Research Expertise
Key Topics
Access to evidence-based pain care
Why effective interventions fail to be implemented
Social and structural determinants of health
Mental health inequities
For Media Inquiries
Dr. Chen is available for subject matter expert commentary on health policy, chronic pain, telehealth, PTSD, addiction care, health equity, and implementation science. She has worked with national and local media outlets, and brings evidence-based insights that connect research to real-world health systems and policy.
Contact: jesschenphd@gmail.com
Chronic Pain Treatment
How I help health systems deliver effective pain care—especially to rural and underserved communities—using virtual models and whole-person approaches.
Select Publications
Mindfulness practice time and quality in veterans with chronic pain. Current Psychology, 2025.
Characteristics and predictors of prescription sleep medication use among veterans with chronic pain. PAIN Reports, 2025.
Longitudinal Utilization of Invasive Pain Treatment Procedures Among Veterans with Chronic Pain Following Use of Whole Health Services and Complementary and Integrative Health Therapies. Journal of Pain Research, 2025.
Telehealth and rural-urban differences in receipt of pain care in the Veterans Health Administration. Pain Medicine, 2022.
“There’s a huge benefit just to know that someone cares:” a qualitative examination of rural veterans’ experiences with TelePain. BMC Health Services Research, 2021.
Bringing chronic-pain care to rural veterans: A telehealth pilot program description. Psychological Services, 2021.
Implementation Science
Designing, testing, and scaling up what actually works in real clinics—pairing implementation science with human-centered design to improve uptake, usability, and fidelity.
Select Publications
Applications in human-centered design: Shared-decision making for mental health treatment in primary care. Patient Education and Counseling, 2025.
Evaluating spoke facilitation costs of implementing TelePain in the Veterans Health Administration. Implementation Science Communications, 2025.
Perspectives of clinical stakeholders and patients from four VA liver clinics to tailor practice facilitation for implementing evidence-based alcohol-related care. Addiction Science & Clinical Practice, 2024.
Refining the implementation of a hub-and-spoke model for TelePain through qualitative inquiry. Journal of Technology in Behavioral Science, 2023.
The role of context in the implementation of trauma-focused treatments: Effectiveness research and implementation in higher and lower income settings. Current Opinion in Psychology, 2017.
Social & Structural Determinants
How structural forces—ableism, racism, sexism, and social stressors—shape mental and physical health and care utilization; what systems-level solutions look like.
Select Publications
Ethnoracial inequities in social stressors and patterns of alcohol use in a population of United States transgender veterans. Social Science & Medicine, 2025.
Structural ableism in public health and healthcare: a definition and conceptual framework. The Lancet Regional Health – Americas, 2024.
A mixed-methods study of race-based stress and trauma affecting Asian Americans during COVID. Clinical Psychological Science, 2024.
Pain care disparities and the use of virtual care among racial-ethnic minority groups during COVID-19. Journal of General Internal Medicine (Supp.), 2024.
Military service and military health care coverage are associated with reduced racial disparities in time to mental health treatment initiation. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 2020.
“If you have come here to help me you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”
―Lilla Watson