Bradford Felker, MD

Personal Statement

Having always been interested in wholistic care, I completed a Med-Psych residency with board certification in both Internal Medicine and Psychiatry. My career has focused on integrating care to improve access to those who suffer from mental disorders. I have experience in developing, implementing, leading, and evaluating integrated Primary Care Mental Health programs. This work led to the development and national implementation of integrated care known in the VA as Primary Care Mental Health Integration (PCMHI).

At VA Puget Sound, I led a team that implemented and developed the first PCMHI program which has been rated as one of the top 10. It was through this integrated PCMHI work that I realized rural populations lacked access to mental health care and I became interested in how the emerging digital technologies could be leveraged to provide care. With the goal to improve mental health care for this population, I developed, implemented, and led the first Telemental Health Service at VA Puget Sound known as Promoting Access to Telemental Health (PATH). This program focused on implementing digital health into routine mental health care, evaluation of implementation efforts, and digital health curriculum design. PATH has been fully implemented into VA Puget Sound Mental Health Service Line.

As a researcher, I have served as a principal and co-investigator on numerous research projects that focused on the development and implementation PCMHI and Care Manager programs. More recently, my research has focused on evaluation and implementation of telemental health programs. Current work focuses on improving virtual integrated care in rural VA clinics, integrated care curricular design, evaluating mental health service delivery for the national VA Telehealth Clinical Resource Hubs, and supporting the UW Behavioral Health Institute to develop Digital Health Training programs. In addition, I am proud to serve as a Captain in the United States Navy Reserve and I am an Operation Iraqi Freedom Veteran.

Department Affiliations

Other Affiliations

University of Washington Harborview Behavioral Health Institute

Teaching Philosophy

​I take my role as a trainee supervisor very seriously. I try to embrace a training philosophy that incorporates multiple approaches to learning to include: traditional didactic, experiential, and reflective learning. I work to help the trainee approach their educational goals in such a way that they not only learn core material, but also develop confidence in their ability to become a professional who can deliver expert-level care.

Recent Publications

Successful ingredients of effective Collaborative Care programs in low- and middle-income countries: A rapid review.
(2023)
Glob Ment Health (Camb) 10(): e11
Whitfield J, Owens S, Bhat A, Felker B, Jewell T, Chwastiak L

Learning from national implementation of the Veterans Affairs Clinical Resource Hub (CRH) program for improving access to care: protocol for a six year evaluation.
(2023 Jul 25)
BMC Health Serv Res 23(1): 790
Rubenstein LV, Curtis I, Wheat CL, Grembowski DE, Stockdale SE, Kaboli PJ, Yoon J, Felker BL, Reddy AS, Nelson KM

Racial and ethnic disparities in telemental health usage among veterans.
(2023 Jun 1)
Psychol Serv
Kim JM, McCann RA, Gold SD, Felker BL

VA Outreach Is an Essential Area for Improving Veterans' Health Care Accessibility.
(2023 Feb 15)
Mil Med
Stryczek KC, Honsberger M, Ball SL, Barnard JG, Young JP, Felker B, Au DH, Ho PM, Kirsh SR, Sayre GG

Designing and Implementing TeleBehavioral Health Training to Support Rapid and Enduring Transition to Virtual Care in the COVID Era.
(2022 Dec 14)
J Technol Behav Sci
Felker BL, Towle CB, Wick IK, McKee M

Show complete publication list »
Edit Profile