Lars E. Peterson MD, PhD

Dr. Lars Peterson, MD, Ph.D. is a family physician and health services researcher who serves as Vice President of Research for the American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM). He also has an appointment as an Associate Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Kentucky, where he provides direct clinical care and teaches students and residents. Dr. Peterson, a native of Utah, received his medical and graduate degrees from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, and completed his family medicine residency at the Trident/Medical University of South Carolina family medicine residency program.

Dr. Peterson leads a research team focused on elucidating the outcomes of Family Medicine Certification, in particular the impact that certification activities have on the quality of care delivered by family physicians. Additionally, Dr. Peterson and his team seek to understand the ecology of family medicine over time what physicians do in practice, and their contribution to high-quality health care. His personal research interests also include investigating associations between area-level measures of health care and socioeconomics with both health and access to health care, rural health, primary care, and comprehensiveness of primary care. Dr. Peterson has authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications and made over 100 national/international conference presentations.