Dr. Melissa Dattalo is a faculty member in the Division of Geriatrics and Gerontology within the Department of Medicine. She currently serves as the Medical Director of Home-Centered Care for the UW Health Office of Population Health Management and the Director of Geriatric Evaluation and Management (GEM) at the William S. Middleton Memorial VA Hospital. Dr. Dattalo’s career is focused on improving health systems to better meet the needs of homebound older adults, and her clinical, leadership, research, and educational activities are integrated around home care medicine. She leads an interdisciplinary house call team as part of her primary care practice. Dr. Dattalo is a member of the American Geriatrics Society, the American Academy of Home Care Medicine, the Society of General Internal Medicine, and Primary Care Progress.
Dr. Dattalo’s clinical interests include home-based medical care, geriatric primary care, and comprehensive geriatric assessment. She was one of ten clinical leaders selected nationally for the 2018 John A. Hartford Foundation/Atlantic Philanthropies Practice Change Leaders program and was awarded funding to develop a team-based mobile medical service for homebound older adults at the University of Wisconsin and UW Health. This UW Health home-based primary care service is designed to increase access to both primary and palliative care, build networks of home- and community-based services, improve patient and caregiver quality of life, and decrease total costs of care. Dr. Dattalo developed an educational curriculum in home-based medical care for the geriatric medicine fellowship program, and provides both classroom and clinical instruction to clinicians, fellows, residents, and medical students.
View Dr. Melissa Dattalo’s Publications on NCBI My Bibliography
Dr. Dattalo’s research interests focus on improving health systems for medically and socially complex patients by translating evidence-based models of care into practice. She has studied models of care for chronic illness through her MPH coursework and gained training in implementation science through a Certificate in Clinical and Community Outcomes Research. Dr. Dattalo has expertise in qualitative and interview-based research methods that incorporates the voices of patients, caregivers, and community leaders into health services research.