Lutfiyya to focus on the links between interprofessional practice and education and the Triple Aim

The National Center has appointed Nawal Lutfiyya, PhD, FACE as a senior research scientist, focusing on interprofessional practice and education and the impact it can have on the Triple Aim of improving the patient experience, improving health in populations and reducing the per capita cost of health care.

Dr. Lutfiyya comes to the National Center from Essentia Health’s Institute of Rural Health in Duluth, MN, where she was a senior research scientist. In that position, she worked on evaluating a redesigned interprofessional approach to primary care and chronic disease management (diabetes, asthma and depression) in rural communities. She also held faculty positions at the University of Minnesota in the department of family medicine and community health and in the department of pharmacy practice and pharmaceutical science. Those appointments will continue with Dr. Lutfiyya’s new responsibilities.

Additionally, Dr. Lutfiyya developed and currently directs a longitudinal research fellowship for ambulatory care and acute care PGY-1 PharmD residents and a longitudinal evidence-based medicine and research curriculum for family medicine residents. She also directs an interprofessional faculty research fellowship.

In 2012 Dr. Lutfiyya was elected a fellow in the American College of Epidemiology as recognition for significant and sustained contributions to the discipline of epidemiology.  She has also been the recipient of an Alpha Omega Alpha (medical student honors society) clinical teaching award.

According to Barbara Brandt, PhD, director of the National Center, “Nawal Lutfiyya is one of the few researchers in the nation to hold positions throughout her career with responsibilities both in academic health and also practice with a public health focus. This dual expertise will contribute significantly to the National Center’s work to transform health care delivery.”

Dr. Lutfiyya has extensive experience using data from electronic health records and other large databases to support primary care practice redesign. Dr. Brandt continued, “Nawal’s unique skill set is essential to uncovering what really works in practice, so we can design interprofessional learning systems that advance the Triple Aim of better care, better health and lower costs.”

Previously she held appointments with the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority as a senior epidemiologist and the University of Illinois-Chicago College of Medicine at Rockford where she was the director of research for the department of family and community medicine. 

Dr. Lutfiyya is a chronic disease epidemiologist who holds a PhD from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She took her undergraduate training in sociology and social psychology at the University of Manitoba and has a master’s in social psychology from the University of Iowa. In addition, she has completed both post-doctoral and fellowship training.

Accepting the new position, Dr. Lutfiyya commented, “The most exciting work taking place in health care reform is in the nexus of academic training and health system practice. The National Center is at the forefront of this movement.”