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KPWHRI in the Media 2016

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2016

December 1–31

Group Health’s guidelines helped our Group Practice reduce doses of opioids for chronic pain

Read blog post.

Michael Von Korff, ScD, was quoted on individual tailoring of non-opioid solutions for chronic pain management:

Dementia is developing in a smaller proportion of older Americans over time

Read news release and blog post.

Eric B. Larson, MD, MPH, comment on variation found in whether taking statin medications lowers people’s risk for Alzheimer’s disease:

November 1–30

Dementia is developing in a smaller proportion of older Americans over time

Read news release and blog post.

Eric B. Larson, MD, MPH, coauthored a JAMA Internal Medicine study showing declining dementia prevalence. The large national study is receiving wide media coverage:

Preventive medicine

Oxford University Press blog interviewed Nora Henrikson, PhD, MPH, about an evidence-based review of skin cancer screening:

October 1–31

Group Health’s guidelines helped our Group Practice reduce doses of opioids for chronic pain

Read blog post.

Sascha Dublin, MD, PhD, was quoted about use of opioids for chronic pain.

September 1–30

Bariatric surgery keeps weight off in long term

Read blog post.

David Arterburn, MD, MPH, was interviewed about a large multisite study of Veterans Affairs (VA) patients around the country, published in JAMA Surgery. He and colleagues found that weight loss persisted for a decade after bariatric surgery. Results were best for those who had Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) surgery:

Group Health’s guidelines helped our Group Practice reduce doses of opioids for chronic pain

Read blog post.

Michael Von Korff, PhD, corrected a misconception about the prevalence of pain and opioid use, in an article about a little-known group called the Pain Care Forum. The group has lobbied for prescription painkillers, quietly derailing efforts to curb U.S. consumption of the drugs:

Mindfulness meditation eases low back pain

Read news release.

Daniel Cherkin, PhD, was interviewed about his study showing that mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), a form of meditation training, can relieve chronic back pain—and that its effects last:

August 1–31

Bariatric surgery keeps weight off in long term

Read blog post.

In a large multisite study of Veterans Affairs (VA) patients around the country, published in JAMA Surgery, David Arterburn, MD, MPH, and colleagues found that weight loss persisted for a decade after bariatric surgery. Results were best for those who had Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) surgery:

Mindfulness meditation eases low back pain

Read news release.

Dan Cherkin, PhD, was interviewed about his study showing that mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), a form of meditation training, can relieve chronic back pain—and that its effects last:

Mental health

Greg Simon, MD, MPH, commented on a study by others, showing that depression is underdiagnosed and undertreated. He said screening for depression is good but not sufficient. He described how large health care systems, like Group Health and Kaiser, have implemented systematic programs to screen for depression and—even more important—promote continued engagement in treatment and monitor treatment outcomes:

ACT study: Long-running study of aging examines changes in Group Health patients over time

Read story.

Eric B. Larson, MD, MPH, was interviewed about his path toward his career in academic research and administration, specifically leading the Adult Changes in Thought (ACT) study:

Your brain is a reservoir: Replenish it with these 10 healthy habits

Read Live Healthy story.

Sascha Dublin, MD, PhD, described how best to prevent falls—to help older people to continue living independently:

Group Health’s guidelines helped our Group Practice reduce doses of opioids for chronic pain

Read blog post.

Sascha Dublin, MD, PhD, discussed overuse of opioids for chronic pain in the United States—and Group Health’s initiative to address it:

U.S. Preventive Services Task Force says evidence is insufficient to recommend lipid screening for children and teens

Read recommendation statement.

Paula Lozano, MD, MPH, led the team that wrote the evidence review informing the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force statement that evidence is insufficient to recommend lipid screening for children and teens. David Grossman, MD, MPH, a vice chair of the Task Force, also spoke to the media:

Digital Mammography DREAM Challenge

Read description.

Diana Buist, PhD, was quoted about the Digital Mammography DREAM Challenge—a partnership of Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, Group Health Research Institute, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Sage Bionetworks and others. As part of Vice President Joe Biden’s Cancer Moonshot Summit, the Challenge is a global contest asking commercial and nonprofit organizations to develop algorithms that use deep machine learning to identify breast cancers more accurately:

July 1–31

TBI linked to Parkinson’s and Parkinson-related brain defects

Read blog post.

Eric B. Larson, MD, MPH, and Paul Crane, MD, MPH, published in JAMA Neurology that when people have a history of a traumatic brain injury with loss of consciousness, they are more likely to develop Parkinson’s disease, parkinsonian features, microscopic strokes (microinfarcts), and Lewy bodies (abnormal collections of protein inside brain cells, which play a role in Parkinson's disease and Lewy body dementia):

U.S. Preventive Services Task Force says evidence is insufficient to recommend skin cancer screening for all adults

Read recommendation statement.

