Karin M. Nelson MD, MSHS

Karin (“Kari”) Nelson, MD, MSHS, is a general internist and health services researcher at the VA Puget Sound Health Care System. She is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington (UW) School of Medicine, an Adjunct Professor at the UW School of Public Health, and a core investigator at the Seattle Health Services Research & Development (HSR&D) Center of Innovation (COIN).
Dr. Nelson is the director of the Primary Care Analytics Team (PCAT) for the VHA’s Office of Primary Care. As an investigator for the PACT national evaluation, she won the 2015 VHA HSR&D’s Best Research Paper of the Year Award for Nelson, et al. “Implementation of the Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA)” published in JAMA Internal Medicine. Her primary research focus is on improving disease self-management, focusing on peer support interventions. She actively mentors many junior faculty and is Co-Director of the MD fellowship program in the Seattle HSR&D COIN. She is a primary care physician at the VA Puget Sound. Dr. Nelson received her medical degree from the University of Minnesota, and her Master's in Health Services from UCLA.