Nathan K. Cobb, MD| Critical Care Medicine, Pulmonology | MedStar Health
About me
Nathan Cobb, MD, is a critical care physician at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital and Assistant Professor at Georgetown University School of Medicine. He is a recognized expert in the field of digital behavioral change interventions and tobacco control, and serves as the Clinical Lead with MedStar's Digital Transformation efforts.
Clinical areas of focus
- Bronchoscopy
- Thoracentesis
Conditions and procedures
Procedures I perform
- Bronchoscopy
- Mechanical Ventilation
- Right Heart Catheterization
- Thoracentesis
- Ventilator Management
Insurance
MedStar Health accepts most major health insurance plans. If you are uncertain as to whether your individual health insurance plan is accepted at MedStar Health, please call your insurance company.
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List of insurance plans we accept
- Kaiser Permanente Medicare Advantage Signature and Select (aka Senior Advantage)
- Blue Choice Advantage & Healthy Blue (HMO, POS)
- UnitedHealthcare and AARP Medicare Complete Plans/ UHC Group Medicare Advantage Plans HMO, POS, PPO
- United Healthcare Options (PPO) (includes Empire PPO, GEHA, Compass Rose)
- Private Health Care Systems (PHCS) (PPO)
- Kaiser Permanente Signature
- Kaiser Virginia Premier
- UnitedHealthcare Medicare Adv/Special Needs Plans
- Medicare Fee for Service
- CFBCBS EPO
- Kaiser MD Medicaid MCO
- CFBCBS Federal Employee Program (Std/Basic PPO/Blue Focus)
- Kaiser Permanente Select
- Kaiser PermanenteSelect-Added Choice
- Kaiser Permanente Signature-Added Choice
- Kaiser Permanente Medicare Plus (Medicare Supplemental Plan)
- Kaiser Permanente Flexible Choice POS
- UHC Community Plan of MD
- Innovation Health: POS
- Aetna HMO
- CFBSBC Blue Preferred PPO
- Aetna Managed Choice Open Access (POS)
- Aetna Traditional Choice (PPO)
- Innovation Health: Open POS Plus
- Choice Fund PPO
- BlueChoice Open Access
- PPO and PPO Plus
- CFBCBS Blue Choice Opt Out Open Access
- POS OA & OA Plus
- Opoen HMO Option
- Aetna Open Choice (PPO)
- Network OA
- Open HMO
- Open EPO Plus
- HealthyBlue PPO
- Innovation Health: Open Network Only Plus
- Open POS II
- Aetna HMO-Open Access/Select OA/HealthFund/Health Network Option OA
- Innovation Health: POS Plus
- Aetna Elect Choice/ Open Access (POS)
- United Healthcare Choice
- Innovation Health: PPO
- Aetna Managed Choice (POS)
- CIGNA HMO Open Access (OA)
- Select HMO/HealthFund/Health Network
- Innovation Health: Indemnity
- Aetna Innovations: HMO & EPO Plus
- CIGNA EPO
- Choice POS & Choice POS II
- MedStar Family Choice - Maryland Health Choice
- FIRST HEALTH
- Optimum Choice Preferred (POS) & OCI Direct (HMO)
- CFBCBS Blue Choice Opt Out Plus Open Access (POS)
- Aetna Elect Choice/ EPO (Aetna Health Fund) Innovation Health: Network Only Plus
- Aetna Student Health Insurance
- CFBCBS Maryland Indemnity or PPO
- M.D. IPA Preferred (POS)
- United Student Resources
- United Healthcare Select HMO - EPO/NPP
- CFBCBS (NCA) Indemnity
- CIGNA POS/Network POS
- Coventry Health Care National Network PPO
- MedStar Select (MedStar Associates' Plan)
- United Healthcare Select Plus (POS)
- Aetna Worker's Compensation Network
- Tricare Prime
- CFBCBS Maryland Point of Service Plan (MPOS)
- Tricare for Life (Medicare Supplemental Plan)
- Great-West Healthcare POS/CIGNA
- First Health PPO
- CIGNA HMO & Network (HMO)
- Aetna Quality Point of Service (POS)
- Aetna Medicare Advantage HMO & PPO Plans
- CIGNA Indemnity
- Mamsi Life & Health (Indem./PPO)
- Coventry Health Care of Virginia
- Coventry of Delaware HMO/PPO
- United Healthcare Choice Plus
- CFBCBS BlueChoice HMO
- M.D. IPA (HMO)
Education
Board Certification: American Board of Internal Medicine, Pulmonary Disease
Board Certification: American Board of Internal Medicine, Critical Care Medicine
Fellowship Program: Massachusetts General Hospital (2008)
Internship/Residency: Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (2004)
Medical School: Boston University School of Medicine (2001)
Hospital affiliations
News and publications
Over the past twenty years I have worked at the intersection of behavior change and informatics to develop and evaluate social network based interventions. While there is an emerging evidence base on how social networks impact behavior, less is known or understood about how they can be manipulated to create change. My work has demonstrated feasibility of the approach, demonstrating that networks can be characterized, that diffusion of interventions can be implemented, and that effective interventions can be created. I served as either the primary investigator or co-investigator on all of these studies.
