Header Logo

Andrew L. Walker, PhD, MS

TitleAssistant Professor
InstitutionKaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine
DepartmentHealth Systems Science
Address100 South Los Robles Avenue
Pasadena CA 91101
ORCID ORCID IconLogin to create your ORCID iD Additional info
vCardDownload vCard

    Collapse Overview 
    Collapse overview
    Drew Walker, PhD, MS, is an Assistant Professor of Health Systems Science at Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine. His research focuses on strengthening empathy and human connection in healthcare, particularly for patients navigating serious illness, stigma, and other vulnerable healthcare experiences. His work includes developing and evaluating in-person and virtual peer-support and palliative care approaches for adolescents and young adults with serious illness, as well as using clinical informatics, natural language processing, and large language models to identify and address stigmatizing language and bias in healthcare. His broader interests include health equity, clinical decision support, digital health, and the use of patient- and clinical-data to design more supportive and patient-centered systems of care.

    Collapse Research 
    Collapse research activities and funding
    R01DA062714     (SARKER, ABEED H)Sep 1, 2026 - Jun 30, 2031
    NIH
    DESTIGMA: DEtecting STIgma using Generative AI among Multisite pAtients with substance use disorders
    Role Description: This project focuses on the validation of a stigmatizing language classifier for EHR notes for patients with opioid use disorder, testing generalizability across multiple health systems, evaluating distribution of stigmatizing language features in clinical notes across social determinants of health factors, and prototyping EHR destigmatization toolkits.
    Role: Co-Investigator

    Collapse Bibliographic 
    Collapse selected publications
    Publications listed below are automatically derived from MEDLINE/PubMed and other sources, which might result in incorrect or missing publications. Faculty can login to make corrections and additions.
    Newest   |   Oldest   |   Most Cited   |   Most Discussed   |   Timeline   |   Field Summary   |   Plain Text
    PMC Citations indicate the number of times the publication was cited by articles in PubMed Central, and the Altmetric score represents citations in news articles and social media. (Note that publications are often cited in additional ways that are not shown here.) Fields are based on how the National Library of Medicine (NLM) classifies the publication's journal and might not represent the specific topic of the publication. Translation tags are based on the publication type and the MeSH terms NLM assigns to the publication. Some publications (especially newer ones and publications not in PubMed) might not yet be assigned Field or Translation tags.) Click a Field or Translation tag to filter the publications.
    1. Applying Natural Language Processing to Address Healthcare Bias: Using CARE-SD to Evaluate the Distribution of Stigmatizing Language in Clinical Notes. Humanities and Social Science Communication. 2026. View Publication.
    2. Walker D, LeBeau K, Marchi E, Swygert A, Hahn EE, Gould MK, Livingston M. Clinical decision support for service coverage of AYA palliative care: an interrupted time series. J Pain Symptom Manage. 2026 Aug 05. PMID: 42556757.
      Citations:    
    3. Centering Patient Voices in Lupus Pain: A Biopsychosocial Analysis of Reddit Narratives Using Large Language Models. Arthritis care & research. 2025; 78(1):123-133. View Publication.
    4. Walker A, Thorne A, Das S, Love J, Cooper HLF, Livingston M, Sarker A. . CARE-SD: classifier-based analysis for recognizing provider stigmatizing and doubt marker labels in electronic health records: model development and validation. Journal of American Medical Informatics Association. 2025; 32(2):365-374. View Publication.
    5. Walker AL, LoParco C, Rossheim ME, Livingston MD. #Delta8: a retailer-driven increase in Delta-8 THC discussions on Twitter from 2020 to 2021. Am J Drug Alcohol Abuse. 2023 07 04; 49(4):491-499. PMID: 37433117; PMCID: PMC11022156.
      Citations:    
    6. Walker AL, Swygert A, Marchi E, Lebeau K, Haard?rfer R, Livingston MD. Growth curve modeling of virtual events and online engagement in a palliative care peer support online health community for adolescents and young adults. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2023 02 16; 30(3):494-502. PMID: 36548211; PMCID: PMC9933052.
      Citations:    
    7. Walker AL, Rujimora J, Swygert A, McNiece Z, Yoon E, Machado M, Myers K, Richardson E, Lenes E, Hebert L, Marchi E, Arthurson-McColl Z, Lagmay J, Puig A. A Novel Palliative Care Peer Support Program for Adolescents and Young Adults: Survey and Factor Analytic Study. J Palliat Med. 2023 05; 26(5):627-636. PMID: 36472550; PMCID: PMC10325807.
      Citations:    
    8. Walker AL, Marchi E, Puig A, Slayton W, Dodd V, McVay MA, Livingston MD. Volunteer-Based Social Support Structures and Program Exposure Outcomes in an Adolescent Young Adult Palliative Care Peer Support Program. J Palliat Med. 2022 08; 25(8):1186-1196. PMID: 35333622; PMCID: PMC10027341.
      Citations:    
    9. Komro KA, Kominsky TK, Skinner JR, Livingston MD, Livingston BJ, Avance K, Lincoln AN, Barry CM, Walker AL, Pettigrew DW, Merlo LJ, Cooper HLF, Wagenaar AC. Study protocol for a cluster randomized trial of a school, family, and community intervention for preventing drug misuse among older adolescents in the Cherokee Nation. Trials. 2022 Feb 23; 23(1):175. PMID: 35197100; PMCID: PMC8864592.
      Citations:    
    Concepts (24)
    Explore
    _
    Co-Authors (2)
    Explore
    _
    Similar People (60)
    Explore
    _
    Same Department Expand Description
    Explore
    _
    -->

    © 2026 Kaiser Permanente

    Your Privacy Choices