Nathan Knight Cobb, MD| Critical Care Medicine, Pulmonology | MedStar Health
Nathan Knight Cobb

Nathan Knight Cobb, MD
Provider is directly employed by MedStar Health

Specialties: Critical Care Medicine, Pulmonology

Languages: Spanish, English

This doctor only sees patients in a hospital setting.

202-295-0552

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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

Conditions I treat

  • Airway Disorders
  • Novel Coronavirus
  • Pleural Diseases
  • Pulmonary Infections
  • Septic Shock
  • Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
  • Status Asthmaticus
  • Tobacco-Related Diseases
  • Ventilator Dependent
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Procedures I perform

  • Bronchoscopy
  • Mechanical Ventilation
  • Right Heart Catheterization
  • Thoracentesis
  • Ventilator Management
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Practice locations

Distance from Enter your Location

3800 Reservoir Road Northwest
4 North Main Bldg
Washington, DC, 20007

202-444-8830

Fax 202-286-1492

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miles away

Fax 202-286-1492

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.

    • Carefirst BlueChoice Opt Out Open Access

      CareFirst MedStar Select PPO

      Carefirst BlueChoice Open Access

      Carefirst Blue Preferred PPO

      CareFirst NASCO

      CareFirst Blue Card Program (Out-of-area BCBS plans)

      Carefirst BlueChoice HMO

      Carefirst EPO

      Maryland Point of Service Plan (MPOS)

      Carefirst BlueChoice Opt Out Plus Open Access (POS)

      CareFirst BC/BS Advantage Core/Enhanced

      CareFirst Administrators

      Carefirst Healthy Blue (HMO/POS)

      CareFirst Maryland Indemnity or PPO

      CareFirst Group Medicare Advantage

      CareFirst MedStar PPO

      CareFirst (NCA) Indemnity

      Federal Employee Program (Std/Basic PPO/Blue Focus)

      HealthyBlue PPO

      CareFirst Group Medicare Advantage prescription drug benefit (PPO)

    • Cigna POS Open Access & Open Access Plus

      Cigna True Choice Medicare (PPO)

      Cigna TotalCare (HMO D-SNP)

      Cigna Indemnity

      Cigna HMO & Network (HMO)

      Cigna PPO and PPO Plus

      Cigna True Choice Plus Medicare (PPO)

      Cigna Network Open Access

      Cigna Preferred Medicare

      Cigna POS/Network POS

      Cigna EPO

      Cigna Choice Fund PPO

      Cigna HMO Open Access

      Cigna Achieve Medicare (HMO C-SNP)

      Cigna Alliance Medicare (HMO) |

      Great-West Healthcare POS/CIGNA

    • WellPoint Maryland

    • United Medicare Advantage DSNP District of Columbia

      United Group Medicare Advantage Plans

      I-SNP

      United Select HMO - EPO/NPP

      United Core Essential (HMO)

      United Student Resources

      United Mamsi Life & Health

      UnitedHealthcare Individual Exchange Plans

      United Community Plan - Maryland Health Choice Program

      D-SNP)

      United MD IPA Preferred (POS)

      United Options (PPO) (includes Empire PPO)

      United Nursing Home Plan (C-SNP

      United AARP Medicare Complete

      United Erickson Advantage Plans

      United Choice Plus

      United Select Plus (POS)

      United GEHA (for all other states) Compass Rose

      United Choice

      United Optimum Choice

      United Optimum Choice Preferred (POS) & OCI Direct (HMO)

      United MD IPA (HMO)

      United Golden Rule

      United Navigate

    • Aetna Managed Choice Open Access (POS)

      Aetna Student Health Insurance

      Aetna Traditional Choice (PPO)

      Aetna HMO

      Aetna Elect Choice/ Open Access (POS)

      Innovation Health: Network Only Plus

      Innovation Health: Open POS II

      Innovation Health: HMO & EPO Plus

      Aetna Choice POS & Choice POS II

      Aetna Elect Choice/ EPO (Aetna Health Fund)

      Innovation Health: POS Plus

      Aetna Open HMO/Open HMO Option/Open EPO Plus

      Aetna Signature Administrator PPO/TPA

      Aetna Quality Point of Service (POS)

      Aetna HealthFund/Health Network Option OA

      Aetna Open Choice (PPO)

      Innovation Health: Indemnity

      Innovation Health: PPO

      Innovation Health: Open POS Plus

      Aetna HMO-Open Access/Select OA

      Aetna Select HMO/HealthFund/Health Network

      Aetna Managed Choice (POS)

      Aetna Medicare Advantage HMO & PPO Plans

      Innovation Health: POS

      Innovation Health: Open Network Only Plus

    • Virginia Premier

      Kaiser Medicare Plus

      Kaiser Permanente Signature-Added Choice

      Kaiser Signature

      Kaiser Flexible Choice

      Kaiser HMO Plus and DHMO Plus Member

      Kaiser Select-Added Choice

      Kaiser Medicare Advantage Signature and Select

      Kaiser Select

      Kaiser Maryland Medicaid MCO

    • HumanaChoice PPO

      HumanaChoice Honor’s plan PPO

    • MedStar Family Choice DC Healthy Families

      MedStar Family Choice DC Healthcare Alliance

      MedStar Family Choice - Maryland Health Choice

    • Choice Care Network/HUMANA (PPO)

    • Traditional Medicare Fee for Service

    • Tricare for Life East

      Tricare East Prime

      Tricare East Select

      Tricare Reserve Select

    • WellPoint Maryland - Maryland Health Choice

    • Veterans Affairs Community Care Network

    • Anthem (POS & Open Access POS) BCBS of VA HealthKeepers

      Anthem HMO - BCBS of VA HealthKeepers

      Anthem Plus BCBS of VA HealthKeepers Plus

    • Police and Fire Clinic

    • Medicaid - District of Columbia

      Medicaid - Virginia

      Medicaid - Maryland

    • Health Services for Children with Special Needs (HSCSN)

    • Veterans Affairs Community Care Network (VA CCN)

    • Private Health Care Systems (PHCS) (PPO)

    • Beech Street PPO

    • Coventry Health Care National Network PPO

      First Health PPO

      Coventry Health Care of Virginia

      Coventry of Delaware HMO/PPO

Education

Fellowship: Massachusetts General Hospital (2008)

Residency: Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (2004)

Medical School: Boston University (2001)

Hospital affiliations

MedStar Georgetown University Hospital

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.
  • 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.