Rita Mangione-Smith, MD, MPH, was appointed vice president for research and health care innovation at Kaiser Permanente Washington and executive director of Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute (KPWHRI) in August 2019. She is also a senior investigator at the institute, pursuing research on improving care for children and others throughout the life course.
A pediatrician, Dr. Mangione-Smith’s research to date has focused primarily on assessing quality of care and then developing, evaluating, and implementing quality improvement interventions in areas such as transitions between sites of care and hospital-based care for respiratory illness and mental health.
She has also conducted extensive research on doctor-parent communication, studying how interactions influence the decision to prescribe antibiotics for acute respiratory illness in pediatric outpatient settings. Based on this work, she has developed a multifaceted quality improvement intervention for outpatient providers called Dialogue Around Respiratory Illness treatment (DART).
Dr. Mangione-Smith has a passion for developing learning health systems where scientists and clinicians collaborate on research programs that can drive the improvement of health care delivery, quality, and cost.
Before her work at Kaiser Permanente Washington, Dr. Mangione-Smith served as an investigator in the Center for Child Health, Behavior, and Development at Seattle Children’s Research Institute and chief of the Division of General Pediatrics and Hospital Medicine in the University of Washington (UW) Department of Pediatrics. She was also director of the Quality Improvement Scholars Program at the UW Department of Pediatrics and Seattle Children’s Hospital.
An accomplished organizational leader, Dr. Mangione-Smith is recognized for her work as an active teacher and mentor. Since joining KPWHRI in 2019, she has established an institute-wide mentorship program for faculty that has been highly successful. She also worked collaboratively with all institute members in 2020 to refresh the KPWHRI Mission and Vision statements and to develop a 5-year strategic plan based on the institute’s mission and vision.
In 2018, AcademyHealth, the nation’s premiere health services association, honored Dr. Mangione-Smith with its “Child Health Interest Group Life Time Achievement Award,” recognizing her significant and lasting contributions to child health services research. She also received the 2017 Academic Pediatric Association Research Award, the organization’s highest award for research excellence and achievement.
Dr. Mangione-Smith is also a professor in the Department of Health System Science at Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine.
Mangione-Smith R. The challenges of addressing pediatric quality measurement gaps. Pediatrics. 2017 Apr;139(4). pii: e20170174. doi: 10.1542/peds.2017-0174. Epub 2017 Mar 15. PubMed
Mangione-Smith R, Roth CP, Britto MT, Chen AY, McGalliard J, Boat TF, Adams JL, McGlynn EA. Development and testing of the Pediatric Respiratory Illness Measurement System (PRIMES) quality indicators. Hosp Pediatr. 2017 Mar;7(3):125-133. doi: 10.1542/hpeds.2016-0182. Epub 2017 Feb 21. PubMed
Schrager SM, Arthur KC, Nelson J, Edwards AR, Murphy JM, Mangione-Smith R, Chen AY. Development and validation of a method to identify children with social complexity risk factors. Pediatrics. 2016 Sep;138(3):e20153787. doi: 10.1542/peds.2015-3787. Epub 2016 Aug 11. PubMed
Arthur, KC, Mangione-Smith R, Meischke H, Zhou C, Strelitz B, Acosta Garcia M, Brown JC. Impact of English proficiency on care experiences in a pediatric emergency department. Acad Pediatr. 2015 Mar-Apr;15(2):218-24. doi: 10.1016/j.acap.2014.06.019. Epub 2014 Sep 4. PubMed
Opel DJ, Taylor JA, Zhou C, Catz S, Myaing M, Mangione-Smith R. The relationship between parent attitudes about childhood vaccines survey score and future child immunization status: a validation study. JAMA Pediatr. 2013 Nov;167(11):1065-71. doi: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2013.2483. PubMed
A new study aims to understand trends in digital care communication among teens.
KPWHRI Executive Director Rita Mangione-Smith, MD, MPH, talks about her research to advance pediatric care
New York Times, Apr 17, 2020