Jeffrey Borkan, MD
Dr. Borkan joined the Department of Family Medicine at Brown Medical School as Professor (Research) and Chair in 2001. He is a family physician researcher, educator, clinician, and advocate whose career has bridged two fields (family medicine and medical anthropology), both in the US and abroad. Since medical school, he has been active in family medicine research as well as being a practicing family physician and resident/student educator. For six years, he was the Coordinator of a national practice based research network and served as the Director of Research in a family medicine department for a decade. Concurrently, he managed the medical services of an isolated desert region in southern Israel, later joining a model teaching practice in the Galilee. He came to Brown after having been the Vice Chair of Behavioral Science at Tel Aviv University, coordinating a major humanistic curriculum reform there. Though most of his research utilizes qualitative methods, he is active in mixed methods research, and has also published quantitative, epidemiologic, and even health-related entomological studies. Most investigations have focused on low back pain, medical education, health policy, and common problems in primary care. At Brown, Dr. Borkan has spearheaded the growth of the Department of Family Medicine, has been active in Rhode Island health policy, and has been President of National Association of Departments of Family Medicine. He has been active in education at the Medical School, leading the first committee charged with designing the Doctoring Program, currently Chairs the MD Curriculum and Scholarly Concentrations Committee
Costa LD, Koes BW, Pransky G, Borkan J, Maher CG, Smeets RJ.Primary Care Research Priorities in Low Back Pain: An Update. Spine (Phila Pa 1976). 2013 Jan 15;38(2):148-156. PMID: 22781003
Doyle RJ, Wang N, Anthony D, Borkan J, Shield RR, Goldman RE. Computers in the examination room and the electronic health record: physicians' perceived impact on clinical encounters before and after full installation and implementation. Fam Pract. 2012 Oct;29(5):601-8. Epub 2012 Feb 29. PMID: 22379185
Wald HS, Borkan J, Taylor JS, Anthony D, Reis SP. Fostering and evaluating reflective capacity in medical education: developing the REFLECT rubric for assessing reflective writing. Acad Med. 2012 Jan;87(1):41-50. doi: 10.1097/ACM.0b013e31823b55fa. Erratum in: Acad Med. 2012 Mar;87(3):355. PMID: 22104060
Eaton CB, Parker DR, Borkan J, McMurray J, Roberts MB, Lu B, Goldman R, Ahern DK. Translating cholesterol guidelines into primary care practice: a multimodal cluster randomized trial. Ann Fam Med. 2011 Nov-Dec;9(6):528-37. doi: 10.1370/afm.1297. Erratum in: Ann Fam Med. 2012 Mar-Apr;10(2):179. PMID: 22084264
Pransky G, Borkan J, Young AE, Cherkin DC. Are we making progress?: the tenth international forum for primary care research on low back pain. Spine (Phila Pa 1976). 2011 Sep 1;36(19):1608-14. doi: 10.1097/BRS.0b013e3181f6114e. PMID: 21245787
Borkan J, Eaton CB, Novillo-Ortiz D, Rivero Corte P, Jadad AR. Renewing primary care: lessons learned from the Spanish health care system. Health Aff (Millwood). 2010 Aug;29(8):1432-41. doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2010.0023. PMID: 20679646
Allegretti A, Borkan J, Reis S, Griffiths F. Paired interviews of shared experiences around chronic low back pain: classic mismatch between patients and their doctors. Fam Pract. 2010 Dec;27(6):676-83. Epub 2010 Jul 29. PMID: 20671000
Griffiths F, Borkan J, Byrne D, Crabtree BF, Dowrick C, Gunn J, Kokanovic R, Lamb S, Lindenmeyer A, Parchman M, Reis S, Sturt J. Developing evidence for how to tailor medical interventions for the individual patient. Qual Health Res. 2010 Dec;20(12):1629-41. doi: 10.1177/1049732310377453. Epub 2010 Jul 27. PMID: 20663934
Shield RR, Goldman RE, Anthony DA, Wang N, Doyle RJ, Borkan J. Gradual electronic health record implementation: new insights on physician and patient adaptation. Ann Fam Med. 2010 Jul-Aug;8(4):316-26. PMID: 20644186
Green EP, Borkan J, Pross SH, Adler SR, Nothnagle M, Parsonnet J, Gruppuso PA. Encouraging scholarship: medical school programs to promote student inquiry beyond the traditional medical curriculum. Acad Med. 2010 Mar;85(3):409-18. PMID: 20182113
Tabenkin H, Eaton CB, Roberts MB, Parker DR, McMurray JH, Borkan J. Differences in cardiovascular disease risk factor management in primary care by sex of physician and patient. Ann Fam Med. 2010 Jan-Feb;8(1):25-32. PMID: 20065275
Weingarten MA, Guttman N, Abramovitch H, Margalit RS, Roter D, Ziv A, Yaphe J, Borkan J. An anatomy of conflicts in primary care encounters: a multi-method study. Fam Pract. 2010 Feb;27(1):93-100. Epub 2009 Nov 30. PMID: 19948564
Reis S, Borkan J, Vanraalte R, Tamir A, Dahan R, Hermoni D; RAMBAM-Israeli Family Practice Research Network. The LBP patient perception scale: a new predictor of LBP episode outcomes among primary care patients. Patient Educ Couns. 2007 Jul;67(1-2):191-5. Epub 2007 Apr 23. PMID: 17451910
Borkan J, Quirk MB, Sullivan M. Finding meaning after the fall: injury narratives from elderly hip fracture patients. Social Science and Medicine. 1991;Vol. 33(8), pp.947-957. PMID: 1745919
Borkan J. Risk management in the community: Lessons for family medicine. Family Practice (Oxford), 1992;Vol. 35, pp.42-48. PMID: 1634027
Borkan J, Van Tulder M, Reis SR, Schoene ML, Croft P, Hermoni D. Advances in the field of low back pain in primary care. Spine. 2002;27:E128-E132. PMID: 11880849