While the previous work has demonstrated that networked based interventions are both feasible and potentially effective for behavior change, the underlying mediators and mechanism remain opaque. I have worked with cross disciplinary teams across academia and industry (as a principal investigator and co-investigator) to explore and then re-implement these methods and techniques. Using data from the prior work we demonstrated that communications can be used to characterize participants, and that exposure to communications predicts future behavior. These techniques were re-used in commercial applications and then evaluated for effect (health education and physical activity).
The bulk of my work has been in informatics, however I have also worked in the emerging field of electronic cigarettes. As PI my group was the first to publish data on the safety of these devices and explored how they are marketed online, demonstrating a complex, “dark” network of affiliates designed to evade legal scrutiny.
During the COVID-19 pandemic I have focused on the use of large scale EHR data to inform clinical practice and improve vaccination outcomes. This includes leading the development of the Georgetown/Medstar COVID-19 research registry, work as a clinical informaticist on the R2D2 consortium’s distributed COVID-19 research platform, serving as the site-PI for a BARDA backed adaptive platform pharmaceutical trial (iSPY), EHR based research on the efficacy of inhaled vasodilators (epoprostenol), and the development of MedStar Health’s risk stratification and eligibility algorithms to drive vaccination outreach.
- Cobb NK, Graham AL, and Abrams DB. Social Network Structure of a Large Online Community for Smoking Cessation. American Journal of Public Health. 2010;100(7):1282-9.
- Cobb NK, Graham AL, Byron MJ, Niaura RS, Abrams DB, and Workshop Participants. Online social networks and smoking cessation: a scientific research agenda. Journal of Medical Internet Research. Canada; 2011;13(4):e119.
- Graham AL, Cobb NK, Papandonatos GD, Moreno JL, Kang H, Tinkelman DG, Bock BC, Niaura RS, and Abrams DB. A Randomized Trial of Internet and Telephone Treatment for Smoking Cessation. Archives of Internal Medicine. 2011;171(1):46-53.
- Cobb NK, Jacobs MA, Wileyto P, Valente T, and Graham AL. Diffusion of an Evidence-Based Smoking Cessation Intervention Through Facebook: A Randomized Controlled Trial. American Journal of Public Health; 2016;106(6):1130-5.
While the previous work has demonstrated that networked based interventions are both feasible and potentially effective for behavior change, the underlying mediators and mechanism remain opaque. I have worked with cross disciplinary teams across academia and industry (as a principal investigator and co-investigator) to explore and then re-implement these methods and techniques. Using data from the prior work we demonstrated that communications can be used to characterize participants, and that exposure to communications predicts future behavior. These techniques were re-used in commercial applications and then evaluated for effect (health education and physical activity).
- Poirier J, and Cobb NK. Social influence as a driver of engagement in a web-based health intervention. Journal of Medical Internet Research. Canada; 2012;14(1):e36.
- Cobb NK, Mays D, and Graham AL. Sentiment Analysis to Determine the Impact of Online Messages on Smokers' Choices to Use Varenicline. JNCI Monographs. United States; 2013;2013(47):224-230.
- Myneni S, Fujimoto K, Cobb N, and Cohen T. Content-Driven Analysis of an Online Community for Smoking Cessation: Integration of Qualitative Techniques, Automated Text Analysis, and Affiliation Networks. American Journal of Public Health; 2015;105(6):1206-1212.
- Cobb NK, and Poirier J. Effectiveness of a multimodal online well-being intervention: a randomized controlled trial. American Journal of Preventive Medicine; 2014;46(1):41-8.
The bulk of my work has been in informatics, however I have also worked in the emerging field of electronic cigarettes. As PI my group was the first to publish data on the safety of these devices and explored how they are marketed online, demonstrating a complex, “dark” network of affiliates designed to evade legal scrutiny.
- Cobb NK, Byron MJ, Abrams DB, and Shields PG. Novel nicotine delivery systems and public health: the rise of the "e-cigarette". American Journal of Public Health; 2010;100(12):2340-2342.
- Cobb NK, Brookover J, Cobb CO. Forensic analysis of online marketing for electronic nicotine delivery systems. Tobacco Control 2013, Sep 13;24(2):128-31.
- Cobb NK, Abrams DB. The FDA, e-cigarettes, and the demise of combusted tobacco. New England Journal of Medicine 2014, Oct 16;371(16):1469-71
- Cobb NK, Sonti R. E-Cigarettes: The science behind the smoke and mirrors. Respiratory Care 2016, Aug;61(8):1122-8.
During the COVID-19 pandemic I have focused on the use of large scale EHR data to inform clinical practice and improve vaccination outcomes. This includes leading the development of the Georgetown/Medstar COVID-19 research registry, work as a clinical informaticist on the R2D2 consortium’s distributed COVID-19 research platform, serving as the site-PI for a BARDA backed adaptive platform pharmaceutical trial (iSPY), EHR based research on the efficacy of inhaled vasodilators (epoprostenol), and the development of MedStar Health’s risk stratification and eligibility algorithms to drive vaccination outreach.