Robert Penfold, PhD, is a health services research and health policy expert whose work focuses on developing and testing strategies to optimize behavioral health care delivery and patient outcomes—particularly in children and adolescents. His research addresses practical issues, such as how to reduce unnecessary use of antipsychotic medications in youth. He also studies the effects of cost-control policies on how clinicians deliver care, how people use care, and how those changes can promote or worsen their health.
Dr. Penfold is a co-investigator in the Mental Health Research Network (MHRN), a resource for studies on mental health conditions ranging from autism to postnatal depression. He leads the MHRN’s child and adolescent scientific interest group. He is also investigating reasons why similar patients receive different mental health treatment, such as different medications, depending on where they live or receive care.
His other recent and ongoing projects include:
Dr. Penfold has extensive experience gathering and analyzing information from large health databases, including those of Medicare, Medicaid, and the Health Care Systems Research Network’s Virtual Data Warehouse. These data and analyses allow rapid information sharing among Kaiser Permanente Washington and participating sites, which improves patient safety and timely access to effective, cutting-edge therapies.
He has also conducted several novel pragmatic clinical trials using the Epic electronic health record system.
Before joining KPWHRI in 2010, Dr. Penfold held research and teaching positions at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio; the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority; the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy; and most recently, at Harvard Medical School in the Department of Population Medicine and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute.
Children and adolescents; anti-psychotics and anti-depressants; bipolar disorder, and depression
Comparative effectiveness; consumer-directed health plans; patient outcomes; costs of chronic illnesses; Medicare and Medicaid
Space-time surveillance; interrupted time series analysis
Penfold RB, Burgess JF Jr, Lee AF, Li M, Miller CJ, Nealon Seibert M, Semla TP, Mohr DC, Kazis LE, Bauer MS. Space-time cluster analysis to detect innovative clinical practices: a case study of aripiprazole in the Department of Veterans Affairs. Health Serv Res. 2016 Dec 22. doi: 10.1111/1475-6773.12639. [Epub ahead of print]. PubMed
Parchman ML, Henrikson NB, Blasi PR, Buist DS, Penfold R, Austin B, Ganos EH. Taking action on overuse: creating the culture for change. Healthc (Amst). 2016 Nov 10. pii: S2213-0764(16)30167-1. doi: 10.1016/j.hjdsi.2016.10.005. [Epub ahead of print]. PubMed
Parchman ML, Fagnan LJ, Dorr DA, Evans P, Cook AJ, Penfold RB, Hsu C, Cheadle A, Baldwin LM, Tuzzio L. Study protocol for "Healthy Hearts Northwest": a 2 x 2 randomized factorial trial to build quality improvement capacity in primary care. Implement Sci. 2016 Oct 13;11(1):138. PubMed
Hacker K, Penfold R, Arsenault LN, Zhang F, Soumerai SB, Wissow LS. The impact of the Massachusetts behavioral health child screening policy on service utilization. Psychiatr Serv. 2017 Jan 1;68(1):25-32. doi: 10.1176/appi.ps.201500543. Epub 2016 Sep 1. PubMed
Simon GE, Coleman KC, Rossom R, Beck A, Oliver M, Johnson E, Whiteside U, Operskalski B, Penfold RB, Shortreed SM, Rutter C. Risk of suicide attempt and suicide death following completion of the patient health questionnaire depression module in community practice. J Clin Psychiatry. 2016 Feb;77(2):221-7. doi: 10.4088/JCP.15m09776. PubMed
Maggie Ramirez, PhD, and Robert Penfold, PhD, culturally adapt an online program.
KPWHRI researchers are contributing to better mental health care for people nationwide.
Models that are easier to explain, use could have better uptake in health care settings.
The HCSRN conference is a venue for collaborative work to improve health and health care.