Kottke, Thomas E., MD, MSPH
Senior Investigator and Medical Director for Well-Being

Positions

Sr. Research Investigator , Health and well-being
Senior Research Investigator, Community and population health 2004 -

HealthPartners titles: Cardiologist and epidemiologist, medical director for well-being for the health plan

Academic appointment: Professor, Department of Medicine, University of Minnesota

Other offices: Consultant to the World Health Organization (WHO) on the prevention and management of chronic diseases, member of the faculty of the WHO’s noncommunicable disease-prevention course.

Joined the Institute: 2004

Education and training: MD, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis; MSPH, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; postdoctoral training, University of Minnesota.

Overview/research interests: Building community-based heart disease-prevention programs; 204 peer-reviewed papers, 3 books, 41 book chapters and 40 invited editorials. Member of both the first US Preventive Services Task Force and the federal panels that authored evidence-based guidelines for treating tobacco dependence (issued by the US Public Health Service in June 2000 and by the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research in 1996). While professor of medicine at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, Minn., he developed and directed CardioVision 2020, a project to make Olmsted County, Minn. the healthiest county in the country by 2020. He also helped build the Southeastern Minnesota Women’s Health Project to increase screening rates for breast and cervical cancer.

Interests include measuring and promoting well-being, addressing the social determinants of health, delivery of preventive services and prevention of chronic diseases through lifestyle interventions.

Current research activities and funding:

Creating a measurable definition of health and well-being to permit measurement of the Triple Aim performance
Promoting population well-being through lifestyle interventions directed at nutrition, physical activity, abstinence from tobacco, prudent use of alcohol, sleep and healthy thinking
Designing office systems to improve the care of patients with chronic conditions

