Neda Ratanawongsa, MD, MPH
Professor
Medicine
School of Medicine

Neda Ratanawongsa, MD, MPH (she/her/hers) is the Deputy Chief Health Informatics Officer for the San Francisco Department of Public Health. She was the Interim Chief Medical Officer for the San Francisco Health Network and for Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center.

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She a Professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine and in the UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations (now Action Research Center for Health Equity). Researching the electronic health record (EHR) revolution in safety net care, she strategized how innovations in EHR design, implementation, and policy can support compassionate, effective health care for diverse patients. Dr. Ratanawongsa is a mixed methods researcher, with expertise in implementation research, qualitative research, and conversational analysis. She has developed, implemented, and evaluated curricula at the undergraduate, graduate and continuing medical education levels. She has led national committees with the Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM) and Academy on Communication in Healthcare (ACH).

Dr. Ratanawongsa received her undergraduate and medical degrees at Harvard, then came to UCSF for residency and chief residency in internal medicine. She completed a Masters in Public Health and General Internal Medicine Fellowship at Johns Hopkins University and joined the faculty at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center as an Assistant Professor and Assistant Residency Program Director. She joined the UCSF Division of General Internal Medicine and UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations in 2008.

Awards

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• Milton W. Hamolsky Junior Faculty Award, Society of General Internal Medicine, 2008

Education & Training

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• M.P.H. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health 06/2007
• Residency Internal Medicine University of California, San Francisco 06/2003
• M.D. Harvard Medical School 06/2000
• B.A. Social Studies Harvard University 06/1996

Interests

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• medical informatics
• clinical informatics
• patient-reported outcome measures
• user-centered design
• electronic health records (EHR)
• telemedicine
• usability
• mobile health (mhealth)
• clinical decision support

Websites

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• Posts on X ratanawongsa (X.com)

Grants and Projects

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• Integrating Adherence into a Safety Net EHR Tool to Improve Decision-making, NIH, 2014-2019

Publications (71)

Top publication keywords:
Electronic Health RecordsMedication AdherenceHealth LiteracyMedical InformaticsPatient PortalsDiabetes MellitusCommunication BarriersSafety-net ProvidersCommunicationSelf CareManaged Care ProgramsPhysician-Patient RelationsAttitude of Health PersonnelPrimary Health CareTelephone

• Multitasking and Silent Electronic Health Record Use in Ambulatory Visits.
  JAMA internal medicine 2017 Ratanawongsa N, Matta GY, Lyles CR, Koenig CJ, Barton JL, Yu K, Schillinger D
• The Challenges of Electronic Health Records and Diabetes Electronic Prescribing: Implications for Safety Net Care for Diverse Populations.
  Journal of diabetes research 2017 Ratanawongsa N, Chan LL, Fouts MM, Murphy EJ
• Association Between Clinician Computer Use and Communication With Patients in Safety-Net Clinics.
  JAMA internal medicine 2016 Ratanawongsa N, Barton JL, Lyles CR, Wu M, Yelin EH, Martinez D, Schillinger D
• Communication and medication refill adherence: the Diabetes Study of Northern California.
  JAMA internal medicine 2013 Ratanawongsa N, Karter AJ, Parker MM, Lyles CR, Heisler M, Moffet HH, Adler N, Warton EM, Schillinger D
• Intensive Remote Onboarding to Improve Digital Health Access Among Safety-Net Patients During a Pandemic: An Implementation Study.
  Telemedicine Journal and e-Health 2025 Asha S. Choudhury, Anupama G. Cemballi, Delphine S. Tuot, George Su, Triveni DeFries, Shobha Sadasivaiah, Neda Ratanawongsa, Courtney R. Lyles

