Group Health has been approved for two research awards from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to study ways to improve care for back pain and to connect patients with community resources. The projects are part of a portfolio of patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research that addresses PCORI’s National Priorities for Research and Research Agenda. Authorized by the Affordable Care Act, PCORI is an independent nonprofit dedicated to funding comparative clinical effectiveness research.
After gastric bypass surgery, diabetes goes away for some people—often even before they lose much weight. So does that mean gastric surgery “cures” diabetes? Not necessarily, according to the largest community-based study of long-term diabetes outcomes after bariatric surgery. For most people in the study, e-published in advance of print in Obesity Surgery, diabetes either never remitted after gastric surgery or relapsed within five years.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommended in 2009 that primary care clinicians should screen adolescents for depression. But a positive result or screen does not mean that every young person needs active treatment—including psychotherapy and medication—for depression, based on a new study in the November 19 Pediatrics led by Laura Richardson, MD, MPH, of Seattle Children’s Research Institute.
The Advanced Primary Care Demonstration Project is helping 500 federally qualified health centers across the U.S. become “level 3 patient-centered medical homes”—in preparation for the uninsured Americans who will seek care in these “safety net” clinics.
A new research collaboration including Group Health has received a prestigious designation from the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to serve of as one of the nation’s 11 Evidence‑based Practice Centers (EPCs). The EPCs produce evidence reviews on behalf of programs such as AHRQ’s Effective Health Care Program (EHC), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), and the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.
Lisa A. Jackson, MD, MPH, is leading a study of pneumococcal vaccine in older adults at six Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Units (VTEUs) across the nation, including at Group Health. Dr. Jackson, a senior investigator at Group Health Research Institute, leads the Seattle-area VTEU. Dr. Jackson and her colleagues plan to see if a higher dose of a pneumococcal vaccine will create a stronger immune response in older adults who received an earlier-generation vaccine against pneumonia and other pneumococcal diseases.
Patients with access to notes written by their doctors feel more in control of their care and report a better understanding of their medical issues, improved recall of their care plan, and being more likely to take their medications as prescribed, a study published in the Oct. 2 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine has found.
Land Acknowledgment
Our Seattle offices sit on the occupied land of the Duwamish and by the shared waters of the Coast Salish people, who have been here thousands of years and remain. Learn about practicing land acknowledgment.