HSR Welcomes Kristina Cordasco, MD, MPH, as Acting Director

Dr. Kristina Cordasco has been appointed Acting Director of Health Systems Research, effective January 13, 2025. Before serving as Acting Director of HSR, Dr. Cordasco was a Core Investigator and Director for Health Informatics Research for the VA HSR Center for the Study of Healthcare Innovation, Implementation, and Policy (CSHIIP) in the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System. Dr. Cordasco is also an internal medicine physician (hospitalist) at the VA Greater Los Angeles and Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

Dr. Cordasco' s expertise includes researching, evaluating, and implementing evidence-based practices in the organization and coordination of care across patient transitions, including care coordination following emergency department (ED) visits and hospital discharge, between specialists and primary care, and between VA and non-VA providers. She also has expertise in conducting partnered-based research, evaluation, and implementation. Most recently, Dr. Cordasco founded and led the VA LEARN QUERI Evidence-Based Policy Evaluation Center, which partners with VA national leaders to conduct time-sensitive, rigorous, and responsive national evaluations to influence continual improvements in VA policies and programs. She was also one of three principal investigators leading the Housing Transitions QUERI program, which is implementing and evaluating, across 32 sites, Critical Time Intervention, an evidence-based case management practice for supporting transitions among homeless-experienced Veterans. Previously, she developed, implemented, formatively evaluated, and spread the ED-PACT Tool-which facilitates communication between VA ED and primary care teams for Veterans with urgent or specific post-ED care needs-as well as VA's Maternity Care Coordinator Telephone Care Program. Dr. Cordasco is Co-Director for the VA/SGIM Partnered Research Training Program, which provides junior investigators with foundational knowledge and skills for engaging healthcare operations and policy leaders when conducting research and evaluation projects. Her past research focused on care for women Veterans, virtual care, and the impacts of VA's Electronic Health Record Modernization.

Dr. Cordasco is originally from Southern California. She received her BS in Biology and BA in Economics from Chapman University, her MPH from The Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, her MD from The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and her MSHS from the University of California, Los Angeles. She completed her internal medicine residency at the University of California, San Francisco, and was a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at UCLA. In 2022, she obtained certification in Clinical Informatics through the American Board of Preventive Medicine.