchman earned earned his MPH at the University of Texas School of Public Health and is board certified in Family Medicine.
Ed Wagner, MD, MPH
Dr. Wagner is Director of Improving Chronic Illness Care, a general internist/epidemiologist, and Director (Emeritus) of the Seattle-based MacColl Center for Health Care Innovation at the Group Health Research Institute of Group Health Cooperative. His current research interests include the development and testing of population-based care models for diabetes, frailty in the elderly and other chronic illnesses; the evaluation of the health and cost impacts of health promotion/disease prevention interventions; and interventions to prevent disability and reduce depressive symptoms in older adults. He has written two books, authored more than 200 publications, and is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine.
Brian Austin
Brian Austin is Associate Director of Group Health Research Institute’s MacColl Center for Health Care Innovation, which he helped found in 1992. He helped to develop and refine the Chronic Care Model which originated at MacColl in the mid-1990s. He is currently active in the Commonwealth Fund's Safety Net Medical Home Initiative and provides technical assistance to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Aligning Forces For Quality program. Within Group Health and in collaboration with the Group Health Foundation, Mr. Austin organizes the Partnership for Innovation, an internal grant program to test system innovations. Mr. Austin is also a member of the executive leadership team of the MacColl Center’s parent department, Group Health Research Institute, which conducts epidemiologic, health services, behavioral, and clinical research addressing a wide and evolving range of clinical and public health questions.
Michael Von Korff, ScD
Dr. Von Korff is a co-investigator for the Improving Chronic Illness Care (ICIC) program and a scientific advisor to the MacColl Center. He is senior investigator at the Group Health Research Institute of Group Health Cooperative, where he has worked since 1983. His major research interests are the management and outcomes of depression and of chronic pain among primary care patients, patients with comorbid chronic conditions, and determinants of disability and health care use in these patient populations. He has worked on a series of World Health Organization studies, and most recently the World Mental Health Surveys. Dr. Von Korff is a fellow of the Society for Behavioral Medicine and the Association for Health Services Research.
Judith Schaefer, MPH
Judith Schaefer is a senior research associate at ICIC, the MacColl Center, and Group Health Research Institute. Ms. Schaefer has expertise in self-management support and practice team intervention programs that engage patients, families, and community partnerships in expanding the reach of primary care. She provides expertise on consumer engagement in quality improvement, care coordination and service coordination. She directed the Self-Management Support Learning Community, New Health Partnerships: Improving Care by Engaging Patients, a RWJF-funded program in the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. Ms. Schaefer co-chaired the Self-Management Workgroup for the Bureau of Primary Health Care’s Health Disparities Collaboratives. She directs the AHRQ Plexnet Learning Network, whose goal is to advance research in care for complex patients with multimorbidity. She is a faculty member with the Institute for Healthcare Communication, and is a “T” trainer for Stanford Patient Education Research Center’s Chronic Disease Self-Management Program. Her publications include studies on self-management support, measurement of patient experience of care, collaborative management of chronic illness, and care management.
Robert Reid, MD, PhD
Dr. Reid is Associate Investigator for the ICIC program and a scientific advisor to the MacColl Center. He is Associate Medical Director for Research Translation at Group Health and Associate Investigator at its Research Institute. His research and administrative roles revolve around translating science into health care delivery at Group Health and other health care systems. Dr. Reid is also Affiliate Associate Professor of Health Services at the University of Washington, Adjunct Professor of Health Care and Epidemiology at the University of British Columbia, and a Fellow of the American College of Preventive Medicine.
Katie Coleman, MSPH
Katie Coleman is a research associate at the MacColl Center where she is exploring various methods to help primary care practices improve health care quality. Ms. Coleman works with collaborators at the Commonwealth Fund and Qualis Health to support 65 safety net practices in five states become patient-centered medical homes (PCMH). In addition, she is developing a National PCMH Curriculum that helps coaches introduce, measure, and support practices as they become medical homes. She also serves on the Group Health Medical Home evaluation team and works with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Aligning Forces for Quality communities to support ambulatory quality improvement.
Dona Cutsogeorge, MA
Dona Cutsogeorge is a writer contributing to ICIC, MacColl Center, HMO Research Network, and Group Health Research Institute projects. She collaborates with scientists, programmers, and designers to create health services research websites, communications materials, and clinical practice resources. A member of the ICIC team since 2001, she also assists The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Aligning Forces for Quality communities in their ambulatory quality improvement efforts.
Sherry Lauf
Sherry Lauf is Business Manager of the MacColl Center and the ICIC program. She has worked at Group Health for the past 27 years, holding various positions in office management and research administration. She previously worked for the University of Missouri School of Medicine as a departmental administrator. Her interests include research contract negotiation and financial system design.
Adele Clark
Adele Clark is an administrative coordinator for the MacColl Center and ICIC, providing assistance and support to the national program office. She oversees program outreach efforts and plays a key role in event planning.
Rick Perrault
Rick Perrault is an analytical assistant providing technical decision support for ICIC and the MacColl Center. He plays a major role in the development and maintenance of electronic communication efforts for multiple groups, assists with budget operations, print design, and the advancement of ICIC's bibliographic database.
Susan Bennett
Susan Bennett is the MacColl Center's Program Coordinator. She is responsible for developing, negotiating, and monitoring project budgets, and serves as liaison with ICIC projects.