Publications

Publications

selected publications

Journal Article
- Comparison of medical school financing plans among matriculating US medical students from 2017 to 2019. JAMA network open. 2021
- Cultural and structural features of zero-burnout primary care practices. Health Affairs. 2021
- Impact of demographic survey questions on response rate and measurement: a randomized experiment. Survey Practice. 2021
- It's important to hear and learn from youth experiencing homelessness in the Twin Cities. MinnPost. 2021
- It’s important to hear and learn from youth experiencing homelessness in the Twin Cities. MinnPost. 2021
- Promoting the public's health with personal commitment and gun safety policies. Creative Nursing. 2021
- A strategy to promote population-wide life satisfaction while advancing equity. American Journal of Managed Care. 2020
- A behavioural economics approach to improving healthy food selection among food pantry clients. Public Health Nutrition. 2019
- Responses to a social media campaign promoting safe fish consumption among women. Preventing Chronic Disease. 2019
- The health and well-being of an ACO population. American Journal of Managed Care. 2019
- The predicted impact of adopting health-promoting behaviors on disease burden in a commercially insured population. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. 2019
- Validating a method to assess disease burden from insurance claims. American Journal of Managed Care. 2019
- Burnout among physicians, advanced practice clinicians and staff in smaller primary care practices. Journal of General Internal Medicine. 2018
- Healthy nutrition and dietary considerations for the workplace. ACSMs Health Fitness J. 2018
- Piquing their “Pinterest”: a qualitative study to format and deliver complex fish consumption guidelines to women who are or could become pregnant 2018
- Use and customization of risk scores for predicting cardiovascular events using electronic health record data. Journal of the American Heart Association. 2017
- "Well-Being in All Policies": promoting cross-sectoral collaboration to improve people's lives. Preventing Chronic Disease. 2016
- Concordance between life satisfaction and six elements of well-being among respondents to a health assessment survey, HealthPartners Employees, Minnesota, 2011. Preventing Chronic Disease. 2016
- Modeled health and economic impact of team-based care for hypertension. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 2016
- New summary measures of population health and well-being for implementation by health plans and accountable care organizations. Preventing Chronic Disease. 2016
- Proton pump inhibitor use by aspirin-treated coronary artery disease patients is not associated with increased risk of cardiovascular events. European heart journal. Cardiovascular pharmacotherapy. 2016
- The financial impact of team-based care on primary care. American Journal of Managed Care. 2016
- Using principles of complex adaptive systems to implement secondary prevention of coronary heart disease in primary care. The Permanente journal. 2016
- A qualitative study of processes used to implement evidence-based care in a primary care practice. Family Practice. 2015
- Persistence of smoking-cessation decision support use in a dental practice. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 2015
- Honoring choices Minnesota: preliminary data from a community-wide advance care planning model. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. 2014
- Lipid abnormalities in foreign-born and US-born patients in a medical group. Journal of Clinical Lipidology. 2014
- An algorithm that identifies coronary and heart failure events in the electronic health record. Preventing Chronic Disease. 2013
- Leveraging lifestyle medicine and social policy to extend the triple aim from the clinic into the community. American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine. 2013
- Meeting the million hearts goal. Minnesota Medicine. 2013
- Simple rules that reduce hospital readmission. The Permanente journal. 2013
- The effect of price reduction on salad bar purchases at a corporate cafeteria. Preventing Chronic Disease. 2013
- Accuracy of heart disease prevalence estimated from claims data compared with an electronic health record. Preventing Chronic Disease. 2012
- The simple health system rules that create value. Preventing Chronic Disease. 2012
- Adherence to optimal lifestyle behaviors is related to emotional health indicators among employees. Population health management. 2011
- Five payment models: the pros, the cons, the potential. Minnesota Medicine. 2011
- Identifying opportunities for a medical group to improve outcomes for patients with coronary artery disease and heart failure: an exploratory study. The Permanente journal. 2011
- The need for social epidemiology: now as much as ever. Annals of Epidemiology. 2011
- The predicted impact of heart disease prevention and treatment initiatives on mortality in Lithuania, a middle-income country. Preventing Chronic Disease. 2011
- Measuring health care access and quality to improve health in populations. Preventing Chronic Disease. 2010
- Reasons for not meeting coronary artery disease targets of care in ambulatory practice. The Permanente journal. 2010
- The association between optimal lifestyle adherence and short-term incidence of chronic conditions among employees. Population health management. 2010
- Does prevention save money?. Health Affairs. 2009
- Physical activity promotion as a strategic corporate priority to improve worker health and business performance. Preventive Medicine. 2009
- Preventing and managing cardiometabolic risk: the logic for intervention. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2009
- Readiness of US health plans to manage cardiometabolic risk. Preventing Chronic Disease. 2009
- Taking on the social determinants of health: a framework for action. Minnesota Medicine. 2009
- The comparative effectiveness of heart disease prevention and treatment strategies. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 2009
- Optimizing practice through research: a new perspective to solve an old problem. Annals of Family Medicine. 2008
- Partnering care delivery and research to optimize health. Clinical Medicine & Research. 2008
- Preventing chronic disease risk factors: rationale and feasibility. Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania). 2008
- Optimizing practice through research: a preventive services case study. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 2007
- CardioVision 2020: program acceptance and progress after 4 years. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 2006
- Physical activity optimizing practice through research. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 2006
- Preventing sudden death with n-3 (omega-3) fatty acids and defibrillators. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 2006
- Obesity: another wolf at the door?. Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology. 2004
- Variation in clinical preventive services. Effective Clinical Practice. 2001
- Failure of a continuous quality improvement intervention to increase the delivery of preventive services. A randomized trial. Effective Clinical Practice. 2000
- Improving prevention is difficult. Effective Clinical Practice. 2000
- Lessons from experienced guideline implementers: attend to many factors and use multiple strategies. Joint Commission Journal on Quality Improvement. 2000
Editorial Article
- Gun laws: enough is enough [editorial] 2021
- Heart disease and stroke: down, but not out [editorial]. Lancet Reg Health Eur. 7. 2021
- Multiples of median income: a tool to call out drugs that are high cost and low value [editorial]. The Permanente journal. 24. 2020
- Access to affordable housing promotes health and well-being and reduces hospital visits [editorial]. The Permanente journal. 22. 2018
- Philanthropy and beyond: creating shared value to promote well-being for individuals in their communities [editorial]. The Permanente journal. 21. 2017
- Strategies to prioritize clinical options in primary care [editorial]. Annals of Family Medicine. 15. 2017
- Counterpoint: Teamwork is the best medicine, not "autonomy" [editorial] 2016
- Here's how we can end extortionate drug price increases. Runaway medication costs are the fastest-growing driver of health-care expenses [editorial] 2016
- A paradox of well-being [editorial] 2015
- A commentary on: "Comparative health systems research among Kaiser Permanente and other integrated delivery systems: a systematic literature review" [editorial]. The Permanente journal. 18. 2014
- Prevent the next generation of nicotine addiction [editorial] 2014
- The adoption of quality indicators [editorial]. Health Affairs. 33. 2014
- Four opportunities to prevent diabetes and coronary heart disease [editorial]. Diabetes Spectrum. 26. 2013
- Optimizing the health of mothers, infants, and communities through research [editorial]. Mayo Clinic Proceedings. 88. 2013
- Reversing the slide in US health outcomes and deteriorating health care economics [editorial]. Mayo Clinic Proceedings. 88. 2013
Chapter
- Case study: the power of community in population health: PowerUp for kids. Population health: creating a culture of wellness. 2015
- Causation of common cardiovascular problems. AMA guides to the evaluation of diseases and injury causation. 2013
- Health promotion in health systems. Lifestyle medicine. 2013
Conference Poster
Review
- Obesity treatment at HealthPartners: adaptation of clinical guidelines into systems for practice operations [review] 2016
- Clinical decision support systems and prevention: a Community Guide cardiovascular disease systematic review [review]. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 2015
- Economics of team-based care in controlling blood pressure: a Community Guide systematic review [review, systematic review]. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 2015
- Reducing medication costs to prevent cardiovascular disease: a community guide systematic review [review]. Preventing Chronic Disease. 2015
- Team-based care and improved blood pressure control: a Community Guide systematic review [review, systematic review]. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 2014
Abstract
- Implementation of an electronic dental record tool to increase referrals to a tobacco counseling quit line [abstract]. Implementation science. 2015
- Aspirin decision support using data-driven treatment algorithms [abstract]. Clinical Medicine & Research. 2013
Audio-Visual Document
- Preventing heart disease 2014
Document
Working Paper
- Philanthropy and beyond: Creating shared value to promote well-being for individuals in their communities [discussion paper] 2017
- Well-being in all policies: promoting cross-sectoral collaboration to improve people's lives [discussion paper] 2016

presentations

Presentation