Neda Ratanawongsa

Neda Ratanawongsa, MD, MPH, is a Professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine, and a core member of the Action Research Center for Health Equity (formerly the UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations). She serves as the Chief Health Informatics Officer for the San Francisco Department of Public Health and has held interim leadership roles in the San Francisco Health Network and Laguna Honda Hospital. Her academic focus is on leveraging health informatics to improve care for underserved populations, particularly through EHR design and implementation strategies that enhance patient-clinician communication and compassionate care.

Dr. Ratanawongsa holds an MD from Harvard Medical School and an MPH from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She completed residency and chief residency in Internal Medicine at UCSF, followed by a General Internal Medicine fellowship at Johns Hopkins.

Her research emphasizes mixed methods, including implementation science and qualitative analysis, to address gaps in healthcare access and quality. Key areas include EHR usability, patient portal adoption, clinician-computer interaction, and strategies to mitigate health disparities through technology. She has led NIH-funded studies and contributed to national committees with the Society of General Internal Medicine and Academy on Communication in Healthcare.

Dr. Ratanawongsa’s work has been widely cited in peer-reviewed journals and media, addressing topics such as clinician multitasking during patient visits, trust-based care models, and the role of technology in chronic disease management. She has received the Milton W. Hamolsky Junior Faculty Award from the Society of General Internal Medicine (2008).

Her professional activities include developing curricula for medical trainees and leading initiatives to improve health IT systems in safety-net settings. She has also explored the impact of telemedicine and mHealth tools on diverse patient populations, emphasizing user-centered design principles to ensure equitable access.