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• Paging the Clinical Informatics Community: Respond STAT to Dobbs v. Jackson's Women's Health Organization.
  Applied clinical informatics 2022 Arvisais-Anhalt S, Ravi A, Weia B, Aarts J, Ahmad HB, Araj E, Bauml JA, Benham-Hutchins M, Boyd AD, Brecht-Doscher A, Butler-Henderson K, Butte AJ, Cardilo AB, Chilukuri N, Cho MK, Cohen JK, Craven CK…
• Laboratory Results Release to Patients under the 21st Century Cures Act: The Eight Stakeholders Who Should Care.
  Applied clinical informatics 2022 Arvisais-Anhalt S, Ratanawongsa N, Sadasivaiah S
• Informatics response to address the COVID-19 pandemic in a safety net healthcare system.
  JAMIA open 2021 Sadasivaiah S, Shaffer E, Enanoria W, Su G, Goldman S, Scarafia J, Lee T, Yu A, Goldman LE, Ratanawongsa N
• Health Communication as a Mediator of Health and Healthcare Disparities.
  2021 Neda Ratanawongsa, Benyam Hailu, Dean Schillinger
• An Untapped Potential in Primary Care: Semi-Structured Interviews with Clinicians on How Patient Portals Will Work for Caregivers in the Safety Net.
  Journal of medical Internet research 2020 Casillas A, Cemballi AG, Abhat A, Lemberg M, Portz JD, Sadasivaiah S, Ratanawongsa N, Semere W, Brown A, Lyles CR
• Evaluation of a Health Information Technology-Enabled Collective Intelligence Platform to Improve Diagnosis in Primary Care and Urgent Care Settings: Protocol for a Pragmatic Randomized Controlled Trial.
  JMIR research protocols 2019 Fontil V, Khoong EC, Hoskote M, Radcliffe K, Ratanawongsa N, Lyles CR, Sarkar U
• Perspectives of English, Chinese, and Spanish-Speaking Safety-Net Patients on Clinician Computer Use: Qualitative Analysis.
  Journal of medical Internet research 2019 Khoong EC, Cherian R, Matta GY, Lyles CR, Schillinger D, Ratanawongsa N
• Disparities in Patient-Reported Interest in Web-Based Patient Portals: Survey at an Urban Academic Safety-Net Hospital.
  Journal of medical Internet research 2019 Sadasivaiah S, Lyles CR, Kiyoi S, Wong P, Ratanawongsa N
• A Randomized Trial to Train Vulnerable Primary Care Patients to Use a Patient Portal.
  Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine : JABFM 2019 Lyles CR, Tieu L, Sarkar U, Kiyoi S, Sadasivaiah S, Hoskote M, Ratanawongsa N, Schillinger D
• Testing and improving the acceptability of a web-based platform for collective intelligence to improve diagnostic accuracy in primary care clinics.
  JAMIA open 2019 Fontil V, Radcliffe K, Lyson HC, Ratanawongsa N, Lyles C, Tuot D, Yuen K, Sarkar U
• Evaluation of an health-IT-enabled collective intelligence platform to improve diagnosis in primary care and urgent care settings: Study Design (Preprint).
  2018 Valy Fontil, Elaine Khoong, Mekhala Hoskote, Kate Radcliffe, Neda Ratanawongsa, Courtney Rees Lyles, Urmimala Sarkar
• Certified Medical Interpreters' Perspectives on Relationship-Centered Communication in Safety-Net Care.
  MedEdPublish (2016) 2018 Ratanawongsa N, Cardenas A, Occeña B, Critchfield J, Mercer M, Myers K
• Finding Meaning in Medication Reconciliation Using Electronic Health Records: Qualitative Analysis in Safety Net Primary and Specialty Care.
  JMIR medical informatics 2018 Matta GY, Khoong EC, Lyles CR, Schillinger D, Ratanawongsa N
• Language-concordant automated telephone queries to assess medication adherence in a diverse population: a cross-sectional analysis of convergent validity with pharmacy claims.
  BMC health services research 2018 Ratanawongsa N, Quan J, Handley MA, Sarkar U, Schillinger D
• Reducing Misses and Near Misses Related to Multitasking on the Electronic Health Record: Observational Study and Qualitative Analysis.
  JMIR human factors 2018 Ratanawongsa N, Matta GY, Bohsali FB, Chisolm MS
• Certified Medical Interpreters’ Perspectives on Relationship-Centered Communication in Safety-Net Care.
