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Dr. Constance Owens-Jasey is a qualitative health services researcher at OCHIN. Her research is at the intersection of health equity, implementation science, and health informatics, with a focus on community-engaged approaches. She has a particular interest in the adoption of electronic health record (EHR)-based tools to address chronic disease disparities, as well as the social risks that underlie these disparities. Her work uses implementation science to explore pragmatic approaches to improving the adoption and sustainment of EHR-based tools in community-based health settings through a health equity lens.
Constance is a co-investigator for several NIH-funded projects related to the development, implementation, and impact of clinical decision support tools targeting social risk screening and referrals, cognitive impairment risk management, and guideline-concordant cancer care in OCHIN’s network of community health organizations. As the chair of the National Cancer Institute’s Consortium for Cancer Implementation Science Technology in Implementation Science Action Group, she leads ongoing efforts to develop and disseminate evidence on how health IT can most effectively support guideline-concordant cancer care provision.
In her prior work, Constance studied primary care transformation, social care integration in community-based clinics, and health care access disparities. Her research used implementation science frameworks to explore health IT adoption to support cancer prevention in primary care, pragmatic approaches for telehealth implementation in free clinics, and the implications of integrating community resource referral platforms in community-based organizations.
During her doctoral training, Constance became the first doctoral trainee scholar of the BRIDGE-C2 (an NCI-funded Implementation Science Cancer Control Center), and currently, she serves as chair of NCI’s CCIS Technology in Implementation Science Action Group. In this role, her research involved leading a scoping review to investigate how health information technology is leveraged to promote breast, colorectal, and cervical cancer screening in primary care (currently in peer review). Data extraction was guided by the RE-AIM framework, the Integrated Technology Implementation Model, the Expert Recommendations for Implementing Change taxonomy, and Proctor et al. (2013) implementation strategy reporting domains. Her dissertation also involved two qualitative studies using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research to investigate: 1) community-based organizations’ perspectives about the adoption of community resource referral platforms technologies to help address unmet needs related to social drivers of health, and 2) a case study about telehealth implementation in the George Mason and Partner clinics during the COVID pandemic. Additionally, during her doctoral training, her work involved a qualitative assessment which examined implementation strategies that influenced the EvidenceNow (NCT03054090) initiative in primary care settings. During her graduate and doctoral studies, Constance was involved in two community-engaged projects focused on approaches to integrate health and social services among community-based providers in Arlington County, Virginia and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her contributions included qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis. Findings from these projects created new evidence to support the dissemination and implementation of clinical-community linkages in community-based settings with a focus on trauma-informed care approaches in the delivery of social service programs, integration of social risk screening in electronic health record systems and clinical workflows, community resource referral processes in clinical workflows, and community needs related to social drivers of health. During her doctoral training, Constance was involved in several studies that provide new evidence concerning unmet health care needs and access to essential health services for adults with disabilities and children with mental disorders. This research also contributed to emerging evidence about e-cigarette use and risks of respiratory conditions (i.e., asthma and COPD) in women of child-bearing age. Her contributions involved conducting multivariate regression analyses using national data sets sourced from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The research on e-cigarette use and respiratory risks in women of child-bearing age has been cited in the Black Women’s Health Imperative’s 2020-2021 National Health Policy Agenda.
Implementation science in health IT and primary care transformation
Social risk screening and referrals in safety net clinics and community-based organizations
Health care access disparities and behavioral risk factors in vulnerable populations
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