Profile: Ruth Kohen, MD

Ruth Kohen, MD is a geriatric psychiatrist. She received her MD at the Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule in Aachen, Germany, before immigrating to the US and completing her training at the University of Washington. She is working in the UW Memory and Brain Wellness Clinic, the UW General Internal Medicine Clinic, and the Mental Health Integration Program (MHIP). She is very enthusiastic about expanding Collaborative Care in the treatment of older patients with co-morbid medical, cognitive, and psychiatric problems. This population of patients has great difficulty gaining access to geriatric psychiatrists, of whom there are too few. At the same time, this challenging patient group is particularly well-served by an integrated approach in which the interplay between their medical and psychiatric problems can be addressed by a team of providers contributing diverse expertise. When not working in the clinic, Dr. Kohen is pursuing her research interests of genetic and gene expression studies in patients with medical and psychiatric co-morbidities.