  MedEdPublish 2018 Neda Ratanawongsa, Angelica Cardenas, Bruce Occeña, Jeff Critchfield, Mary Mercer, Kara Myers
• Primary care scribes: writing a new story for safety net clinics.
  BMJ open quality 2017 Lowry C, Orr K, Embry B, Nguyen M, Petersen A, James C, Seidel K, Ratanawongsa N
• Improving best possible medication history with vulnerable patients at an urban safety net academic hospital using pharmacy technicians.
  BMJ open quality 2017 Sadasivaiah S, Smith DE, Goldman S, Ratanawongsa N
• Use of Complementary Health Approaches Among Diverse Primary Care Patients with Type 2 Diabetes and Association with Cardiometabolic Outcomes: From the SF Bay Collaborative Research Network (SF Bay CRN).
  Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine : JABFM 2017 Handley MA, Quan J, Chao MT, Ratanawongsa N, Sarkar U, Emmons-Bell S, Schillinger D
• Online patient websites for electronic health record access among vulnerable populations: portals to nowhere?
  Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA 2017 Tieu L, Schillinger D, Sarkar U, Hoskote M, Hahn KJ, Ratanawongsa N, Ralston JD, Lyles CR
• mHealth and Health Information Technology Tools for Diverse Patients with Diabetes.
  Journal of diabetes research 2017 Lyles CR, Ratanawongsa N, Bolen SD, Samal L
• The Next Frontier in Communication and the ECLIPPSE Study: Bridging the Linguistic Divide in Secure Messaging.
  Journal of diabetes research 2017 Schillinger D, McNamara D, Crossley S, Lyles C, Moffet HH, Sarkar U, Duran N, Allen J, Liu J, Oryn D, Ratanawongsa N, Karter AJ
• Computer use, language, and literacy in safety net clinic communication.
  Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA 2016 Ratanawongsa N, Barton JL, Lyles CR, Wu M, Yelin EH, Martinez D, Schillinger D
• Capsule Commentary on Dzeng et al., Moral Distress Amongst American Physician Trainees Regarding Futile Treatments at the End of Life: a Qualitative Inquiry.
  Journal of general internal medicine 2016 Ratanawongsa N
• Barriers and Facilitators to Online Portal Use Among Patients and Caregivers in a Safety Net Health Care System: A Qualitative Study.
  Journal of medical Internet research 2015 Tieu L, Sarkar U, Schillinger D, Ralston JD, Ratanawongsa N, Pasick R, Lyles CR
• Reach and Validity of an Objective Medication Adherence Measure Among Safety Net Health Plan Members with Diabetes: A Cross-Sectional Study.
  Journal of managed care & specialty pharmacy 2015 Ratanawongsa N, Karter AJ, Quan J, Parker MM, Handley M, Sarkar U, Schmittdiel JA, Schillinger D
• Disclosure of complementary health approaches among low income and racially diverse safety net patients with diabetes.
  Patient education and counseling 2015 Chao MT, Handley MA, Quan J, Sarkar U, Ratanawongsa N, Schillinger D
• Automated Telephone Self-Management Support for Diabetes in a Low-Income Health Plan: A Health Care Utilization and Cost Analysis.
  Population health management 2015 Quan J, Lee AK, Handley MA, Ratanawongsa N, Sarkar U, Tseng S, Schillinger D
• A Skills-Based Curriculum for Teaching Motivational Interviewing-Enhanced Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) to Medical Residents.
  MedEdPORTAL 2015 Soraya Azari, Neda Ratanawongsa, Jennifer Hettema, Caroline Cangelosi, Matt Tierney, Diana Coffa, Brad Shapiro, Sharad Jain, David Hersh, Jennifer Manuel, Daniel Ciccarone, Paula Lum
• Patient trust in physician influences colorectal cancer screening in low-income patients.
  American journal of preventive medicine 2014 Gupta S, Brenner AT, Ratanawongsa N, Inadomi JM
• Disclosure of Complementary and Alternative Medicine Use Among Diverse Safety Net Patients with Diabetes.
  Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 2014 Maria T. Chao, Margaret Handley, Judy Quan, Urmimala Sarkar, Neda Ratanawongsa, Dean Schillinger
• Diabetes health information technology innovation to improve quality of life for health plan members in urban safety net.
