Dr Atlas is a practicing primary care physician at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston and is a researcher in the MGH Division of General Internal Medicine, where he is the director of the Primary Care Practice-Based Research Network. He is also an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.
His innovative research broadly focuses on common clinical challenges in the primary care setting and then translating the findings of his work into actual clinical practice. Specifically, he is interested in how health information technology and workflow redesign can support population-based, patient-centered care that improves quality and efficiency and decreases disparities. At Mass General Brigham, he has developed prospective and retrospective data systems to attribute patients to specific primary care clinicians, practices and networks.
He is a principal investigator on numerous pragmatic randomized controlled studies that have demonstrated improved comprehensive cancer screening and timely follow-up of abnormal breast, cervical, colorectal, and lung cancer test results within large primary care practice networks. He is also involved in population-based cardiovascular screening in primary care networks and oversaw recruitment for large screening trials for atrial fibrillation. His research is supported by the National Institutes of Health and industry grants.