Biography
Dr. Katherine Gergen Barnett is the Vice Chair of Primary Care Innovation and Transformation in the Department of Family Medicine at Boston Medical Center (BMC), an Associate Professor at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, a recent Associate at Harvard’s Center for Primary Care, and a Health Innovators Fellow at the Aspen Institute, a highly competitive fellowship that catalyzes leaders to improve US health care.
Prior to joining BMC in 2009, Dr. Gergen Barnett attended Yale University School of Medicine, worked at the National Institutes of Health, and completed a fellowship studying a model of group prenatal care for women in low-income communities. At BMC, she has served in multiple leadership roles including as a chief resident, Director of Integrative Medicine, Medical Director, Residency Director, and Vice Chair.
Dr. Gergen Barnett has been on the front lines of full scope primary care for over twenty years, where her primary clinical interests are behavioral health, preventive medicine, trauma informed care, women’s health, reproductive care, post incarceration medicine, and group medical care.
Dr. Gergen Barnett’s research career has been focused on innovative models of care to address chronic medical conditions, physician burnout, and engaging community partners in creating feasible solutions to increase health and wellness and to address medical distrust in traditionally marginalized communities. She has served as a PI and co-PI on multiple grants, including a MassHealth grant to create and evaluate addiction training for family medicine residents, a Pfizer grant to study the efficacy of Paxlovid in high risk children, a CTSI grant to evaluate best practices for hospital based youth advisory boards, a PCORI grant to create and evaluate integrative medicine group visits for chronic pain, and an NIH grant to study the efficacy of restorative justice and storytelling on healing medical mistrust.
Finally, Dr. Gergen Barnett is involved in local and state health policy addressing health inequities, national policy addressing primary care delivery, a frequent commentator in local and national media, and an accomplished writer whose op-eds and scholarship highlight solutions to some of the most pressing challenges in American health care. Her work is grounded in advancing equity, rebuilding trust in medicine, and ensuring that primary care remains a cornerstone of a healthier, more just future.