Gretchen A. Piatt, MPH, PhD

Liz Rodriguiz

Dr. Gretchen Piatt is an Associate Professor in the Department of Learning Health Sciences (DLHS) in the Medical School and Health Behavior and Health Education in the School of Public Health. Dr. Piatt serves as the Associate Chair for Educational Programs in DLHS, and is the Graduate Chair for the Health Infrastructures and Learning Systems (HILS) MS/PhD program and Director of the Precision Health Graduate Certificate Program. Dr. Piatt completed her masters and doctoral training at the University of Pittsburgh in chronic disease epidemiology and is a formally trained implementation scientist.  Dr. Piatt has expertise in designing, implementing, and evaluating community interventions aimed at improving health care delivery in ethnic minority and underserved populations with diabetes.  She leads research teams that design and evaluate interventions in the primary and secondary prevention of diabetes and its complications, including implementation and evaluation of self-management support interventions in underserved communities, federally qualified health centers, and primary care. Dr. Piatt has built a national and international reputation in this area over the past fifteen years, authoring numerous publications presenting her research at national and international conferences, and serving on local, state, national, and international diabetes committees.

Dr. Gretchen Piatt teaches LHS 721: Implementation Science in Health 2.

Research and scholarly interests: health systems and health care delivery for people with and at risk for diabetes, behavioral and psychosocial aspects of diabetes prevention and management, prevention and treatment of diabetes and obesity in the primary care and community settings, implementation and dissemination science for diabetes and obesity

Subject-matter expertise: diabetes, obesity/weight reduction, cardiovascular disease, health promotion/disease prevention methodology, epidemiologic methods, randomized controlled trials, secondary analysis and large datasets, decision support, disease and care management, patient preferences, patient self-management support, community health/public health, community health education, evidence-based medicine, primary care issues, psychosocial issues in health care

Other professional highlights:  

• Over 75 publications, presentations, book chapters and/or abstracts
• Current President: Behavioral Research in Diabetes Group Exchange (BRIDGE)
• Associate Editor: BMC Health Services Research
• Editorial Board: World Journal of Diabetes, International Journal of Diabetology & Vascular Disease Research
• Advisory Board: Diabetes Therapy
• Technical Expert Panel: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's (AHRQ) Effective Health Care (EHC)
• Program Evaluation Task Force: National Diabetes Education
• Program Chair: American Diabetes Association Evaluation Subgroup
• Member, Medical School Admissions Committee
• Member, Medical School Academy for Educational Excellence and Scholarship

Selected publications:

• Hawkins, J., Sengupta, S., Kloss, K., Kurnick, K., Ewen, A., Nwankwo, R., . . . Piatt, G. (n.d.). Michigan men’s diabetes project II: protocol for peer-led diabetes self-management education and long-term support in Black men. PLoS ONE. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9980828/
• Heisler, M., Simmons, D., & Piatt, G. A. (2021). Update on Approaches to Improve Delivery and Quality of Care for People with Diabetes. Endocrinology and Metabolism Clinics of North America, 50(3), e1-e20. doi:10.1016/j.ecl.2021.07.010. https://researchdirect.westernsydney.edu.au/islandora/object/uws%3A66077
• Schmittdiel, J. A., Adams, A. S., Haire-Joshu, D., Heisler, M., Piatt, G. A., Ackermann, R., . . . Brega, A. G. (2022). The Women’s Leadership Gap in Diabetes: A Call for Equity and Excellence. Diabetes Care 2021;44:1734–1743. Diabetes Care, 45(5), e97-ee98. doi:10.2337/DC21-2178. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35561138/

A list of all publications can be found here.