Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion

Profile

S. Ryan Greysen, MD, MHS, SFHM, is a hospitalist with unique training in social sciences and health services research focused on outcomes of care and interventions to maximize the health and independence of older adults during and after hospitalization. Dr. Greysen's research has focused on understanding the health, functional status, and independence of seniors using large datasets, mixed methods, and clinical trials. Another cross-cutting theme in his research is the use of novel technologies to better engage patients in their health and healthcare through platforms such as smartphones, tablets, wearable devices (activity trackers), and patient portals or personal health records that link to electronic health records.

Dr. Greysen began his career as a VA staff physician (hospitalist) at the Washington DC VAMC in 2008, then VA Fellow 2009-2011 in the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program at Yale (West Haven VAMC, Connecticut). In 2016, he was recruited to Penn as Section Chief for Hospital Medicine and in 2019 he was appointed Executive Director for the Penn Center for Evidence-based Practice which is funded by AHRQ as 1 of only 9 Evidence-to-Practice Centers (EPCs) in the US.

In 2020 Dr. Greysen returned to the VA as staff physician (hospitalist) and joined the Philadelphia VA HSR&D Center for Health Equity Research and Policy (CHERP) in 2021. His current research is funded with an NHLBI R01 and a VA Merit Award, both of which utilize gamification and social incentives to increase physical activity in vulnerable populations. The Merit award (IIR 20-120, A Randomized Trial of Behaviorally Designed Gamification and Social Incentives to Increase Physical Activity Among Overweight and Obese Veterans) will randomize Veterans to 3 arms: control vs gamification with collaboration vs gamification with competition. We will enroll Veterans from the CMC Philadelphia VAMC with over-sampling for non-White and female Veterans. In addition to the RCT, the project will conduct qualitative assessments of Veteran experiences and preference as well as cost-effectiveness analysis to enable broader implementation and scaling of the most effective components of the intervention.

In his roles as CHERP Core Investigator as well as his Penn leadership roles, Dr. Greysen is leading the development and deployment of evidence-based models of care at both Penn and VA systems and efforts to assess the impact of these models on outcomes of care. His overall career goal is to improve the care of Veterans and vulnerable, older adults by generating new evidence through rigorous trials, disseminating innovative models, and transforming practice to create age-friendly health systems.