Kira L. Ryskina, MD, MSHP is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine and a Senior Fellow of the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at Penn. Her research program (funded by a Career Development Award followed by three R01s) focuses on the healthcare workforce, particularly physicians and advanced practitioners who treat older adults with multiple chronic conditions. Her work on the quality of physician and advanced practitioner care in nursing homes has been used to motivate changes to regulatory policies and staffing practices related to physician-level services in nursing homes. She was among the first to describe the emergence of nursing home specialists (“SNFists”) and evaluate its effects on care quality. Her research has been published in high-impact journals including JAMA, Annals of Internal Medicine, and Health Affairs. She is passionate about mentoring trainees in health services research, with over 40 undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate mentees.
Dr. Ryskina earned her medical degree from Mount Sinai School of Medicine, completed an internal medicine-primary care residency at New York Presbyterian (NYP)-Weill Cornell, and a General Internal Medicine Fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania. She sees primary care patients at the PCAM Advanced Internal Medicine practice. She previously attended on the inpatient nocturnalist, hospitalist, and teaching services at Presby, worked as a locums hospitalist at a suburban hospital, and provided coverage at a Penn-affiliated nursing home. She also serves nationally as the Chair of the Research Committee of the Society of General Internal Medicine.
Areas of Expertise | Primary Care, Healthcare Workforce, Physician Practice Specialization, Acute Care/Critical Care/Hospitals, Medicare, Nursing Homes, Post-Acute Care
Clinical Areas | General Internal Medicine, Primary Care, Hospital Medicine
Visit the Ryskina Lab website for more information on Dr. Ryskina's research
Selected Publications:
Ryskina KL, Polsky DP, Werner RM. Physicians and Advanced Practitioners Specializing in Nursing Home Care, 2012-2015. JAMA. November 28, 2017; 318(20): 2040-2042. doi:10.1001/jama.2017.13378
Ryskina KL, Yuan Y, Werner RM. Post-acute Care Outcomes and Medicare Payments for Patients Treated by Physicians and Advanced Practitioners who Specialize in Nursing Home Practice. Health Serv Res. 2019 Mar 20. doi: 10.1111/1475-6773.13138. PMID: 30895600.
Ryskina KL, Yuan Y, Teng S, Burke R. Assessing First Visits by Physicians to Medicare Patients Discharged to Skilled Nursing Facilities. Health Affairs. April 2019 doi:10.1377/hlthaff.2018.05458
Ryskina KL, Yuan Y, Werner RM. Association of Medicare Spending With Subspecialty Consultation for Elderly Hospitalized Adults. JAMA Network Open. April 2019; 2(4):e191634. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.1634
Ryskina KL, Bhatla A, Werner RM. US Physicians with Recent Experience Managing Hospitalized Older Adults: an Observational Study. JGIM; 2020 Sep 19; doi: 10.1007/s11606-020-06240-z. PubMed PMID: 32948958
Ryskina KL, Shultz K, Zhou Y, Lautenbach G, Brown RT. Older Adults' Access to Primary Care: Gender, Racial, and Ethnic Disparities in Telemedicine. JAGS; Available online July 7, 2021. https://agsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jgs.17354
Ryskina KL, Shultz K, Unruh MA, Jung HY. Practice Trends and Characteristics of US Hospitalists. JAMA Health Forum. 2021;2(11):e213524.doi: 10.1001/jamahealthforum.2021.3524
Ryskina KL, Unruh MA, Qian Y, Jung YH. US Generalist Physicians and Groups that Focused Practice in a Single Care Setting: 2014-2017. Medical Care. 2022; 60(11): 831-838. doi: 10.1097/MLR.0000000000001778
Tian Y, Shultz K, Ryskina KL. Emergency department visits by older adults receiving postacute care in skilled nursing facilities. J Hosp Med. 2023;10.1002/.jhm.13226 (online ahead of print)
Ryskina KL, Liang J, Ritter A, Spetz J, Barnes H. State scope of practice restrictions and nurse practitioner practice in nursing homes: 2012-2019. Health Affairs Scholar. 2024;qxae018, https://doi.org/10.1093/haschl/qxae018 (published online ahead of print)
Peacock B, Kim S, Pan Z, Katz P, Jung H, Ryskina K. Clinician Volume and Outcomes Among Patients Admitted to Nursing Homes for Postacute Care. JAMA Network Open. 2025;8(8):e2527234. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.27234
Kim S, Jung HY, Lake D, Brown RT, Werner RM, Karlawish J, Ryskina KL. Clinician Specialization in Skilled Nursing Facility Practice and Post-acute Outcomes of Patients with Dementia. Health Services Research. Online 31 August 2025. doi.org/10.1111/1475-6773.70035
Ryskina KL, Tian Y. Medicare’s Patient Driven Payment Model for Skilled Nursing Facilities: Getting What We Pay For. JAMA Intern Med. 2025 (Published online first 7/21/25)
Visit Dr. Ryskina's Google Scholar page to view more publications