Jeffrey Whittle, MD, MPH

Jeffrey C. Whittle, MD, MPH, is a staff physician at the Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center and professor of medicine (general internal medicine). He attended the Medical College of Wisconsin then received his internal medicine residency training at the University of Alabama-Birmingham. After staying on a year as chief medical resident, he was a fellow in general medicine at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, where he also received his Masters of Public Health. After ten years on the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh he became division director at the Kansas University Medical Center in September of 2001. He moved to the Medical College of Wisconsin in March of 2005.

Dr. Whittle's research has focused on access to care issues and quality of care. He is a national authority on the reasons for racial differences in cardiovascular procedure use. He has used a variety of methods, including analysis of Medicare and VA administrative data, studies of clinically defined cohorts, surveys, and chart reviews. His work has been funded by the Veterans Administration, National Institutes of Health, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Health Services Resource Administration and American Heart Association.

Since joining CAPS, Dr. Whittle has developed an innovative community academic partnership with veteran community organizations including Vietnam Veterans of America, American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars and National Association of Black Veterans. This extends his work on access and quality to community-based effort to improve the quality of hypertension care for older individuals by empowering them to take an active role in their own health care. He is currently studying the effectiveness of this approach in a large randomized trial funded by the Department of Veterans Affairs Health Services Research and Development Service.