  The Journal of ambulatory care management 2014 Ratanawongsa N, Handley MA, Sarkar U, Quan J, Pfeifer K, Soria C, Schillinger D
• Ethnically diverse patients' perceptions of clinician computer use in a safety-net clinic.
  Journal of health care for the poor and underserved 2013 Ratanawongsa N, Barton JL, Schillinger D, Yelin EH, Hettema JE, Lum PJ
• A multicenter study of physician mindfulness and health care quality.
  Annals of family medicine 2013 Beach MC, Roter D, Korthuis PT, Epstein RM, Sharp V, Ratanawongsa N, Cohn J, Eggly S, Sankar A, Moore RD, Saha S
• Safety events during an automated telephone self-management support intervention.
  Journal of diabetes science and technology 2013 Lyles CR, Schillinger D, Lopez A, Handley M, Ratanawongsa N, Sarkar U
• Clinician stress and patient-clinician communication in HIV care.
  Journal of general internal medicine 2012 Ratanawongsa N, Korthuis PT, Saha S, Roter D, Moore RD, Sharp VL, Beach MC
• A cross-sectional study of barriers to personal health record use among patients attending a safety-net clinic.
  PloS one 2012 Hilton JF, Barkoff L, Chang O, Halperin L, Ratanawongsa N, Sarkar U, Leykin Y, Muñoz RF, Thom DH, Kahn JS
• Quasi-experimental trial of diabetes Self-Management Automated and Real-Time Telephonic Support (SMARTSteps) in a Medicaid managed care plan: study protocol.
  BMC health services research 2012 Ratanawongsa N, Handley MA, Quan J, Sarkar U, Pfeifer K, Soria C, Schillinger D
• Getting under the skin of clinical inertia in insulin initiation: the Translating Research Into Action for Diabetes (TRIAD) Insulin Starts Project.
  The Diabetes educator 2012 Ratanawongsa N, Crosson JC, Schillinger D, Karter AJ, Saha CK, Marrero DG
• What patients say about their doctors online: a qualitative content analysis.
  Journal of general internal medicine 2012 López A, Detz A, Ratanawongsa N, Sarkar U
• A SBIRT curriculum for medical residents: development of a performance feedback tool to build learner confidence.
  Substance abuse 2012 Hettema JE, Ratanawongsa N, Manuel JK, Ciccarone D, Coffa D, Jain S, Lum PJ
• Primary care provider perceptions of the effectiveness of two self-management support programs for vulnerable patients with diabetes.
  Journal of diabetes science and technology 2012 Ratanawongsa N, Bhandari VK, Handley M, Rundall T, Hammer H, Schillinger D
• The Johns Hopkins Aliki Initiative: A Patient-centered Curriculum for Internal Medicine Residents.
  MedEdPORTAL 2012 Laura Hanyok, Lynsey Brandt, Colleen Christmas, David Hellmann, Cynthia Rand, Neda Ratanawongsa, Janet Record, Roy Ziegelstein
• Effects of a focused patient-centered care curriculum on the experiences of internal medicine residents and their patients.
  Journal of general internal medicine 2011 Ratanawongsa N, Federowicz MA, Christmas C, Hanyok LA, Record JD, Hellmann DB, Ziegelstein RC, Rand CS
• Adherence to Colorectal Cancer Screening Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Low-Income Patients – Does Patient-Provider Language Concordance Matter?.
  Gastroenterology 2011 Jennifer T. Chang, Alicia Fernandez, Jennifer P. Thomas, Neda Ratanawongsa, Roxana Munoz, Yunghui Lin, Chim Lau, Hal F. Yee, John M. Inadomi
• A video-intervention to improve clinician attitudes toward patients with sickle cell disease: the results of a randomized experiment.
  Journal of general internal medicine 2010 Haywood C, Lanzkron S, Hughes MT, Brown R, Massa M, Ratanawongsa N, Beach MC
• Problematic hospital experiences among adult patients with sickle cell disease.
  Journal of health care for the poor and underserved 2010 Lattimer L, Haywood C, Lanzkron S, Ratanawongsa N, Bediako SM, Beach MC
• Challenges in primary care relationships: seeing it from both sides.
  Patient education and counseling 2010 Ratanawongsa N, Wright SM, Vargo EM, Carrese JA
• Religious coping and hospital admissions among adults with sickle cell disease.
