Robin T Higashi, Ph.D. Titles and Appointments Assistant Professor School School of Public Health Department Public Health Biography Download Curriculum Vitae Dr. Robin T. Higashi is a medical anthropologist and health services researcher. She specializes in the evaluation and optimization of digital health technologies for patients and healthcare teams. Having recently identified multi-level factors underlying significantly lower rates of Spanish-speaking patients' uptake and use of the patient portal, Dr. Higashi is currently leading (MPI: Higashi/Turer) a study using an automated text messaging intervention and targeted outreach strategies. Dr. Higashi is also a valued team scientist with extensive experience on large mixed methods studies. She currently leads the qualitative aims of 2 NIH R01 studies: evaluating avoidable hospital admissions (PI: Hong) and enhancing linkage to PrEP for formerly incarcerated individuals (MPI: Nijhawan/Krakower) as well as smaller studies related to HIV prevention and Veteran use of digital health data. Dr. Higashi is actively involved in teaching and mentoring faculty, fellows, and students new to qualitative methods, e.g., as a K mentor and dissertation advisor. She is consistently recognized as an excellent mentor of students conducting their Scholarly Research Activity in the School of Medicine. And she is a nationally and internationally invited lecturer on qualitative and mixed methods research, working with marginalized and stigmatized populations, and biomedical hegemony and the culture of medicine. Certified in written, verbal, and medical Spanish, Dr. Higashi oversees a School of Public Health community resource (slr@utsouthwestern.edu) that oversees Spanish translation and cognitive interviewing services to ensure that written study materials are accurate, culturally appropriate, and accessible to lower-literacy Spanish-speaking populations. Education Undergraduate Stanford University (1998), Psychology Graduate School Uni of California-Sfrancisco (2010), Medical Anthropology Research Interest health technology Spanish-speaking populations structural violence and inequity Publications Featured Publications Factors Associated With Portal and Telehealth Uptake and Use in a Minoritized, Low-Income Community: Mixed Methods Study. Higashi RT, Repasky EC, Gupta A, Lee M, DesRoches CM, Israel A, Pruitt SL, JMIR Form Res 2025 Jul 9 e70146 Digital Health Technology Use Among Spanish Speakers in the US: A Scoping Review. Higashi RT, Thakur B, Repasky EC, Casillas A, Steitz BD, Hogan TP, Lehmann CU, Peterson ED, Navar AM, Turer RW, JAMA Netw Open 2025 May 8 5 e2510386 Veteran Experiences With an mHealth App to Support Measurement-Based Mental Health Care: Results From a Mixed Methods Evaluation. Higashi RT, Etingen B, Richardson E, Palmer J, Zocchi MS, Bixler FR, Smith B, McMahon N, Frisbee KL, Fortney JC, Turvey C, Evans J, Hogan TP, JMIR Ment Health 2024 May 11 e54007 Harmonizing qualitative data across multiple health systems to identify quality improvement interventions: a methodological framework using PROSPR II Cervical Research Center data as exemplar Higashi RT, G Kruse, J Richards, A Sood, PM Chen, L Quirk, J Kramer, JA Tiro, L Tuzzio, JS Haas, MF Gray, SC Lee Intl J Qual Methods 2023 COVID-19 Communication From Seven Health Care Institutions in North Texas for English- and Spanish-Speaking Cancer Patients: Mixed Method Website Study. Higashi RT, Sweetenham JW, Israel AD, Tiro JA, JMIR Cancer 2021 Aug 7 3 e30492 Patient-Centered Measure Development and Spanish Validation Exemplar. Higashi RT, Juengst SB, Health Lit Res Pract 2019 Oct 3 4 e243-e249 What Matters Most to Veterans When Deciding to Use Technology for Health: Cross-Sectional Analysis of a National Survey. Etingen B, Smith BM, Shimada SL, Robinson SA, Higashi RT, Ndiwane N, Frisbee KL, Lipschitz JM, Richardson E, Irvin D, Hogan TP, JMIR Form Res 2025 Aug 9 e77113 Who Uses Patient Portals? A National Cross-Sectional Study Using Epic Cosmos. Turer RW, McDonald SA, Higashi RT, Thakur B, Bain AP, Navar AM, Steitz BD, J Gen Intern Med 2025 May Inpatient Adolescent Sexual Health Services and Long-Acting Reversible Contraception Training. Zhao A, Higashi RT, Edmondson S, Wong C, DeSilva N, Gribbons M, Tiro JA, Francis JKR, Hosp Pediatr 2025 Apr 15 4 325-333 Supporting Access to HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis in a Shifting Financial and Insurance Landscape. Eichenwald C, Higashi RT, Hogan TP, Naeem J, Marcus JL, Krakower D, Nijhawan AE, AJPM Focus 2025 Apr 4 2 100311 Results 1-10 of 45 1 2 3 4 5 Next Last Books Featured Books Elder care as "frustrating" and "boring": Understanding the persistence of negative attitudes toward older patients among physicians-in-training. In The Social Medicine Reader Higashi RT, A Tillack, MA Steinman, M Harper, CB Johnston (2019). Durham, NC, Duke University Press Professional Associations/Affiliations Journal of General Internal Medicine (2025)
