Recognition November 2017

• Glass presents at NIAAA workshop
• Arterburn delivers bariatric surgery & cancer study results at Obesity Week

Joe Glass presents at NIAAA workshop on research opportunities for alcohol and suicide risk reduction

On Sept. 20, 2017, Joseph Glass, PhD, MSW, presented findings at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) Workshop to Explore Research Needs in Addressing Alcohol-Related Suicide in Rockville, Md. His presentation, “Alcohol and suicide risk reduction in health care settings: Research opportunities,” addressed three key questions:

• Can we integrate alcohol screening with mental health and suicide screening in health care settings?
• To what extent do alcohol and suicide risks co-occur in health care?
• How might we integrate prevention programs for alcohol and suicide in health care and what should we study?

Dr. Glass’ presentation noted that Learning Health System partnerships, including in Washington within Kaiser Permanente, have led to opportunistic care for substance use, depression, and suicide. Considering how to address alcohol-related suicide risks for better suicide prevention, Glass offered three research opportunities to pursue:

• Efficacy trials of co-interventions for alcohol and suicide.
• Pragmatic trials in health systems implementing care models.
• Epidemiology of alcohol and suicide in health care systems.

Also, at the 14th Conference of the International Network on Brief Interventions for Alcohol & Other Drugs (INEBRIA), Sept. 14–15, 2017, in New York City, Dr. Glass chaired “Differences in Alcohol Screening and Brief Intervention across Health Disparity Populations in Large U.S. Samples.” KPWHRI’s Dr. Katharine Bradley, MD, MPH, led the plenary “Nick Heather Lecture—Beyond SBI: Caring for the Whole Spectrum of Alcohol and Drug Use Disorders in Primary Care.”

David Arterburn delivers bariatric surgery & cancer study results at Obesity Week

A new study by David Arterburn, MD, MPH, in Obesity Journal, “Association Between Weight Loss and the Risk of Cancer after Bariatric Surgery,” shows reduction in cancer after bariatric surgery mediated through weight loss. Dr. Arterburn’s co-authors include: Daniel P. Schauer, Heather Spencer Feigelson, Corinna Koebnick, Bette Caan, Sheila Weinmann, Anthony C. Leonard, J. David Powers, and Panduranga R. Yenumula.

The goal of the study was to determine whether the reduction in cancer risk after bariatric surgery is due to weight loss. Dr. Arterburn presented findings at ObesityWeek 2017 in Washington, DC, on Oct. 31, 2017, leading off the “Consensus weight loss as adjunct to cancer treatment and prevention” session.