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:

• Piatt GA, Valerio MA, Nwankwo R, Lucas SM, Funnell MM: Health Literacy Among Insulin-Taking African Americans: A Need for Tailored Intervention in Clinical Practice. The Diabetes educator 40(2): 240-246, 2014. PM24414002
• Piatt GA, Seidel MC, Powell RO, Zgibor JC: Comparative effectiveness of lifestyle intervention efforts in the community: Results of the rethinking eating and ACTivity (REACT) study Diabetes Care 36(2): 202-209, 2013. PM22966092
• Piatt GA, Seidel MC, Chen HY, Powell RO, Zgibor JC: Two-Year Results of Translating the Diabetes Prevention Program Into an Urban, Underserved Community Diabetes Educ 38(6): 798-804, 2012. PM22968220
• Funnell MM, Piatt GA: Diabetes quality improvement: Beyond glucose control Lancet 379(9833): 2218-2219, 2012. PM22683133
• Piatt GA, Anderson RM, Brooks MM, Songer T, Siminerio LM, Korytkowski MM, Zgibor JC: 3-year follow-up of clinical and behavioral improvements following a multifaceted diabetes care intervention: Results of a randomized controlled trial Diabetes Educ 36(2): 301-309, 2010. PM20200284
• Piatt GA, Orchard TJ, Emerson S, Simmons D, Songer TJ, Brooks MM, Korytkowski M, Siminerio LM, Ahmad U, Zgibor JC: Translating the chronic care model into the community: Results from a randomized controlled trial of a multifaceted diabetes care intervention Diabetes Care 29(4): 811-817, 2006. PM16567820