JAMA published the evidence summary by Karen Wernli, PhD, Nora B. Henrikson, PhD, MPH, Caitlin Morrison, MPH, Matthew Nguyen, MPH, Gaia Pocobelli, PhD, and Paula R. Blasi, MPH, about visual skin examination by a clinician to screen for skin cancer in adults. As vice chair of the Task Force, David C. Grossman, MD, MPH, explained the new recommendations:

PCORI approves Group Health for $2.8 million research funding award

Read news release and blog.

The Patient-Centered Outcomes Institute has approved a $2.8 million award for researchers led by Beverly Green, MD, MPH, to look at the connection between blood pressure checks and new diagnosis of hypertension:

How to predict pneumonia risk in older adults

Michael Jackson, PhD, MPH, reported that data commonly available in electronic medical records can help clinicians determine which older adults may be most at risk for pneumonia in the next two years, based on age, chronic lung disease, smoking, underweight, and difficulty functioning:

June 1–30

Healthy communities

Before Baltimore City Health Commissioner Leana S. Wen, MD, MS, published this op-ed piece before delivering Group Health’s 2016 Birnbaum Lecture:

Mindfulness meditation eases chronic low back pain

Read news release and watch video.

Extensive coverage continued for a randomized clinical trial led by Dan Cherkin, PhD. Compared to usual care, mindfulness-based stress reduction and cognitive behavioral therapy lessened chronic low back pain and improved functioning in Group Health patients:

Funding

Washington state's top-funded research institutions in 2015 were the University of Washington, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and the Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason. An adjustment bumped the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute out of the top five, making GHRI the state’s fifth largest recipient of National Institutes of Health funding:

Cancer

Group Health and the Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium (BCSC) are mentioned in this White House news release. One of Vice President Biden’s Cancer Moonshot’s investments to address research bottlenecks is a Coding4Cancer competition among projects to improve breast cancer detection. The winners will use information from Mt. Sinai and the BCSC:

For young adults with cancer, the Clare Project asks: What matters most?

Read story.

This blog post by Karen Wernli, PhD, originally appeared on GHRI’s Healthy Findings blog:

Health informatics

This new book is about ongoing research on integrating electronic health records with genomics through basic, clinical, and translational research. It spotlights the work of the Electronic Medical Records and Genomics (eMERGE) network, which includes information from Group Health patients. Eric B. Larson, MD, MPH, is the principal investigator of the eMERGE award to GHRI and the University of Washington:

 

May 1–31

One antidepressant shown to control weight during 2-year study

Read news release.

David Arterburn, MD, MPH, and Greg Simon, MD, MPH, were interviewed about their research pointing to bupropion (Wellbutrin) as first choice for overweight and obese patients with depression:

Mindfulness meditation eases chronic low back pain

Read news release and watch video.

Coverage continued for a randomized clinical trial led by Dan Cherkin, PhD. Compared to usual care, mindfulness-based stress reduction and cognitive behavioral therapy lessened chronic low back pain and improved functioning in Group Health patients:

  • MSN South Africa, May 10, 2016
    How meditation can relieve your chronic lower back pain  

Northwest doctors improve their practices—and patients’ heart health

Read news release.

Michael Parchman, MD, MPH, leads Healthy Hearts Northwest, which is part of a major national effort to help small medical practices to prevent heart disease, our biggest killer:

Allen Institute releases powerful new data on the aging brain and traumatic brain injury

Read news release.

Scientists from Seattle’s Allen Institute for Brain Science, the University of Washington, and Group Health Research Institute have put together a first-of-its-kind database of brain imagery and medical data, to help unravel the potential links between brain injuries, aging, and dementia:

Chronic illness management

Ed Wagner, MD, MPH, was quoted on the importance of moving from “the carwash model” of acute care to a future of patient-generated data, biometrics, and connected devices improving doctor-patient collaboration for chronic care:

Healthy communities

Lauren Baba, MPH, writes about why we cannot be in favor of “boots on the ground” and turn a blind eye while expecting another young person to do the fighting for us. And she and Carol Cahill, MLS, discuss how to present evaluation reports in plain language—and in a way that is creative, accessible, and interesting for community partners:

April 1–30

Allen Institute releases powerful new data on the aging brain and traumatic brain injury

Read news release.

Scientists from Seattle’s Allen Institute for Brain Science, the University of Washington, and Group Health Research Institute have put together a first-of-its-kind database of brain imagery and medical data, to help unravel the potential links between brain injuries, aging and dementia:

A call for a more patient-centered approach to treating back pain

Read blog post.

