INVESTIGATOR SPOTLIGHT: AMRITHA BHAT

Amritha Bhat, MBBS, MD, MPH, a psychiatrist trained in both India and the United States, is currently an assistant professor in the University of Washington Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. She earned her Master of Public Health through the UW School of Public Health. She established the perinatal psychiatry clinic at the University of Washington Medical Center and has also implemented screening for depression in mothers whose babies are admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit. In addition, Dr. Bhat is actively involved in projects that make collaborative care for depression available to women during pregnancy and postpartum.

As an R03 recipient and Principal Investigator, she is cross collaborating with Monica Oxford in nursing to redesign a parenting intervention. They have been using ALACRITY’s DDBT Framework and design methodologies to research barriers and needs to the parenting intervention Promoting First Relationships (PFR). PFR is used to treat women for perinatal depression and anxiety (PDA). Dr. Bhat and her team have been interviewing Care Managers, PFR therapists, and patients to identify features of the intervention that may need to be modified for delivery within a collaborative care framework. Their goal is to redesign Promoting First Relationships, or parts of it, to enhance the usability of the intervention for both clinicians and women with PDA in primary care. Read the project abstract.