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Christine Timko, Ph.D.
Stanford University School of Medicine
VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, CA
Research Interests: Behavioral Medicine, Mental Health, Patient-Centered Care, Program Evaluation, Rural Telehealth, Substance Use, Criminal Justice
Dr. Christine Timko is a VA HSR&D Senior Research Career Scientist, an Investigator in the Center for Innovation to Implementation (Ci2i) at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System, and Consulting Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Timko's research focuses on the quality of care for patients with substance use and/or mental health disorders. She has implemented and validated guidelines to help providers facilitate the use of peer-based resources by substance use disorder and dual diagnosis patients. She also developed and evaluated telehealth interventions for psychiatry and detoxification inpatients to successfully transition to continuing care after discharge. Dr. Timko is extending these methods to facilitate the transitions of medical inpatients, and veterans with criminal justice involvement, to substance abuse and other mental health treatment within primary and specialty care settings. In addition to research, Dr. Timko serves as a mentor to VA and university trainees, a reviewer for national and international funders of health services research, and a member of VA management and oversight committees. She holds editorial positions for leading substance abuse journals, and is an invited speaker at national and international substance abuse and mental health research conferences.