Dan Cherkin, PhD, reflects on three decades of research to improve care for back pain, concluding a supportive, healing context may be key:

Mindfulness meditation eases chronic low back pain

Read news release and watch video.

Extensive coverage continued for a randomized clinical trial led by Dan Cherkin, PhD. Compared to usual care, mindfulness-based stress reduction and cognitive behavioral therapy lessened chronic low back pain and improved functioning in Group Health patients:

U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends low-dose aspirin for heart attacks, stroke, and colon cancer for middle-aged people at cardiovascular risk

Jessica Chubak, PhD, was the first author of an evidence review from the Kaiser Permanente Research Affiliates Evidence-based Practice Center, summarized in an article in the Annals of Internal Medicine, about aspirin and cancer risk, which informed a Task Force recommendation:

Deep sedation raises risk of complications from colonoscopy

Read blog post.

Karen Wernli, PhD, is featured in a news video about her study probing how safe deep sedation is during colonoscopy (not safe enough):

  • GI & Hepatology News, Apr 1, 2016
    VIDEO: Anesthesia services during colonoscopy increase risk of near-term complications

Child and adolescent health

David C. Grossman, MD, MPH, wrote an editorial in Pediatrics commenting on a study showing that children from rural areas had more complex and expensive hospital stays, as well as a higher incidence of chronic conditions than did children from cities and suburbs:

Vaccines & infectious diseases

Lisa Jackson, MD, MPH, commented on a flu vaccine study by others:

March 1–29

Mindfulness meditation eases chronic low back pain

Read news release and watch video.

More than 100 news outlets covered a randomized clinical trial led by Dan Cherkin, PhD.

Compared to usual care, mindfulness-based stress reduction and cognitive behavioral therapy lessened chronic low back pain and improved functioning in Group Health patients. The American Pain Society named the JAMA publication a "paper of the week," and it was shared hundreds of times on social media:

  • Irish Examiner, ‎Mar 22, 2016‎
    Meditation may be able to calm your chronic back pain as well as your mind

Health information technology

Beverly Green, MD, MPH, was quoted about a mobile app by others that was supposed to measure blood pressure but gave many patients with hypertension false assurance:

Opioid-prescribing safety: Finding real-world solutions for a nationwide epidemic

Read feature story.

Michael Von Korff, ScD, helped to write the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ National Pain Strategy and was interviewed about it:

February 1–29

Lingering Neanderthal DNA may raise risk for some diseases

Read blog post.

Through the Electronic Medical Records and Genomics (eMERGE) Network, thousands of Group Health members were included in a study showing that Neanderthal DNA influences human disease risk. David Carrell, PhD, is a study coauthor, and Eric B. Larson, MD, MPH, is the principal investigator of the eMERGE award to GHRI and the University of Washington (UW):

U.S. Preventive Services Task Force says evidence is insufficient to assess autism screening in all young children

Read recommendation summary.

As vice chair of the Task Force, David C. Grossman, MD, MPH, explained the new recommendations about screening babies for autism:

Training physicians to diagnose patient preferences

Read blog post.

David Arterburn, MD, MPH, discussed shared decision making:

The good news about the global epidemic of dementia

Read news release.

Eric B. Larson, MD, MPH, commented on a study in the New England Journal of Medicine:

Health services & economics

Jessica Chubak, PhD, was interviewed about a study of time to follow-up colonoscopy after stool tests for colon cancer:

Nora Henrikson, PhD, pilot-tested an online tool for Group Health oncologists listing prices for the 50 most commonly prescribed cancer treatment regimens:

January 1–31

U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends depression screening for all adults

Evette Ludman, PhD, commented on new recommendations to screen all adults, particularly pregnant women and new mothers:

  • NPR, Jan 26, 2016
    Depression screening recommended for all pregnant women, new mothers
  • KPLU, Jan 26, 2016
    Depression screening recommended for all pregnant women, new mothers

U.S. Preventive Services Task Force issues new recommendations on breast cancer screening

As vice chair of the Task Force, David C. Grossman, MD, MPH, explained the new recommendations about screening mammography:

Prepping to fight the next flu pandemic

Read story.

Michael L. Jackson, PhD, discussed the effectiveness of this flu season’s vaccine:

ACT study: Long-running study of aging examines changes in Group Health patients over time

Read story.

Researchers at the University of Washington and Group Health worked to quantify the effects of regular fitness conditioning on aging and health:

Chronic illness care

The Alliance of Community Health Plans featured Group Health’s care delivery for patients with chronic conditions:

Past years

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