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Barbara Yawn, MD, MSc, FAAFP, is a full time family physician researcher. After 12 years as a full time rural family physician, Barbara returned to graduate school and transitioned into a full time research position. She opened the Olmsted Medical Center Department of Research in 1990 with one employee and now has a staff of 12 including another physician researcher, a PhD biostatistician, a PhD epidemiologist, and several nurse research associates.

Dr. Yawn's areas of research include the diagnostic process, women's health, and asthma identification and management. Her work in asthma has included pilot studies on the natural history of asthma in primary care patients, asthma school based screening, stigmatization in children with asthma and disease labeling in people with asthma. She has been a member of the NIH National Asthma Education and Prevention Program for the past 8 years chairing the professional education committee and now the community education committee. She is co-chair of the 2003 NIH National Asthma Summit. In 2002, she began work with the World Health Organization's committee to develop symptoms asthma diagnosis and management guidelines.

In addition to over 100 peer reviewed articles she has published since 1987, Dr. Yawn has authored or edited three books, developed and produced a national syndicated radio health program and written a health column for rural newspapers in the US. She has two grown sons, one who is an electrical and computer engineer and one who is in medical school. Her husband is a general internist currently serving as Olmsted Medical Center's President. Barbara and her husband live and work in Rochester, Minnesota.