Jessica Williams

Jessica Williams
Associate Professor

Associate Professor (P), Health Services Administration , School of Health Professions 2015 -
Director, Health Services Administration , School of Health Professions 2019 -
Healthcare Management Program Director, Health Services Administration , School of Health Professions 2020 -

Overview

Jessica H. Williams, PhD, MPH is a full-time Associate Professor in the Department of Health Services Administration, School of Health Professions at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Dr. Williams holds a Ph.D. in Health Education/Health Promotion and an M.P.H. in Epidemiology, both from the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s School of Public Health. Dr. Williams has over fourteen years’ experience in health services research at UAB, with interventions focused on health disparities, improving access to healthcare, doctor-patient communication and smoking cessation. Dr. Williams’ current research interests are in the role of unconscious bias during medical encounters and its contribution to health disparities. She currently teaches Managerial Epidemiology in the undergraduate program and Essentials of Health and Human Disease (Population Health) in the master’s programs. Dr. Williams has published in over 20 peer-reviewed publications, and 29 conference proceedings. She is currently a Patient Centered Outcomes Research K12 scholar.

Selected Publications

Academic Article

Year	Title	Altmetric
2020	Secure asynchronous communication between smokers and tobacco treatment specialists: Secondary analysis of a web-assisted tobacco intervention in the QUIT-PRIMO and national dental PBRN networks. Journal of Medical Internet Research. 22. 2020
2018	Diet and exercise changes following bone densitometry in the Patient Activation After DXA Result Notification (PAADRN) study. Archives of Osteoporosis. 13. 2018
2018	Health System Affiliation and 30-Day Readmission After Heart Attack in Black Men. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 55:S22-S30. 2018
2018	Exploring Online Asynchronous Counseling With Tobacco Treatment Specialists in the QUIT-PRIMO and National Dental PBRN HI-QUIT Studies: Who Uses It and What Do They Say?. American Journal of Health Promotion. 32:1170-1177. 2018
2018	Magnetic work environments: Patient experience outcomes in Magnet versus non-Magnet hospitals. Health Care Management Review. 2018
2018	Thirty Day Hospital Readmissions after an Acute Myocardial Infarction in Black Men: Does Hospital System Affiliation Matter?. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 2018
2017	The cost of a patient activation intervention for achieving successful outcomes: results from the PAADRN randomized controlled trial. Osteoporosis International. 28:3061-3066. 2017
2017	The effects of a patient activation intervention on smoking and excessive drinking cessations: results from the PAADRN randomized controlled trial. Osteoporosis International. 28:3055-3060. 2017
2016	Exploring online cessation counseling: Qualitative analysis of Tobacco Treatment Specialist counseling delivered via a web-based platform.. American Journal of Health Promotion. 2016
2015	Narratives to enhance smoking cessation interventions among African-American smokers, the ACCE project Health Services Research567. BMC Research Notes. 8. 2015
2014	Smoking-cessation e-referrals: A national dental practice-based research network randomized controlled trial. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 46:158-165. 2014
2013	Implementing point of care "e-referrals" in 137 clinics to increase access to a quit smoking internet system: The Quit-Primo and National Dental PBRN HI-QUIT Studies. Translational Behavioral Medicine. 3:370-378. 2013
2013	Crowdsourced peer-versus expert-written smoking-cessation messages. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 45:543-550. 2013
2013	Variations in tobacco control in National Dental PBRN practices: The role of patient and practice factors 2013
2013	The PAADRN Study: A design for a randomized controlled practical clinical trial to improve bone health. Contemporary Clinical Trials. 34:90-100. 2013
2013	Who participates in web-assisted tobacco interventions? The quit-primo and national dental practice-based research network hi-quit studies. Journal of Medical Internet Research. 15. 2013
2012	Dental practice implementation of a point of care electronic referral system for patients who smoke: a dental PBRN study.. Journal of Dental Hygiene. 86:34. 2012
2011	A web-based diabetes intervention for physician: A cluster-randomized effectiveness trial. International Journal for Quality in Health Care. 23:682-689. 2011
2011	The art and science of patient Storytelling-Harnessing narrative communication for behavioral interventions: The ACCE project 2011
2011	Stories to communicate risks about tobacco: Development of a brief scale to measure transportation into a video story-The ACCE Project. Health Education Journal. 70:184-191. 2011
2011	Cognitive mapping tobacco control advice for dentistry: A dental PBRN study. American Journal of Health Behavior. 35:228-239. 2011
2011	Development of an interactive, web-delivered system to increase provider-patient engagement in smoking cessation. Journal of Medical Internet Research. 13. 2011
2011	Patient complexity and diabetes quality of care in rural settings. Journal of the National Medical Association. 103:234-240. 2011
2010	A CLUSTER-RANDOMIZED TRIAL OF A WEB-BASED PHYSICIAN INTERVENTION TO IMPROVE DIABETES CARE. Journal of General Internal Medicine. 25:206-206. 2010
2010	A stories-based interactive DVD intended to help people with hypertension achieve blood pressure control through improved communication with their doctors. Patient Education and Counseling. 79:245-250. 2010
2010	Impact of content-specific email reminders on provider participation in an online intervention. Stud Health Technol Inform. 160 (part 2):801-805. 2010
2010	Recruitment of rural physicians in a diabetes internet intervention study: Overcoming challenges and barriers. Journal of the National Medical Association. 102:101-107. 2010
2007	IMPACT OF AN INTERACTIVE DVD OF "STORIES TO COMMUNICATE RISK @ TOBACCO" ON PATIENT QUIT PLANS - A RANDOMIZED TRIAL. Annals of Behavioral Medicine. 33:S214-S214. 2007
2007	Reasons for not intensifying medications: Differentiating "clinical inertia" from appropriate care. Journal of General Internal Medicine. 22:1648-1655. 2007
1991	Pressure ulcer prevention and early treatment 1991

Research Overview

Dr. Williams is focused on building a research agenda where health outcomes are independent of race and class by addressing unconscious bias in the healthcare encounter. Specifically, her primary research interest is in understanding the role of unconscious bias in healthcare and its impact on health disparities.

Dr. Williams is a current Patient Centered Outcomes Research (PCOR) K12 scholar where is she exploring the role of perceived discrimination in hypertension management among rural African Americans. Previously, she was Principal Investigator of a project funded by the Robert Wood Johnson New Connections Program where she explored factors that influence perceived discrimination and hypertension management in urban African Americans.