Alanna Kulchak Rahm, PhD, MS

 

Dr. Rahm is a Staff Researcher in the Institute for Health Research (IHR) at Kaiser Permanente Colorado (KPCO). She has extensive experience in qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis, as well as expertise in family history and cancer genetics due her training as a genetic counselor. Her particular interests are in hereditary cancer risk communication, direct-to-consumer genetics, and translating genomic technology into clinical practice. She completed her doctoral training in Health and Behavioral Sciences in 2010 utilizing data from her study on media messages and public perception of direct-to-consumer genetic tests, funded by the Cancer Research Network (CRN) Pilot Program and for which she received an HMORN Early Career Investigator award in 2011. Within the KPCO IHR, she is involved with studies on the comparative effectiveness of KRAS testing for colorectal cancer and non-small cell lung cancer, physician barriers and intent to change from continuing medical education programs, and implementation of a web-based tool for collecting developmental questionnaires in pediatric practice. For the past eight years, she has also managed the Cancer Genetic Services Department which tracks and conducts research on all referrals for hereditary cancer risk evaluation at KPCO. She is co-chair of the CRN Family History Scientific Interest Group, which recently published a manuscript on genetic counselor perceptions of barriers to hereditary cancer risk referrals and is currently developing grant proposals to evaluate an EMR-integrated family history tool and to evaluate the effectiveness of family history on clinical outcomes.