  Journal of behavioral medicine 2010 Bediako SM, Lattimer L, Haywood C, Ratanawongsa N, Lanzkron S, Beach MC
• Race, ethnicity, and shared decision making for hyperlipidemia and hypertension treatment: the DECISIONS survey.
  Medical decision making : an international journal of the Society for Medical Decision Making 2010 Ratanawongsa N, Zikmund-Fisher BJ, Couper MP, Van Hoewyk J, Powe NR
• Hospital self-discharge among adults with sickle-cell disease (SCD): associations with trust and interpersonal experiences with care.
  Journal of hospital medicine 2010 Haywood C, Lanzkron S, Ratanawongsa N, Bediako SM, Lattimer-Nelson L, Beach MC
• The association of provider communication with trust among adults with sickle cell disease.
  Journal of general internal medicine 2010 Haywood C, Lanzkron S, Ratanawongsa N, Bediako SM, Lattimer L, Powe NR, Beach MC
• Patient factors associated with following a relocated primary care provider among older adults.
  The American journal of managed care 2009 Gozu A, Nidiry MA, Ratanawongsa N, Carrese JA, Wright SM
• Health care provider attitudes toward patients with acute vaso-occlusive crisis due to sickle cell disease: development of a scale.
  Patient education and counseling 2009 Ratanawongsa N, Haywood C, Bediako SM, Lattimer L, Lanzkron S, Hill PM, Powe NR, Beach MC
• Teaching residents to know their patients as individuals. The Aliki Initiative at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.
  The Pharos of Alpha Omega Alpha-Honor Medical Society. Alpha Omega Alpha 2009 Ratanawongsa N, Rand CS, Magill CF, Hayashi J, Brandt L, Christmas C, Record JD, Howell EE, Federowicz MA, Hellmann DB, Ziegelstein RC
• Providers' perceptions of relationships and professional roles when caring for patients who leave the hospital against medical advice.
  Journal of general internal medicine 2008 Windish DM, Ratanawongsa N
• Physician burnout and patient-physician communication during primary care encounters.
  Journal of general internal medicine 2008 Ratanawongsa N, Roter D, Beach MC, Laird SL, Larson SM, Carson KA, Cooper LA
• Well-being in residency: effects on relationships with patients, interactions with colleagues, performance, and motivation.
  Patient education and counseling 2008 Ratanawongsa N, Wright SM, Carrese JA
• The reported validity and reliability of methods for evaluating continuing medical education: a systematic review.
  Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges 2008 Ratanawongsa N, Thomas PA, Marinopoulos SS, Dorman T, Wilson LM, Ashar BH, Magaziner JL, Miller RG, Prokopowicz GP, Qayyum R, Bass EB
• Well-being in residency: a time for temporary imbalance?
  Medical education 2007 Ratanawongsa N, Wright SM, Carrese JA
• Effectiveness of continuing medical education.
  Evidence report/technology assessment 2007 Marinopoulos SS, Dorman T, Ratanawongsa N, Wilson LM, Ashar BH, Magaziner JL, Miller RG, Thomas PA, Prokopowicz GP, Qayyum R, Bass EB
• Residents' perceptions of professionalism in training and practice: barriers, promoters, and duty hour requirements.
  Journal of general internal medicine 2006 Ratanawongsa N, Bolen S, Howell EE, Kern DE, Sisson SD, Larriviere D
• Association between higher mental well-being and residents' capacity for empathy.
  Journal of general internal medicine 2006 Ratanawongsa N, Wright SM, Levine RB
• What motivates physicians throughout their careers in medicine?
  Comprehensive therapy 2006 Ratanawongsa N, Howell EE, Wright SM
• Promoting humanistic care in the house staff continuity clinic.
  Medical education 2005 Ratanawongsa N, Kern DE, Barker LR
• Third-year medical students' experiences with dying patients during the internal medicine clerkship: a qualitative study of the informal curriculum.
  Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges 2005 Ratanawongsa N, Teherani A, Hauer KE