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Steven Dobscha, M.D
Oregon Health & Science University
Portland VA Medical Center, Portland, OR
Research Interests: Depression, Healthcare Informatics, Mental Health, Patient-Centered Care, Suicide, Pain
Dr. Steven Dobscha is a board-certified staff psychiatrist at the Portland VA Medical Center, Professor of Psychiatry at Oregon Health & Science University, and Director of a VA HSR&D-funded Center of Innovation (COIN) entitled Center to Improve Veteran Involvement in Care (CIVIC). His research focuses on topics that are highly relevant to the care of Veterans including chronic pain, prescription opioid use, suicide prevention, and patient-centered care. Dr. Dobscha has conducted several projects focused on improving care and clinical decision-making in primary care settings, including randomized clinical trials of collaborative interventions for depression and chronic pain. In more recent studies, he has examined the administration and outcomes of suicidal ideation assessments being routinely conducted in VA care settings and the VA primary care received by Veterans prior to suicide. He is also examining impacts of Veteran electronic access to mental health progress notes (VA Open Notes) and partnering with the Technology and Telehealth (T2) group in Puget Sound to examine effectiveness of a new smartphone app in reducing suicidal thoughts; this study is funded by the Military Research Consortium. Finally, Dr. Dobscha is continuing his work investigating pain among a national cohort of Veterans via a National Institute of Aging study examining correlates and improvements in Veteran pain scores over time.
