Barak

Gaster

MD

Bio

After attending medical school at UCSF I came to Seattle in 1993 for residency training, after which I did a year as Chief Resident. Since 1998 I’ve been a teaching attending and primary care provider at the General Internal Medicine Center at UWMC-Roosevelt. Since 2015, I’ve been devoting a significant part of my time to becoming an expert in the diagnosis and management of dementia. In 2019 this work expanded greatly with CDC funding which allowed us to build a team and create the Cognition in Primary Care Program which I now direct. The mission of this program is to create and disseminate efficient tools for primary care to better evaluate cognitive concerns and help patients and families navigate the course of a dementia illness. Since 2020, I’ve been part of the Hastings Center for Bioethics, on a workgroup studying ethical issues in dementia, and in 2022 I have been helping to steer the future of the CDC Healthy Brain Initiative. I focus on improving care for people living with dementia, with one piece of that work being a dementia directive I helped develop which has been featured in the New York Times and on NPR.

HEALTH SYSTEMS-RELATED ACTIVITIES

Clinical Implementation

Clinical Informatics

Education

• Undergraduate Medical Education
• Graduate Medical Education
• Continuing Medical Education
• Leadership

Leadership and Management

• Clinical
• Quality

Mentorship

• Education
• Clinical Implementation
• Research
• Quality Improvement and Patient Safety

Policy

• National – Professional Society: CDC Healthy Brain Initiative
• Regional – Professional Society: Washington State Dementia Action Collaborative

Quality Improvement and Patient Safety

• Focus Area: Dementia
• Care Setting: Primary Care
• QI Work: Education, Workflow, and Support for Diagnosis and Management of Dementia

Research

• Outcomes
• Health Services
• Pragmatic Trials
• Implementation
• Population Health