Kirsten E Austad, MD MPH
Assistant Professor, Family Medicine
Biography
Kirsten Austad MD MPH is a hospitalist at Boston Medical Center and Assistant Professor of Family Medicine. She completed a fellowship in global women’s health at Brigham and Women’s Hospital which supported her work to improve delivery of reproductive health care in rural indigenous Maya communities of Guatemala in collaboration with a local NGO. After serving as the inpatient Family Medicine lead for the COVID pandemic response at BMC, she served as Medical Director for the HealthNet Inpatient Family Medicine service until shifting her focus toward research. After completing a fellowship in the Evans Center for Implementation & Improvement Sciences (CIIS) at Boston University she was named Co-Associate Director of the Center.
Her research uses implementation science to promote health equity and improve patient experience in safety-net settings, with a particular focus in patients with a non-English language preference (NELP). She has methodological expertise in qualitative methods, conducting research with marginalized populations with NELP, and intervention adaptation. Content areas of interest include improving the hospital discharge process for patients with NELP.
She is supported by a K23 from NIMHD to adapt a transitional care intervention for patients with NELP. She was also the PI of the TIDE pilot trial funded by BMC’s Health Equity Accelerator, which tested a package of language-concordant discharge teaching tools for patients with NELP.
Education
- Harvard Medical School, MD
- Harvard School of Public Health, MPH
- University of Wisconsin Madison, BS
Publications
- Published on 5/21/2024
Silver SR, Jones KC, Hook K, Crable EL, George ER, Serwint JR, Austad K, Walkey A, Drainoni ML. Defining the transition from new to normal: a qualitative investigation of the clinical change process. Res Sq. 2024 May 21. PMID: 38826210.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 1/5/2024
Fantasia KL, Austad K, Mohanty A, Long MT, Walkey A, Drainoni ML. Safety-Net Primary Care and Endocrinology Clinicians' Knowledge and Perspectives on Screening for Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: A Mixed-Methods Evaluation. Endocr Pract. 2024 Mar; 30(3):270-277. PMID: 38184239.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 10/3/2023
Austad, K. & Jack, B. W. . Linguistic and Cultural Competence at Hospital Discharge . Journal of Healthcare Management Standards (JHMS). 2023; 1(3):1-6.
Read at: Custom - Published on 10/3/2023
Jack, B. W., Austad, K., Renfro, D. R., & Mitchell, S. Re-Engineering the Hospital Discharge to Improve the Transition From Hospital to Home: Overview and a Look to the Future. Journal of Healthcare Management Standards (JHMS). 2023; 1(3):1-17.
Read at: Custom - Published on 5/2/2023
Jones KC, Austad K, Silver S, Cordova-Ramos EG, Fantasia KL, Perez DC, Kremer K, Wilson S, Walkey A, Drainoni ML. Patient Perspectives of the Hospital Discharge Process: A Qualitative Study. J Patient Exp. 2023; 10:23743735231171564. PMID: 37151607.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 5/26/2022
Chary A, Hawkins J, Flood D, Martinez B, Colom M, Austad K. Medical students' experiences of compulsory rural service in Guatemala: a qualitative study. Rural Remote Health. 2022 May; 22(2):6582. PMID: 35617739.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 8/2/2021
Juarez M, Austad K, Rohloff P. Out-of-Pocket Costs for Facility-Based Obstetrical Care in Rural Guatemala. Ann Glob Health. 2021; 87(1):75. PMID: 34430225.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 7/13/2021
Perry MF, Coyote EI, Austad K, Rohloff P. Why women choose to to seek facility-level obstetrical care in rural Guatemala: A qualitative study. Midwifery. 2021 Dec; 103:103097. PMID: 34343832.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 6/11/2021
Austad K, Juarez M, Shryer H, Hibberd PL, Drainoni ML, Rohloff P, Chary A. Improving the experience of facility-based delivery for vulnerable women through obstetric care navigation: a qualitative evaluation. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. 2021 Jun 11; 21(1):425. PMID: 34116648.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 6/11/2021
Austad K, Barnett KG, Manasseh C. Family Medicine's Critical Role in Building and Sustaining the Future of Hospital Medicine. Fam Med. 2021 07; 53(7):520-523. PMID: 34289497.
Read at: PubMed
View 30 more publications: View full profile at BUMC